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Iddera Rabba

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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(אַדְּרָא רִבָּא ). i.e., the Great Assembly, is the title of one of the many parts which compose the Sohar, the famous thesaurus of Jewish mysticism. It is called "Great Assembly," because it purports to give the discourses which rabbi Simon ben Jochai (q.v.) delivered to his disciples, who congregated around him in large numbers. Upon the summons of the Sacred Light, his disciples assembled to listen to the secrets and enigmas contained in the Book of Mysteries. Hence it is chiefly occupied with a description of the form and various members of the Deity; a disquisition on the relation of the Deity, in his two aspects of the aged and the young, to the creation and the universe, as well as on the diverse gigantic members of the Deity, such as the head, the beard, the eyes, the nose, etc.; a dissertation on pneumatology, daemonology, etc. It concludes with telling us that three of the disciples died during these discussions. This part of the Sohar is translated in the second volume of Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudafa. (B.P.)