i1 Sepher Yetzirah, Ksiazki, Okultyzm
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The Sepher Yetzirah
(Translated from the Hebrew by Wm. Wynn Westcott)
(NOTE: The
Sepher Yetzirah
is one of the most famous of the ancient
Qabalistic texts. It was first put into writing around 200 C.E. Westcott's
Translation of the
Sepher Yetzirah
was a primary source for the rituals and
Knowledge Lectures of the Golden Dawn. This is the Third Edition of
Westcott’s translation, first published in 1887. A Fourth Revised Edition of
the Sepher Yetzirah by Darcy Kúntz, complete with Hebrew text, notes and
bibliography, is available from Holmes Publishing Group, P.O. 623, Edmonds,
WA 98020.)
INTRODUCTION
The "Sepher Yetzirah," or "Book of Formation," is perhaps the oldest
Rabbinical treatise of Kabalistic philosophy which is still extant. The great
interest which has been evinced of late years in the Hebrew Kabalah, and
the modes of thought and doctrine allied to it, has induced me to translate
this tractate from the original Hebrew texts, and to collate with them the
Latin versions of mediaeval authorities; and I have also published An
Introduction to the Kabalah which may be found useful to students.
Three important books of the "Zohar," or "Book of Splendour," which is a
great storehouse of Kabalistic teaching, have been translated into English by
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, and the "Sepher Yetzirah" in an English translation
is almost a necessary companion to these abstruse disquisitions: the two
books indeed mutually explain each other.
The "Sepher Yetzirah," although this name means "The Book of Formation," is
not in any sense a narrative of Creation, or a substitute Genesis, but is an
ancient and instructive philosophical treatise upon one aspect of the origin
of the universe and mankind; an aspect at once archaic and essentially
Hebrew. The grouping of the processes of origin into an arrangement, at
once alphabetic and numeral, is one only to be found in Semitic authors.
Attention must be called to the essential peculiarity of the Hebrew
language, the inextricable and necessary association of numbers and letters;
every letter suggesting a number, and every group of letters having a
numerical signification, as vital as its literal meaning.
The Kabalistic principles involved in the reversal of Hebrew letters, and
their substitution by others, on definite schemes, should also be studied and
borne in mind.
It is exactly on these principles that the "ground-work idea" 'of this
disquisition rests; and these principles may be traced throughout the
Kabalistic tractates which have succeeded it in point of time and
development, many of which are associated together in one volume known
as the "Zohar," which is in the main concerned with the essential dignities of
the Godhead, with the Emanations which have sprung therefrom, with the
doctrine of the Sephiroth, the ideals of Macroprosopus and Microprosopus,
and the doctrine of Re-incarnation.
The "Sepher Yetzirah," on the other hand, is mainly concerned with our
universe and with the Microcosm. The opinions of Hebrew Kabalistic Rabbis
and of modern mystics may be fitly introduced here.
The following interesting quotation is from Rabbi Moses Botarel, who wrote
his famous Commentary in 1409:--"It was Abraham our Father--blessed be
he--who wrote this book to condemn the doctrine of the sages of his time,
who were incredulous of the supreme dogma of the Unity. At least, this was
the opinion of Rabbi Saadiah--blessed be he--as written in the first chapter
of his book The Philosopher's Stone. These are his words: The sages of
Babylon attacked Abraham on account of his faith; for they were all against
him although themselves separable into three sects. The First thought that
the Universe was subject to the control of two opposing forces, the one
existing but to destroy the other, this is dualism; they held that there was
nothing in common between the author of evil and the author of good. The
Second sect admitted Three great Powers; two of them as in the first case,
and a third Power whose function was to decide between the two others, a
supreme arbitrator. The Third sect recognised no god beside the Sun, in
which it recognised the sole principle of existence."
Rabbi Judah Ha Lévi (who flourished about 1120), in his critical description
of this treatise, wrote: "The Sepher Yetzirah teaches us the existence of a
Single Divine Power by shewing us that in the bosom of variety and
multiplicity there is a Unity and Harmony, and that such universal concord
could only arise from the rule of a Supreme Unity."
