{{Short description|Kabbalistic work included in printings of the Zohar}} {{other uses}} {{distinguish|Hydra (disambiguation)}} [[File:Idra.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Traditional location of the Idra Rabba Assembly, near Meron]] [[File:קבר רשב"י.jpg|thumb|180px|right|Ohel grave of Shimon bar Yochai]] The '''Idra''' ({{langx|tmr|אִדְרָא|iḏrā|threshing floor}}<ref>{{cite web |title=The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon |url=https://cal.huc.edu/oneentry.php?lemma=%29dr%20N&cits=all |website=cal.huc.edu}}</ref>), is a Kabbalistic work included in printings of the ''Zohar'', and was probably written and appended to the main body of the ''Zohar'' at a later date. Contemporary scholars believe the ''Idra'' dates to the third generation of Zoharic literature, which also produced the two anonymous or collective works of the ''Tikunei haZohar'' and ''Ra'aya Mehemna'' "Faithful Shephard" as well as other Zoharic material. The main body of the ''Zohar'' dates to the second generation of Zoharic material.
There are two texts in Zoharic literature called the ''Idra''. The first is the ''Idra Rabba'' "greater Idra", and the second is the ''Idra Zuta'' "lesser Idra." These two texts are intimately connected.
* ''Idra Rabba'' ({{lang|tmr|אדרא רבא}}, ''Zohar'' 3:127b-145a): Shimon bar Yohai convenes with nine other scholars, and they gather in the sacred threshing field, where they thresh out secrets.<ref>Vital ShG, Haqdamah 38, pp. 132-133. "I once traveled with my master, may his memory be blessed, to the place where Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai's disciples assembled when they held the Idra Rabba [described in portion] ''Naso'' [in the Zohar]. There on the eastern side of the road, there is a cave (lit. "great rock") in which there are two large openings. In the opening on the northern end was the place where Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai, peace be upon him, sat on the occasion of the Idra."</ref> Each scholar expounds various configurations of the partsufim (emanations of the Godhead), and three of them die in ecstasy while doing so. In one discussion, the subject of the woman with the furnishings gifted to her by the Creator, and of the man with the furnishings gifted to him by the same Creator, is brought up. It speaks about the physical union of male and female and how the two are analogous to YHWH, who created Adam (humanity, both male and female) with their associated traits of "mercy" ({{lang|he|raḥamim}}), a trait that is found with the male, and "judgment" ({{lang|he|din}}), a trait that is found with the female. * ''Idra Zuta'' ({{lang|tmr|אדרא זוטא}}, ''Zohar'' 3:287b-296d): Years later, at Shimon bar Yohai's deathbed, the seven still-living scholars come to his deathbed, along with the whole heavenly host. He alone explains the configurations of the partsufim, so this work is more unified. Shimon bar Yohai wavers between this world and the next. He directed his students to celebrate his death that day as a Yom Hillula (wedding),<ref>Zohar 3:291a</ref> as it would messianically unite the immanent and transcendent ohr "divine lights" of Creation. The ''Idra Zuta'' is considered the deepest teachings of the Zohar.<ref>''Rectifying the State of Israel'', Yitzchak Ginsburgh, Gal Einai. P. 136</ref>
In the standard printed edition of the ''Zohar'', the ''Idra Rabba'' is printed in the section relating to the parasha of Naso, and the ''Idra Zuta'' is printed in ''Haazinu''.
==Lurianic systemisation of the partzufim== 16th century Lurianic Kabbalah systemised the Zoharic partzufim in its recasting of the whole Kabbalistic scheme. On one occasion, as recorded by Hayyim ben Joseph Vital, Isaac Luria convened his students in the traditional location of the Idra Rabba Assembly near Meron, placing each one in the designated location of their former incarnations as the students of bar Yohai. In so doing, he identified himself with bar Yohai.<ref>Fine 2003, pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC&pg=PA300 300]</ref>
==See also== *Zohar *Partzufim *Yom Hillula
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book | last = Hellner-Eshed | first = Melila | title = Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba | year = 2021 | publisher = Stanford University Press | isbn = 9781503628427 | url =https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31160 }} *{{cite book | last = William Oscar Emil Oesterley, George Herbert Box | title = A Short Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and Mediæval Judaism | publisher = Macmillan | year = 1920 | url = https://archive.org/details/ashortsurveylit00boxgoog | quote = Idra Rabba. | page = [https://archive.org/details/ashortsurveylit00boxgoog/page/n264 248] }} * {{cite book |title=Shaar ha-Gilgulim |trans-title=Gates of Reincarnation |last=Vital |first=Hayyim |author-link=Hayyim ben Joseph Vital |author2=Isaac Luria |orig-year=Late 1500s/Early 1600s |year=2003 |publisher=Thirty Seven Books Publishing |isbn=0-9727924-0-6 |pages=534 |url=http://www.kabbalaonline.net/safedteachings/gor/ |access-date=2010-08-16 |ref=VITAL_GOR |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212221451/http://www.kabbalaonline.net/safedteachings/gor/ |archive-date=2013-12-12 |url-status=dead }} * {{cite book |title=Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: ''Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship''| last=Fine |first=Lawrence | editor1-first=Aron| editor1-last=Rodrigue| editor2-first=Steven J |editor2-last=Zipperstein |year=2003 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, CA |isbn=0-8047-4826-8 |pages=480 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2o8vqvrQOcC |access-date=2010-08-16 |ref=FINE_2003}}
Category:Kabbalah texts Category:Aramaic words and phrases