Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation – In Theory and Practice

423 Pages·1997·38.92 MB·English

by  Aryeh Kaplan

The Book of Creation
@
/ In Theory
.and
I Practice
, Revised
IEdition
I ARYEH KAPLAN
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Copyrighted material
The Book of Creation
Revised Edition
KAPLAN
ARY~H
WEISERBoOKS
60ston, MN'York Buch, ME
~iltd edition pobl» '~ i. 1m by
Reel \\'h«L/'WeiMr, u.c
VOlt. Beach, ME
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O(~for
Aboul Ihe Tronslolor
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan was a world-renowned Tonh ""hoIar .· .. 110 pnr
duced ,,"cr 50 bQob in hi~ brief lifetime. including Meditation and
1M Bible. Mt'dilal;on and Kabbaltllr and Tilt Bahir. Kaplan's wOfb
cncompasw1 COlIlmcnW)' and translation of ancien! and ob$cure works
by Bible IChoiar1 and Kabbalisu, :md "",,",$ advi$ing young Jews OIl
tile merits of study and 01: """ano;e, For a wbile he ""'lU an editor of
5
Itwish Life magazillC. translated an UI ..... IiIUUS rornmentary on !he
Torah by the &plwdic rabbi. Yaakov CUli. and prodlKcl an original
tr&n$lation-commenW)' of Ihe Five Booh of Mo.et., which he called
"The Uving TOOIh:' published by Moznaim. Israel.
A~h Kaplan was born in the Bronx. ,,\!died at Ioxa! yeshivO(,
and oontinued his education al yesttiVOl: in Israel. For a while he entered
the field of ,.::icnce and was. for a tn.( period, tho youngeS! physicist
employed by !he United States gO\'emment before devocing hi5 1ifc 10
Tanh He died a1 the . ge of 48 in 1983.
~holaMip.
Copyrighted material
CONTENTS
,...
INTRODUCTION
i~
Thr Tell
II
xii Aulhol'$hil!
n The Talmudic Pcrjrx!
ui Tnl$ Ind Commentaries
SEFER YE77fRAH
3 Cbaptcr One
93 Cbap!" Two
'"
Chapter lbrtt
'" Chapter Four
'"
Chapter Five
'"
Chapter Six
APPENDIXES
'"
320 Other Boob Containin, Sefu ¥rnirab
)2$ Manu5C!'ipU
CnmmrD1arirs
~25
lY Tran.J"jons
319 NaTES
389 INDEr
Copyrighted material
Introduction
The ~fn Yrt:l'rah. is w;thoU! question I~ oldest and most mysteri
OIlS of all Kabbalislic The firsl comment;uies on Ihis boot
le~l5. we~
wril1en in the 100h cenlu1)'. and the lUI itself is QUOIN as early as
the si1th. Rtfe~1ICC'5 to the work appear in the first century. while
traditio"' rtprdinl ils ux allnt 10 ils existence c"cn in Biblical
times. So ancienl is Ihis book Ihat its orisins no LonjeT accessable
a~
10 hiSlori.ns. We lotally dependent on traditions with reprd 10
a~
ils
aulho~ip.
Equally mysterious is the meaninl of Ihis book. If the I U11>or
meant 10 be obscure:. he ..- a. cm;""nlly 5uCttqfuL Ii is only Ihm ... '"
the most arefuI analys;$, sn.dyinl every word with ils parallels in
Biblical and Talmlldic literalure, Ihat its hau of bqins 10
~rily
be
~nCll1ued.
There have been many inlcrpreunions oflhe &1" YMz;roh. The
earliest commentators tried 10 inlcl'J'lret it as a philosophical 'll'llise.
but their efron. lhed mOK light on their 0"-'" ,y.tems than on th~
te~t. The same: is true of efrons to fit it into tM systems of the Zobar
or Iller Kabbalistl. Efrons 10 view it IS a book on srammu or plio
""tio I~ even more unsUCttSsfui.
In ICr>eral, the Kabbalah is divided into three cat~ri<"$. lhe the
om ical. the mtditative, and the magicai.' The theoretical Kabbalah,
..' hich in it. prncnt form is based larzely on the Zobar. is oon.cemed
frIOStly with Ihe dynamics of spiriuu.l domlin, np«ially the
th~
worlds of the Srfirot, souls and Inlt'll. This branch of Kabballh
reached ils zenith in the wrilinp of the Safed 1ChooI in the 16th cen