According to Isaac Myer, in his Quabbalah (p. 159), the "Sepher Yetzirah" was
referred to in the writings of Ibn Gebirol of Cordova, commonly called
Avicebron, who died in A.D. 1070.
Eliphas Levi, the famous French Occultist, thus wrote of the "Sepher
Yetzirah," in his Histoire de la Magie, p. 54: "The Zohar is a Genesis of
illumination, the Sepher Jezirah is a ladder formed of truths. Therein are
explained the thirty-two absolute signs of sounds, numbers and letters: each
letter reproduces a number, an idea and a form; so that mathematics are
capable of application to ideas and to forms not less rigorously than to
numbers, by exact proportion and perfect correspondence. By the science of
the Sepher Jezirah the human spirit is fixed to truth, and in reason, and is
able to take account of the possible development of intelligence by the
evolutions of numbers. The Zohar represents absolute truth, and the Sepher
Jezirah provides the means by which we may seize, appropriate and make
use of it."
Upon another page Eliphas Lévi writes: "The Sepher Jezirah and the
Apocalypse are the masterpieces of Occultism; they contain more wisdom
than words; their expression is as figurative as poetry, and at the same time
it is as exact as mathematics.
In the volume entitled La Kabbale by the eminent French scholar, Adolphe
Franck, there is a chapter on the "Sepher Yetzirah." He writes as follows:--
"The Book of Formation contains, I will not say system of physics, but of
cosmology such as could be conceived at an age and in a country where the
habit of explaining all phenomena by the immediate action of the First
Cause, tended to check the spirit of observation, and where in consequence
certain general and superficial relations perceived in the natural world
passed for the science of Nature."…"Its form is simple and grave; there is
nothing like a demonstration nor an argument; but it consists rather of a
series of aphorisms, regularly grouped, and which have all the conciseness of
the most ancient oracles."
In his analysis of the "Sepher Yetzirah," he adds:--"The Book of Formation,
even if it be not very voluminous, and if it do not altogether raise us to very
elevated regions of thought, yet offers us at least a composition which is
very homogeneous and of a rare originality. The clouds which the
imagination of commentators have gathered around it, will be dissipated, if
we look for, in it, not mysteries of ineffable wisdom, but an attempt at a
reasonable doctrine, made when reason arose, an effort to grasp the plan of
the universe, and to secure the link which binds to one common principle,
all the elements which are around us."
"The last word of this system is the substitution of the absolute divine Unity
for every idea of Dualism, for that pagan philosophy which saw in matter an
eternal substance whose laws were not in accord with Divine Will; and for
the Biblical doctrine, which by its idea of Creation, postulates two things,
the Universe and God, as two substances absolutely distinct one from the
other.
"In fact, in the 'Sepher Yetzirah,' God considered as the Infinite and
consequently the indefinable Being, extended throughout all things by his
power and existence, is while above, yet not outside of numbers, sounds and
letters--the principles and general laws which we recognise."
"Every element has its source from a higher form, and all things have their
common origin from the Word (Logos), the Holy Spirit…. So God is at once,
in the highest sense, both the matter and the form of the universe. Yet He is
not only that form; for nothing can or does exist outside of Himself; His
substance is the foundation of all, and all things bear His imprint and are
symbols of His intelligence."
Hebrew tradition assigns the doctrines of the oldest portions of the "Zohar"
to a date antecedent to the building of the Second Temple, but Rabbi
Simeon ben Jochai, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Titus, A.D. 70-80,
is considered to have been the first to commit these to writing, and Rabbi
Moses de Leon, of Guadalaxara, in Spain, who died in 1305, certainly
reproduced and published the "Zohar."
