## Gevia Kesef Chapter 21

###### Gevia Kesef 21:1
[Gevia Kesef 21:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Gevia%20Kesef/r/21:1)

אולם היתר השאלה הכד׳ הלא היא כתובה בספר מנורת כסף, עם היות הענין בפירוש בספר עגולות רעיוניות, כי נכון לנו לצייר סולם העולם בכלל, אם כשנתחיל מלמטה ונעלה עד העליון⁶³ אם כשנתחיל מלמעלה ונרד עד התחתון. וזהו ״עולים ויורדים.״ כלומר פעם עולים פעם יורדים. וגם מצורף לזה דברי המורה בשתי כתובין צודקים יחד, ועוד רבות עד שבעים פנים, כלומר שבעים ושבעים לאין מספר. כי זה הפלגת התורה באלו הציורים העמוקים כמו שכתב המורה בשיתוף ״עבר.״ והמרבה בזה יותר משובח, והפך זה בפשטי הפסוקים.

footnotes:
⁶³ מ״אם כשנתחיל״ עד ״העליון״ אינו נמצא בגוף העמוד אבל בצדה.

**Trans. by Basil Herring, New York, Ktav, 1982:**
As for the solution to the twenty-fourth question,¹ it is written in the *Menorat Kesef*,² (AS II 91 ff.), Kaspi explains that the ascending angels represent the “pure-spirited men,” i.e., prophets, as they ascend to the higher worlds of knowledge, while the descending angels represent the divinely appointed angels as they go about their missions in this the lower world. According to that explanation, the answer to the present problem is that the referent of “ascending” is other than that of “descending”; consequently their order is not significant. with the subject having been explicitly (discussed) in the book *The Intellectual Circles*.³ (Berlin, 1880), pp. 46-48. In the above passage of *Menorat Kesef,* Kaspi asserts that the idea of the ascending ladder representing the three worlds of the universe (on these worlds cf. above chap. I) as enunciated in Batalyawsi’s writings, was originally part of the Judaic heritage, but was stolen by the Greeks during the Second Temple period. The fact is, as A. Altmann has pointed out in “The Ladder of Ascension,” *Studies in Mysticism and Religion Presented to G. Scholem* (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967), p. 24, that Kaspi, by identifying this ladder with the Universal Soul as developed in Batalyawsi, was reverting to the Neoplatonic concept of the Universal Soul. For we would be correct to imagine the entire universe as a ladder, whether we begin at the top and descend to the bottom (or we begin at the bottom and ascend to the top).⁴ This is (the meaning of) “going up and coming down,”⁵ i.e., “sometimes going up and sometimes coming down.” One should add to this what Maimonides said in two of his writings,⁶ I:15, interprets both sets of angels as referring to the prophets, who must first ascend to the throne of glory to apprehend Him who sits on it, and then descend to fulfill His mission in the lower world. In MT *The Laws of the Foundations of the Torah* 7:3, Maimonides explains that the ladder is a parable that refers to the succession of kingdoms and their destructions. which together are correct. There are in addition as many as seventy interpretations,⁷ 13:15, “there are seventy interpretations of the Torah.” that is to say, seventy plus seventy ad infinitum.⁸ (MK II 252). Herein, in these profound configurations, is the distinctiveness of the Torah, as Maimonides wrote regarding the equivocal term *’avar* (“pass”).⁹ I:21, where Maimonides interprets God’s answer to Moses’ request in Exod. 33 as saying that there are many truths regarding God and His ways which man is incapable of grasping “unless divine help attends him.” Kaspi might see in this phrase an allusion to the Torah as the unique divine help and instrument leading to the comprehension of these secrets. Whoever deals with these things at length is to be most praised, in opposition to (one dealing with) the literal meaning of verses.¹⁰

footnotes:
¹ 1. The question, it appears, is why in Gen. 28:12, in the story of the dream of Jacob, the angels are described as “ascending and descending on it,” instead of descending first and then ascending, the abode of angels being in heaven. Cf. Rashi ad loc.
² 2. In the Menorat Kesef
³ 3. This work, written by Al-Batalyawsi, had considerable influence on Kaspi. See above Chapter 1, and D. Kaufmann, Die Spuren Al-Batlajusis in der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophie
⁴ 4. These words in the parentheses are not found in the main body of the text, but were inserted in the margin of the MS in another hand. The passage makes better sense if they are included.
⁵ 5. Gen. 28:12.
⁶ 6. Maimonides, in the Guide
⁷ 7. Cf. Num. Rabbah
⁸ 8. Earlier (chap. VI, p. 158), Kaspi explains that the number seven “connotes many.” See also Maṣref La-Kesef
⁹ 9. The reference is to the Guide
¹⁰ 10. What he means is that in explaining the simple literal meaning of Scripture, brevity is to be preferred over prolixity. This is an oft-repeated theme in Kaspi’s writings.