(היריעה הוונציאנית המופלאה, Halfan-Sarfati Ilan)
Content Description (English)Ḥalfan and Abraham Ṣarfati incorporated much of a Small Parchment ilan into their creation, with its text filling all but the bottom quarter of the recto of the new ilan.38 To this core text Ḥalfan and Ṣarfati added selections from early kabbalistic works by Gikatilla and the so-called Circle of the Special Cherub. These are found primarily in the bottom quarter of the recto and on the verso. The Gikatilla texts are closely related to those found on the Brescia and Vatican parchments, making it plausible that more than one ilan was at the disposal of these two men in Venice. The Special Cherub texts cast an angel, the Special Cherub, as the proxy of the transcendent God for the purposes of prayer, contemplation, and visionary ascent. The philosophical appeal of this esoteric tradition lies in its positing of a seen (manifestation of) God who is nevertheless at a remove from the (true) unseen God. The threat of corporealizing the Divine, whether in the mind’s eye as one studied the Shi‘ur komah (Measurement of the height [of the divine body]) or in the form of a map of God on parchment, was thus lessened. That such a threat was real to Ḥalfan is apparent from the first gloss on the Grand Venetian Parchment, just beside the upper semicircle of Ein Sof inscribed “Ein Sof, ‘ilat ha-‘ilot, sibat ha-sibot” [Infinite, First Cause, Prime Mover]. The gloss, likely the words of Ḥalfan himself, reads like a disclaimer: “Anyone reading here (!) [kol ha-kore kan] is hereby cautioned lest, heaven forbid, it occurs to him to believe in the attributes [ba-tearim] or in corporeality [begashmut]. For one who believes in corporeality has effectively denied the fundamental [belief in God] [kofer be-‘ikar]. Instead, [let it be understood that] all is pure, clear light. . . .” (From Chajes, The Kabbalistic Tree, p.53)
Fully Annotated Diagram?Yes