Concept
Merkabah (מֶרְכָּבָה merkāvā, "chariot") or Merkavah mysticism (lit. Chariot mysticism) is a school of early Jewish mysticism, c. 100 BCE – 1000 CE, centered on visions such as those found in the Book of Ezekiel chapter 1, or in the hekhalot literature ("palaces" literature), concerning stories of ascents to the heavenly palaces and the Throne of God. The main corpus of the merkabah literature was composed in the period 200–700 CE, although later references to the Chariot tradition can also be found in the literature of the Chassidei Ashkenaz in the Middle Ages. A major text in this tradition is the Maaseh Merkabah (Hebrew: מַעֲשֵׂה מֶרְכָּבָה maʿăśē merkāvā, "Work of the Chariot"). The noun merkabah/merkavah "thing to ride in, cart" is derived from the consonantal root with the general meaning "to ride". The word "chariot" is found 44 times in the Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible—most of them referring to normal chariots on earth, and although the concept of the merkabah is associated with Ezekiel's vision (1:4–26), the word is not explicitly written in Ezekiel 1. However, when left untranslated, in English the Hebrew term merkabah/merkavah (מֶרְכַּב, , and ) relates to the throne-chariot of God in prophetic visions. It is most closely associated with the vision in Ezekiel chapter 1 of the four-wheeled vehicle driven by four hayyot ("living creatures"), each of which has four wings and the four faces of a man, lion, ox, and eagle (or vulture). Angels in Judaism#Angelic hierarchy According to the verses in Ezekiel and its attendant commentaries, his vision consists of a chariot made of many heavenly beings driven by the "Likeness of a Man". The base structure of the chariot is composed of four beings. These beings are called the "living creatures" (Hebrew: חיות hayyot or khayyot). The bodies of the creatures are "like that of a human being", but each of them has four faces, corresponding to the four directions the chariot can go (East, South, North and West). The faces are that of a man, a lion, an ox (later changed to a cherub in Ezekiel ) and an eagle.