Ginsburg, speaking of the Zoharic doctrines of the Ain Suph, says that they
were unknown until the thirteenth century, but he does not deny the great
antiquity of the "Sepher Yetzirah," in which it will be noticed the "Ain Suph
Aur" and "Ain Suph" are not mentioned.I suggest, however, that this omission
is no proof that the doctrines of "Ain Suph Aur" and "Ain Suph" did not then
exist, because it is a reasonable supposition that the "Sepher Yetzirah" was
the volume assigned to the Yetziratic World, the third of the four Kabalistic
Worlds of Emanation, while the "Asch Metzareph" is concerned with the
Assiatic, fourth, or lowest World of Shells, and is on the face of it an
alchemical treatise; and again the "Siphra Dtzenioutha" may be fittingly
considered to be an Aziluthic work, treating of the Emanations of Deity
alone; and there was doubtless a fourth work assigned to the World of Briah-
-the second type, but I have not been able to identify this treatise. Both the
Babylonian and the Jerusalem Talmuds refer to the "Sepher Yetzirah." Their
treatise, named "Sanhedrin," certainly mentions the "Book of Formation,"
and another similar work; and Rashi in his commentary on the treatise
"Erubin," considers this a reliable historical notice.Other historical notices
are those of Saadya Gaon, who died A.D. 940, and Judah Ha Levi, A.D. 1150;
both these Hebrew classics speak of it as a very ancient work. Some modern
critics have attributed the authorship to the Rabbi Akiba, who lived in the
time of the Emperor Hadrian, A.D. 120, and lost his life in supporting the
claims of Barchocheba, a false messiah: others suggest it was first written
about A.D. 200.
Graetz however assigns it to early Gnostic times, third or fourth century,
and Zunz speaks of it as post Talmudical, and belonging to the Geonim
period 700-800 A.D.; Rubinsohn, in the Bibliotheca Sacra, speaks of this
latter idea as having no real basis.
The Talmuds were first collected into a concrete whole, and printed in
Venice, 1520 A.D.
The "Zohar" was first printed in Mantua in 1558; again in Cremona, 1560; and
at Lublin, 1623; and a fourth edition by Knorr von Rosenroth, at Sulzbach in
1684. Some parts are not very ancient, because the Crusades are mentioned
in one chapter. Six extant Hebrew editions of the "Sepher Yetzirah" were
collected and printed at Lemberg in 1680. The oldest of these six recensions
was that of Saadjah Gaon (by some critics called spurious).There are still
extant three Latin versions, viz., that of Gulielmus Postellus; one by Johann
Pistorius; and a third by Joannes Stephanus Rittangelius; this latter gives
both Hebrew and Latin versions, and also "The Thirty-Two Paths" as a
supplement.
There is a German translation, by Johann Friedrich von Meyer, dated 1830; a
version by Isidor Kalisch, in which he has reproduced many of the valuable
annotations of Meyer; an edition in French by Papus, 1888; an edition in
French by Mayer Lambert, 1891, with the Arabic Commentary of Saadya
Gaon; and an English edition by Peter Davidson, 1896, to which are added
"The Fifty Gates of Intelligence" and "The Thirty-Two Ways of Wisdom." The
edition which I now offer is fundamentally that of the ancient Hebrew
codices translated into English, and collated with the Latin versions of
Pistorius, Postellus, and Rittangelius, following the latter, rather than the
former commentators. As to the authenticity of "The Sepher Yetzirah,"
students may refer to the Bibliotheca magna Rabbinica of Bartoloccio de
Cellerio, Rome, 1678-1692; to Basnage, History of the Jews, 1708; and to
The Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah, by A. B. Waite, 1902.The
following copies of the "Sepher Yetzirah" in Hebrew, I have also examined,
but only in a superficial manner:--
1. A Version by Saadiah, Ab. ben David, and three others, Mantua, 1562, 4to.
2. A Version with the commentary of Rabbi Abraham F. Dior, Amsterdam,
1642, 4to.
3. A Version with preface by M. ben J. Chagiz, Amsterdam, 1713, 16mo.4. A
Version, Constantinople, 1719, 8vo.
5. " " Zolkiew, 1745, 4to.
6. " " by Moses ben Jacob, Zozec, 1779, 4to.
7. " " Grodno, 1806, 4to.
8. " " Dyhernfurth, 1812, 8vo.
9. " " Salonica, 1831, 8vo.
