{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Translation",
  "metadata": {
    "generated": "2026-08-22T14:14:13Z",
    "language": "en",
    "schemaUrl": "/v1/schema/translation/"
  },
  "data": {
  "schemaVersion": 2,
  "chapterCount": 1,
  "chapterFiles": [
    {
      "file": "chapter-1.json",
      "n": 1,
      "paragraphs": 67,
      "title": "Shi'ur Qomah — Siddur Rabbah recension: the cosmic measurements of the divine body and the magical names of its limbs"
    }
  ],
  "code": "SHQM-WOH",
  "paragraphCount": 67,
  "primaryLang": "he",
  "originalLang": "he",
  "publicationYear": 2026,
  "refId": "SHQM-WOH",
  "schema": [
    "composition",
    "paragraphs"
  ],
  "schemaLabels": {
    "en": [
      "Composition",
      "Section"
    ]
  },
  "slug": "shiur-qomah-woh",
  "titles": {
    "en": "Shi'ur Qomah",
    "de": "Schiur Komah",
    "es": "Shi'ur Qomah",
    "fr": "Shi'ur Qomah",
    "ja": "シウル・コマー",
    "ko": "쉬우르 코마",
    "ru": "Шиур Кома",
    "zh": "希乌尔·科玛",
    "zh-Hant": "希烏爾·科瑪",
    "he": "שִׁעוּר קוֹמָה"
  },
  "versionTitles": {
    "en": "Wheel of Heaven Translation",
    "de": "Wheel-of-Heaven-Übersetzung",
    "es": "Traducción Wheel of Heaven",
    "fr": "Traduction Wheel of Heaven",
    "ja": "ホイール・オブ・ヘブン訳",
    "ko": "휠 오브 헤븐 번역",
    "ru": "Перевод Wheel of Heaven",
    "zh": "Wheel of Heaven 译本",
    "zh-Hant": "Wheel of Heaven 譯本"
  },
  "shortVersionTitles": {
    "en": "WoH, 2026",
    "de": "WoH, 2026",
    "es": "WoH, 2026",
    "fr": "WoH, 2026",
    "ja": "WoH, 2026",
    "ko": "WoH, 2026",
    "ru": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh": "WoH, 2026",
    "zh-Hant": "WoH, 2026"
  },
  "versionSource": "Best-effort reconstruction from named scholarly editions (Jellinek 1853 Bet ha-Midrasch — PD; Cohen 1985 The Shi'ur Qomah: Texts and Recensions, TSAJ 9; Schäfer 1981 Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur)",
  "sourceCitation": "Cohen, Martin S., The Shi'ur Qomah: Texts and Recensions (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 9, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 1985) — THE modern critical edition. Cohen, Martin S., The Shi'ur Qomah: Liturgy and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism (Lanham: UPA 1983) — the companion study. Schäfer, Peter, Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur (Texte und Studien zum Antiken Judentum 2, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck 1981) — the manuscript synopsis. Jellinek, Adolf, Bet ha-Midrasch: Sammlung kleiner Midraschim, vols. 2 & 6 (Leipzig 1853-1877; PD) — for the public-domain transmission. Scholem, Gershom, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Jerusalem 1941; NY 1946) and Jewish Gnosticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and Talmudic Tradition (New York: JTS 1965) — foundational scholarship.",
  "versionLicense": "CC0-1.0",
  "priority": 5,
  "wohCurated": true,
  "verificationStatus": "best-effort-reconstruction-pending-verification",
  "subtitles": {
    "en": "The Hekhalot/Merkavah mystical text describing the cosmic dimensions of the divine body — Siddur Rabbah recension. The 'Kabbalah' the Raëlian canon implicitly cites for *parasangs* measurements."
