The Idra (
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.
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Idra Rabba (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.
[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 Naso in. 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."] 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" (raḥamim), a trait that is found with the male, and "judgment" (din), a trait that is found with the female.
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Idra Zuta (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),
[Zohar 3:291a] 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.[ Rectifying the State of Israel, Yitzchak Ginsburgh, Gal Einai. P. 136]
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
gilgul as the students of bar Yohai. In so doing, he identified himself with bar Yohai.
[Fine 2003, pp. 300]
See also
Bibliography
