| Summary: | The "hekhalot" texts appear to be the product of a series of redactional stages. Surveying the major texts, we find that in some cases the redactors molded their material to reflect a prominent concern for the social/communal roles and responsibilities of the "merkavah" mystics. Hekhalot Rabbati is the best example of such concern; here the redaction betrays a rather explicit conception of the mystics as intermediaries who harmonize the upper and lower worlds, particularly in the liturgical and eschatological realms. In a text such as Maʿaseh Merkavah, on the other hand, the redactors seem to have been interested almost solely in the private experiences of the individual mystic. The other "hekhalot" texts take intermediate positions on this issue, reflecting varying degrees of both individual and communal concerns. Yet all of these texts draw on the same basic stock of early traditions, indicating that in its earliest stages "merkavah" mysticism was relatively neutral on this question, allowing both individualistic and communal orientations to develop within it.
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