Sefer Yetzirah

 The Law (Torah) tends to depict GOD as a human-like being who can speak and interact with people on earth, and the image of an old bearded man in the sky remains the easiest way to try to humanize something impossible to conceive. This is absolutely not a wrong way to understand and therefore “approach” the Creator, but if you want to dig deeper surely the Sefer Yetzirah presents us a more complex and fascinating perspective. GOD is “depicted” as an unknowable force, without gender, completely devoid of form or emotion, and if in the Torah, GOD creates simply using the power of his word, his command, in the Sefer Yetzirah he creates through emanations of himself. GOD as part of the universe, everywhere and nowhere at the same time, a Spirit with infinite power. This mystical theory that sees the World created through the emanations of the sefirot is the foundation of Kabbalistic thought. Everything about the sefirot, from their origin to their meaning, has been disputed by followers of Kabbalah for many hundreds of years, and still is today. But one thing remains certain, not only Freud, Jung and Newton were scholars and connoisseurs of the Kabbalistic texts, even today you can draw a lot of knowledge from these books, as complex as rich in knowledge, developers of lateral thinking.

Without any doubt, the Sefer Yetzirah is the oldest and most mysterious of all Kabbalistic texts, a work so ancient that its origins are now inaccessible to historians. Only through careful analysis, and by studying each word and its correspondences in biblical and talmudic literature, is it possible to penetrate the curtain that seems to protect its contents. However, the content of the Sefer Yetzirah appears to be an instruction manual describing precise meditation exercises aimed at the growth and elevation of the believer. There is some evidence that these exercises were intended to strengthen the concentration of the initiate and that they were particularly useful in the development of telepathic and telekinesis powers. It was with these powers that one could perform feats that from the outside would have appeared as magic. All of this is supported by Talmudic references, which seem to compare the use of the Sefer Yetzirah to a kind of white magic.

Content

The Sefer Yetzirah, meaning “Book of Creation/Formation,” is a short book on the theories of ma’aseh bereshit, the mystical account of the creation of the universe. The Sefer Yetzirah is the oldest Hebrew text of Jewish mystical thought, appearing between the third and sixth centuries AD.
It thus deals with creation by drawing on imagery from the beginning of the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
The first chapter of the Sefer Yetzirah explains the sefirot, the first time this fundamental concept of mysticism appears in the literature, differing from the ten “aspects of GOD” that appear later in Kabbalistic thought. They take the form of numbers with mystical qualities, each representing the stages of creation.
Beginning with the first sefirah, Keter, the sefirot emanate from one another as one number follows another. The first sefirah is the spirit of GOD, then come air, water and fire. From the air come the twenty-two letters of the alphabet. From water comes chaos and from fire come the angels and the throne of GOD, as described in the ma’seh merkavah. The next six sefirot represent the various dimensions of space. The last sefirah, Shekhinah, represents the presence of GOD in the World of material reality.

Sefer Yetzirah and Islam

The Sefer Yetzirah is one of the most important books of Kabbalah attributed to the Prophet Abraham (Ibrahim). The Quran also mentions a holy book with the name “Scrolls of Abraham,” although most Muslims believe this book is now lost, yet it is speculated that this may be the Sefer Yetzirah.

Sefer Yetzirah (Full Text)

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

וכיון שצפה אברהם אבינו ע”ה והביט וראה וחקר והבין וחקק וחצב וצרף וצר ועלתה בידו אז נגלה עליו אדון הכל ב”ה והושיבהו בחיקו ונשקו על ראשו וקראו אוהבי וכרת לו ברית ולזרעו והאמין בה’ ויחשבה לו צדקה. וכרת לו ברית בין עשר אצבעות רגליו והיא ברית המילה, ועשר אצבעות ידיו והוא הלשון. וקשר לו עשרים ושתים אותיות בלשונו וגלה לו את יסודן. משכן במים דלקם באש רעשן ברוח בערן בשבעה נהגם בשנים עשר מזלות

After that our father Abraham had seen, and pondered over, investigated, and understood these things, he designed, engraved, and composed them, and received them into his power (hands). Then the Lord of all appeared unto him, made a covenant with him, and kissed his head, and naming him after his own name, called him his friend; and as it is written, completed a covenant with him and with his seed forever, who then believed on GOD, the Tetragrammaton, and it was imputed to him for righteousness. GOD ordained a covenant between the toes of his feet, that of circumcision; and a covenant between the fingers of his hands, that of the Tongue. He bound the essences of the twenty-two letters on his tongue, and GOD disclosed to him the secrets of them. GOD has carried these through waters, He has borne them aloft through fire, and He has stamped them in the storms of the air; He has distributed them among the seven stars, and has assigned them to twelve celestial constellations. Amen.

 


References

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