10. A MS. copy dated 1719, in the British Museum.
I add here the full titles of the three Latin versions; they are all to be found
in the British Museum Library.
"Abrahami Patriarchae Liber Jezirah sive Formationis Mundi, Patribus quidem
Abrahami tempora praecedentibus revelatus, sed ab ipso etiam Abrahamo
expositus Isaaco, et per pro prophetarum manus posteritati conservatus,
ipsis autem 72 Mosis auditoribus in secundo divinae veritatis loco, hoc est in
ratione, quoe est posterior authoritate, habitus." Parisiis, 1552. Gulielmus
Postellus."Id est Liber Jezirah, qui Abrahamo, Patriarchae adscribitur, una
cum Commentario Rabbi Abraham F.D. super 32 semitis Sapientiae, a quibus
Liber Jezirah incipit: Translatus et notis illustratus a Joanne Stephano
Rittangelio, Ling. Orient. in Elect. Acad. Regiomontana Prof. Extraord,"
Amstelodami, 1642.In Tomas Primus of "Artis Cabalisticae hoc est reconditae
theologiae et philosophiae scriptorum." Basileae 1587, is found "Liber de
Creatione Cabalistinis, Hebraice Sepher Jezira; Authore Abrahamo.
Successive filiis ore traditus. Hinc jam rebus Israel inclinatis ne deficeret per
sapientes Hierusalem arcanis et profundissimis sensibus literis
commendatus." Johannes Pistorius.
The "Sepher Yetzirah" consists of six chapters, having 33 paragraphs
distributed among them, in this manner: the first has 12, then follow 5, 5, 4,
3, and 4.
Yet in some versions the paragraphs and subject-matter are found in a
different arrangement. The oldest title has, as an addition, the words, "The
Letters of our Father Abraham" or "ascribed to the patriarch Abraham," and
it is spoken of as such by many mediaeval authorities: but this origin is
doubtless fabulous, although perhaps not more improbable than the
supposed authorship of the "Book of Enoch," mentioned by St. Jude, of which
two MSS. copies in the Ethiopic language were rescued from the wilds of
Abyssinia in 1773 by the great traveller James Bruce. In essence this work
was, doubtless, the crystallisation of centuries of tradition, by one writer,
and it has been added to from time to time, by later authors, who have also
revised it. Some of the additions, which were rejected even by mediaeval
students, I have not incorporated with the text at all, and I present in this
volume only the undoubted kernel of this occult nut, upon which many great
authorities, Hebrew, German, Jesuit and others, have written long
Commentaries, and yet have failed to explain satisfactorily. I find Kalisch,
speaking of these Commentaries, says, "they contain nothing but a medley of
arbitrary explanations, and sophistical distortions of scriptural verses,
astrological notions, Oriental superstitions, a metaphysical jargon, a poor
knowledge of physics, and not a correct elucidation of this ancient book."
Kalisch, however, was not an occultist; these commentaries are, however,
so extensive as to demand years of study, and I feel no hesitation in
confessing that my researches into them have been but superficial. For
convenience of study I have placed the Notes in a separate form at the end
of the work, and I have made a short definition of the subject-matter of
each chapter. The substance of this little volume was read as Lecture before
"The Hermetic Society of London," in the summer of 1886, Dr. Anna
Kingsford, President, in the chair. Some of the Notes were the explanations
given verbally, and subsequently in writing, to members of the Society who
asked for information upon abstruse points in the "Sepher," and for collateral
doctrines; others, of later date, are answers which have been given to
students of Theosophy and Hermetic philosophy, and to my pupils of the
Study Groups of the Rosicrucian Society of England.
SEPHER YETZIRAH
The Book of Formation
CHAPTER I
Section 1. In thirty-two (1) mysterious Paths of Wisdom did Jah, (2) the
Jehovah of hosts, (3) the God of Israel, (4) the Living Elohim, (5) the King of
ages, the merciful and gracious God, (6) the Exalted One, the Dweller in
eternity, most high and holy--engrave his name by the three Sepharim (7) --
Numbers, Letters, and Sounds.(8)
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