Traditional location of the Idra Rabba Assembly, near Meron

Ohel grave of Shimon bar Yochai

The Idra (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: אִדְרָא, romanized: threshing floor^[1]), 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 produced also the Tikunei haZohar, the Ra'aya Mehemna, and other Zoharic material. The main body of the Zohar, or guf ha-zohar, dates to the second generation of Zoharic material.

There are actually two texts in Zoharic literature called Idra: the first being the Idra Rabba, or "greater Idra", and the second being the Idra Zuta, or "lesser Idra", with these two texts being intimately connected to each other.

The story of the Idroth is as follows:

• Idra Rabba (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.^[2] Each scholar expounds various configurations of the partsufim, 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 "the Lord God" who created the first man Adam (male and female) with their associated traits of "mercy" (raḥamīm), a trait that is found mostly with the male, and "judgment" (dīn), a trait that is found mostly with the female.
• Idra Zuta (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 passing that day as a Yom Hillula (wedding),^[3] 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.^[4]

In the standard printed edition of the Zohar, the Idra Rabba is printed in Naso, and the Idra Zuta is printed in Ha'azinu.

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 RASHB"I. In so doing, he identified himself with Shimon Bar Yohai.^[5]

See also

• Zohar
• Partzufim
• Yom Hillula

References

Bibliography

• Hellner-Eshed, Melila (2021). Seekers of the Face: Secrets of the Idra Rabba. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9781503628427.
• William Oscar Emil Oesterley, George Herbert Box (1920). A Short Survey of the Literature of Rabbinical and Mediæval Judaism. Macmillan. p. 248. Idra Rabba.
• Vital, Hayyim; Isaac Luria (2003) [Late 1500s/Early 1600s]. Shaar ha-Gilgulim [Gates of Reincarnation]. Thirty Seven Books Publishing. p. 534. ISBN 0-9727924-0-6. Archived from the original on 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2010-08-16.
• Fine, Lawrence (2003). Rodrigue, Aron; Zipperstein, Steven J (eds.). Physician of the Soul, Healer of the Cosmos: Isaac Luria and His Kabbalistic Fellowship. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 480. ISBN 0-8047-4826-8. Retrieved 2010-08-16.