tury. Ind Ihe Vast majority of publishM texIS bdOOI in this
catqory,
Medilltive Kabbalah deals with Ihe use of divine names, letter
permutation., and similar methods 10 reach hiiher Slates of oon
sciousness, and as suclt. rompriw::! a kind of yap, Most of the main
have never been published, but remlin K1ltterro in manuscriplS
te~ts
in the JIl:II libraries and museum •. Some of these methods enjoyed
I brief renaiWln.ce in Ihe mid 1700', "'ith th~ rise of the Hasidic
but within a half century Ihey were 00« apin Ja'lely
mo"em~nl.
fOl'lOtten,
,.
•
SIOF~R Y!:TZIIlMI
The third caleaory of Kabbalah-Ihe maJiul-is dO:sely \0
~lalcd
the medilatlve. 11 consisls of "anous si",,, ina.nlalion. and divi""
names, through whitll onc nn influence or alter nlnmd C\"Cnll.
Many of Ihe techniques clos.ely res.emblc meditative Tm1hods. and
their succt'SS may depend on tllei. ability \0 indllCC' mental states
where telekinetic Or spiritual IJQWff can effectively M channeled. As
with the second cllelOr)'. the most important lext, have never been
printed. altlloUJh WInC' (",,,,,ents have boen published. ()n.e of the
besl ulmples of tlleK is Ihc book Razicl.
Careful study indic.tes thaI Sefer Yel1.irah is. mcdilalive ICI\,
wilh stron, mqical overtones. This pOSition il suppOfted by the car
liest Talmudic Imilions, which indicate lhal it could be uK<;! \0 CR
ate livin, creatuT6. Espttial1y sianificant are IIIe many and
~ns
k&ends in wh.ich the Serer Yell;rah is used 10 ernie. GoIrm, oon
it
of mystical android.
The mnllods of the Sefer Yetzil'1lh to in"olve meditation;
ap~ar
and it i. hiJ,hly possible that it ....,,1 ori,inaOy ",rineo meditative
.I• •
manual. A major 12th cenlury philosopher Ihus stain thai it don
not contain philosophy. bl.at divine mystery.' This comes across vrry
clearly in the commentary of one of the ,..,.Int K.abbalil1s, Isaac the
Blind (116().1216), who stresses the meditative asp«u of the teXl.
II i. also p;lnicularly evidenl in a very manll$Cript of
al\(~nl
Sefer Yellil'1lh, dalin, from the lOih century earlier. The introduc:
Of
tory colophon stites. is the book oflhe of Abraham Our
~This ~lIel1l
flther. which i. called Sefer Ydzirah, and when one pzes (1:0./0.11)
inlO it. Ihere is no limit 10 his wisdom.~' As .... e shall discuss in our
commentary (on 1:6), the Hebrew word luifalr does not denote mere
physicil pzina. but mystical meditative insiJ,h1. Thi. very early
would therefore luppan Ihe position Ihal Sefer YelZirah wll
$O\Irte
ml'ant \0 be used as a meditative tUI.
The commentaries which treat Sefer Yellil'1lh as a tMQretiaJ
lext. read much of it in the third
~rIOn: ~He oombined,~ ~He
and Ih like. Aooordin. to this readina. the lUI i. referrin.
formed,~
to God's creation. In many cases. however, the vammuical form
more closely resembles the The author is tellin. the
im~ralive.·
reader to ~oombine~ and ~fonn' as if he was aCluaily ,ivin, ;nilruc
tioos. In many other cases, tile lUI is unambiauously inslruc1ive, as
in ouch passal6 as, your hean runs, retum 10 the and.
~if pl.ce.~
·understand with wisdom. and be wise with understand in ... Rather
Ihan have Ihe teX! oscillate bet",..,.n the third perlOn IDd Ihe impera
tive, it would tcrt.ainly be more Iosicallo read il all in Ihe imper1ltive.
The Sefer Yelzirah thus becomes an instruction manual for a very
Ipttilll)'pe of medilation. Oul of deferen« \0 the lIIIjority of «>m
memaries we ha"e refrained from translatin, il in the imperative, but
,
"