Thursday, July 20, 2006

Chazan / Guardian Of The City

Interestingly, in my dream this morning (pertaining to kedushah and karet) I wrote of guarding and of assassins, both of these specific ideas mentioned also in Balashon's later post on the etymology of the word machsan through exploring (among others) the words chazan חזן and hassan חסן.

With respect to the idea of guarding, I wrote:

The little girl protectively and instinctively clutched her belly. I had the impression the little girl (either herself or members of her family) had been murdered by one of the secret assassins in a past life.

In the quote, I linked an essay to the word "protectively" (e.g. chazan) pertaining to the idea of guarding (shamor through rectified binah) against secret assassins (e.g. hassan) who, in my dream where I oversaw all, are complexes one meets along the path into keter. In other words, the assassins serve to prevent one with impure intent from advancing spiritually - much like the kruvim (cherubim, Bereshit 3:24) guard the gate to Gan Eden. Only one whose mind has been sanctified and made taharah is permitted to "enter into" keter.

This idea of advancing into keter, guarding and assassins is further indirectly elucidated through Balashon's post on the etymology of machsan, where he writes (quotes):

Kutscher finds a number of examples in the Talmud where a chazan meant a guard - for example Bava Metzia 93b, where it mentions חזני מתא, which Rashi explains as "guards of the city".

like in my dream where the little girl protectively "guards" her belly ...

He (Kutscher) continues by saying that the origin of chazan may be from חזה - he saw, making a chazan an overseer.

like in my dream where I oversaw all ...

In the end, he writes that we simply don't know if there is a connection between חזן and חסן - and provides a Rashi (Makkot 22b), where Rashi admits he also doesn't know the origin: ולא שמעתי שום משמעות "I have not heard any explanation (for the word חזן)."

Rashi is a man. In addition to Rashi's hint toward the unknowable head of keter, the central letter of the word chazan is a zayin ז, the letter which epitomizes female nevuah (zeh זה), the prophecy of Sarah Imenu, and with expression through the letter ה, the prophecy of Moshe Rabbeinu and Chavah's shield of protection.

What of the name Hasan (Hassan)? This is a very common Arabic name, and we also find the similar names Hosni and Hussein. All of these derive from the Arabic hasuna - "was beautiful" and husn - "beauty". I don't know if this Arabic root is related to any of the previously mentioned meanings of חסן.

There is one theory that the origin of the English word "assassin" comes from the name Hassan - the leader of a Muslim sect known as al-Hassan ibn-al-Sabbah. Another theory is that it derives from the word "hashish" - read more about that here and here.

Taking all this together, we can see that chazan, hassan and keter are all connecting to the idea of guarding. Perhaps dreaming as I have of these matters makes me somewhat one of the mystical Neturei Karta (Guardians Of The City) myself.

Tying it all together, regarding sanctification of the mind as it pertains to keter, Rabbi Nathan Schapira writes (translated by Rabbi David Slavin):

She is then called Eretz HaKedosha, for she subsequently contains within her the Kodesh HaKedoshim (the Holy of Holies).


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