  },
  "descriptions": {
    "en": "An English translation of the Shi'ur Qomah (Hebrew: שִׁעוּר קוֹמָה, 'The Measure of the Stature'), produced from a best-effort reconstruction based on named scholarly editions (verification pending against Cohen 1985 TSAJ 9). **The project's first Kabbalah / Jewish-mysticism-tradition text.** Chapter 1 covers the Siddur Rabbah recension — one of five recensions Cohen 1985 distinguishes (Sefer Hekhalot, Sefer Razim, Merkavah Rabbah, Siddur Rabbah, Ma'aseh Merkavah), and the most-cited 'standard' recension.\n\nShi'ur Qomah is one of the oldest pieces of Jewish mystical literature (3rd–6th c. CE, with oral traditions reaching earlier — Scholem 1965 argues for tannaitic-era roots), preserved across Hekhalot literature. The text describes the cosmic measurements of the body of the Creator — the divine YOTZER — as a head-to-foot enumeration in which each limb is named with a secret magical name and measured in *parasangs* (Persian unit of distance adapted to cosmic scale: one parasang = 'as much as the entire universe is full'). The framing is a transmission from R. Yishmael (the famous high priest) to R. Akiva, then to the Hekhalot mystics. The implicit liturgical-theurgical function: knowing the names and measurements lets the mystic ascend the seven Hekhalot palaces and stand before the throne.\n\n**Reception is genuinely contested.** Maimonides (Iggeret Teiman; Mishneh Torah, Yesodei ha-Torah 1:8-12; Guide for the Perplexed I:35-36) condemned the text as un-Jewish and disputed its canonical status — calling it 'a forgery of a Greek preacher or a Karaite' (Iggeret Teiman). Conversely, R. Moses Cordovero, the Lurianic Kabbalists, and the Hasidic tradition treated it as authoritative. The text was central to the Hasidei Ashkenaz of medieval Germany and survived in Hekhalot anthologies through to the early-modern *Sefer Raziel ha-Mal'akh* printings.\n\n**Raëlian-canon engagement.** *The End of the World* and *At the Root of All Religions* both implicitly cite the Shi'ur Qomah tradition for its *parasangs* measurements and 'height of the creator' passages — making this translation a project priority for closing one of the genuine source-tensions named in the *Reference corpus of the Raëlian canon* wiki entry. The WoH-Translation pipeline produces the philologically-disciplined version, not the canon's pre-filtered version, with explicit operational disavowals against Sitchin/Anunnaki-engineered-deity-body and other lens-risk readings.",
    "verificationNote": "This translation is produced from a best-effort reconstruction of the Hebrew Shi'ur Qomah text. The sense of each unit is well-attested across multiple scholarly editions (Cohen 1985, Schäfer 1981, Jellinek 1853 PD); recension-level variants between Siddur Rabbah and the other four recensions Cohen identified are documented as glossary entries where relevant. Verification of the precise textual transmission against Cohen 1985 TSAJ 9 is pending; corrections welcome.",
    "lensRiskNote": "Shi'ur Qomah carries a distinctive lens-risk landscape compared to the rest of the WoH corpus: (a) extreme anthropomorphism of the divine, condemned by Maimonides; (b) magical-name traditions per limb (gnostic-adjacent reception); (c) cosmic-body description with surface similarity to Sitchin-Anunnaki and ancient-astronaut readings (the Raëlian canon's implicit citation of the *parasangs* makes this disavowal especially important — WoH does NOT collapse Shi'ur Qomah into the Anunnaki-deity-body framework); (d) gnostic-syncretist readings (Scholem 1965 argued for Hellenistic-gnostic influence; later scholarship — Halperin 1988, Schäfer 1992, Boustan 2005 — has nuanced or contested this). The Editor and Reviewer pipeline produces named-scholarship attributions at every claim site."
  },
  "revision": 3,
  "updated": "2026-06-03T00:00:00+00:00"
},
  "links": {
    "self": "/v1/translations/shiur-qomah-woh/",
    "library": "/v1/library/books/shiur-qomah-woh/",
    "canonical_html": "https://www.wheelofheaven.world/library/shiur-qomah-woh/",
    "index": "/v1/translations/",
    "schema": "/v1/schema/translation/",
    "glossary": "/v1/glossary/"
  }
}