Discussion of Maggid Meisharim -- pt viii

Shadal continues his Vikuach al Chochmat haKabbalah. (See previous segment.) Here, the guest continues his mention of how references to the identity of the maggid switch off, and specifically between Mishna and Neshama. This he takes as proof that it was Rav Karo's own neshama, that is his own thoughts, that were being communicated. The text of the Vikuach follows:

The guest: In other places you will find in the book this: "I, the Mishna, am speaking in your mouth, and I an the mother who chastises man and straightens him out."

Only, in one place (Venice, 47a, Zalkwa, 51b) you will find the Mishna is switched for Neshama {soul}.

Arise, and read: "It is I who speaks with you, your soul {neshama}, not the nefesh nor the ruach, but rather the neshama herself. And is it not so, if prophesy has ceased from Israel, from you it has not ceased, for each time I come to you to direct you in which way to go."

Is this not the thing which I have told you at the start? -- that perhaps the entire matter is only said in the way of secret {sod}, and hint and riddle.

And behold, here, at the end of the book, Maran Rav Yosef Karo saw fit to reveal his secret to those who can understand {maskilim} and that secret is that the maggid who spoke with him was only his neshama; and this secret, he hinted to it in the other places, and specifically in the first speech which came to him from the maggid (is it not written in the introduction of Rav Shlomo Alkebetz which was written in the beginning of the Lublin printing), in the word Mishna, which are the letters of Neshama, and with the nickname of "the mother who chastises man." And according to this, it is well understood who the maggid said to him, "is it not that according to what is in your will, I say."

The author: All this is a false dream that you are inventing from your heart, and there is no doubt by me that the Mishna and the Neshama which are spoken of here are a hint to the Divine Presence {shechina}, she is the congregation of Israel, she is Kingship, she is Matronita, and she is the mother who chastises man, as is made clear in sefer haZohar (chelek 3, page 74); also in sefer haPardes (the gate of ordering of kinuyim) you will find that Malchut {kingship} is called Mother and Mishna.

The guest: But you will not find Malchut called Neshama.

The author: But you will find that Malchut is called Mother by virtue of the neshamot, for all of them derive {??} from it. And how is it possible to consider that the intent was on the actual neshama, when right away and immediately he says, "and is it not so that if prophecy has ceased from Israel, from you it has not ceased?" Is it possible that he would call prophecy to the words of the Neshama of man?

The guest: Perhaps he called them prophecy in the way that King David, and Heman, Asaf, Yedutun, and the rest of the poets are called prophets, for they said their words in the way of people, but there was an Upper Spirit which stirred them, as Radak wrote in the introduction to his commentary of Tehillim.

The author: Behold I see that it is a waste of time to argue with you in these matters, which are loftier than my knowledge and your knowledge. And behold I see that all your desire is to place a blemish in the consecrated and to desecrate the glory of all desirable thing.