08/11/24: Talmudic Chiasmology

In today’s post, I will elaborate the concept of the Chiasm (X) as what is understood by the Talmudic Sages to be God’s truthful Sign, constituting a foundational spiritual “frame-work”—definitive lineation—for the World.

—The Greek Chi (χ)—

We are told that our Grand Priests are anointed with the “Greek Chi” (Kerittot 5b; Horayyot 12a). There have been many versions as to how this “Greek Chi” was conceived by the Sages; and surely, one of them is the Chiasm, the X—as it has been presented by the Rabbi Maimonides in his Mischne Tohraa (On the Sanctuary’s Vessels 1:9), and by the very-supremely-inspired Rashi in his comment on Kerittot 5b.

—“Hither & Thither”—

A Biblical “code” for the Chiasm is found in Ezekiel 47:7—“There stood a Verily Great Tree, to-that-side and to-this-side”; we understand the “Verily Great Tree” to typify the Cross, which extends מזה ומזה, “to-this-way” and “to-that-way”, hither & thither, in this manner:

The Aruch elucidates that the Greek Chi—the shape with which the Grand Priest is anointed—descends through-out the priest’s face in אילך ואילך, meaning: “hither & thither”. So is the issue phrased:

‘It has been established of (Exo. 29:21) “...and sprinkle it upon Aaron”, that the Greek Chi descends through-out his face, hither & thither; like two drops of pearly-dew.’

—Aruch, Section Chaf

More elaborately, we are being told (Yomma 77b) that the great River—springing from the Holy of Holies, in New Jerusalem—will issue “like a warp and woof”, and eventually become in the form of a Pach (פך; literally meaning: “oil-jug”), which is a letter permutation of כף, Chaf, the Hebrew alphabet’s parallel letter to the Greek Chi. We may, so, comprehend the River—and the Tree of Life, associated into it—as constituted in accord with the Cross.

Additional resource on the “hither & thither” structure of the divine seal is Rashi’s comment to Exodus 29:16: Referring to the “sprinkling” of the sacrificial blood “round-about” the Altar, Rashi elucidates that the blood is sprinkled “hither & thither”, along two diagonals, through-out four corners. We thereby understand the sprinkling of sacrificial blood to be—as well—shaped after a Chiasm.

—X as a Point’s Development—

The ancient Midrash Yetsiratt Hewallade (“On the Formation of the Embryo”) describes the Embryogenetic procedure as beginning with a seminal drop—a primitive point—which later “shoots-off hither & thither” from its navel, developing in four directions (Midrash Tanchumma Pekudee 3). This embryonic development, if so, is structured like a skeletal Chiasm, constituting the fully-elaborated structure of a living being.