Note 32 — I.

We shall only give one more passage bearing on the subject of the Trinity.32 “He who reads the word (‏אחד‎) One [i.e., in the declaration of the divine unity ‏שמע‎] must pronounce the Aleph (‏א‎) quickly, shorten its sound a little, and not pause at all by this letter, and he who obeys this, his life will be lengthened. Whereupon they [i.e., the disciples] said to him [i.e., to R. Ilai], he [i.e., R. Simeon] has said, There are two, and one is connected with them, and they are three; but in being three they are one. He said to them, those two names, Jehovah Jehovah, are in the declaration ‘Hear O Israel’ ( Deut. vi, 4 ), and Elohenu (‏אלהנו‎), between them, is united with them as the third, and this is the conclusion which is sealed with the impression of Truth (‏אמת‎). But when these three are combined into a unity, they are one in a single unity.” (Sohar, iii, 262 a.) Indeed one Codex of the Sohar had the following remark on the words “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts” ( Isa. iv, 3 ); ‏קדוש זה אב קדוש זה בן קדוש זה רוח הקדש‎, the first holy refers to the Holy Father; the second to the Holy Son; and the third to the Holy Ghost.33 This passage, however, is omitted from the present recensions of the Sohar. Some Jewish writers have felt these passages to be so favourable to the doctrine of the Trinity, that they insist upon their being interpolations into the Sohar, whilst others have tried to explain them as referring to the Sephiroth.34