Neʼitsu Ketirah - an Obscure Term in Zohar 1:148a : a Short Study About the Nature of the Other Side
Abstract
Zoharic Aramaic is an artificial language; consequently substantial part of its vocabulary is represented by neologisms. Driven to articulate completely new ideas, the author frequently coins new expressions and phrases.
The objective of this paper is to explore a lexical unit neʼitsu ketirah from the demonological treatise in Sitrey Torah, Zohar 1:148a. The pivotal topic of the narrative is a description of Lilith and Samaʼel, the two main representatives of the so-called "Other Side".
The introduction is followed by a brief depiction of the "Other Side" itself. The third part offers a Czech translation of this narrative, analyzed in the next section.
The obscure term neʼitsu ketirah is then surveyed from an etymological point of view, succeeded by an overview of several rabbinical commentaries that deal with this lexical unit. The penultimate section concerns the accessible translations, and the conclusion suggests a preferred rendering, i.e. "matted stolon" as the interpretation that emphasizes the process of unification in the "Other Side", equivalent to the process of undergoing yiḥud in the Sephirotic tree, as a continuity of these two realms and their alienation.