A Wisdom Archive on Sefer Yetzirah - Thelmetic Interpretations

Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew, "Book of Creation[1]", ספר יצירה) is the title of two books on esoteric Jewish mysticism. The older and more well-known work of this title is also called the "Hilkot Yetzirah" (Hebrew, "Rules of Creation"), and is a thaumaturgical work that was popular in the Talmudic period. The following text came from the 1906 Public Domain Jewish Encyclopedia. This entry thus ne ... Including:

• Sefer Yetzirah - Origin
• Sefer Yetzirah - Influence
• Sefer Yetzirah - The phonetic system
• Sefer Yetzirah - Cosmogony
• Sefer Yetzirah - The Creation
• Sefer Yetzirah - Theories of contrast in nature
• Sefer Yetzirah - Gnostic elements
• Sefer Yetzirah - Date
• Sefer Yetzirah - Thelmetic Interpretations
• Sefer Yetzirah - Foot notes

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia - Sefer Yetzirah

The linguistic theories of the author of the Sefer Yetzirah are an integral component of his philosophy, its other parts being astrological and Gnostic cosmogony. The three letters are not only the three "mothers" from which the other letters of the alphabet are formed, but they are also symbolical figures for the three primordial elements, the substances which underlie all existence. The mute מ is the symbol of the water in which the mute fish live; the hissing ש corresponds to the hissing fire; and the airy א represents th ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - Cosmogony

Far more important is the similarity of the Sefer Yetzirah to various Gnostic systems, to which Grätz has called special attention. As the Sefer Yetzirah divides the Hebrew alphabet into three groups, so the Gnostic Marcus divided the Greek letters into three classes, regarded by him as the symbolic emanations of the three powers which include the whole number of the upper elements. Both systems attach great importance to the power of the combinations and permutations of the letters in explaining the genesis and development of ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - Gnostic elements

While the mystic use of letters and numbers points to a Babylonian origin, the idea of the creative power of the various sounds is Egyptian. The division of the letters into the three classes of vowels, mutes, and sonants is Hellenic, although this classification necessarily underwent changes when applied to the Hebrew letters. The historical origin of the Sefer Yetzirah is accordingly placed ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - Origin

The philological is discussed first, since it is necessary for an elucidation of the philosophical speculations of the work. The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are classified both with reference to the position of the vocal organs in producing the sounds, and with regard to sonant intensity. In contrast to the Jewish grammarians, who assumed a special mode of articulation for each of the five groups of sounds, the Sefer Yetzirah says that no sound can be produced without the tongue, to which the other organs of speech merel ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - The phonetic system

While the astrological cosmogony of the book contains few Jewish elements, an attempt is made, in the account of the creation, to give a Jewish coloring to the Gnostic standpoint. To harmonize the Biblical statement of the creation "ex nihilo" with the doctrine of the primordial elements, the Sefer Yetzirah assumes a double creation, one ideal and the other real. The first postulate is the spirit of God, from which the prototypes of matter emanated, the world being produced, in its turn, by the prototypes of the three primordial subst ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - The Creation

In addition to the doctrine of the Sefirot and the letters, the theory of contrasts in nature, or of the syzygies ("pairs"), as they are called by the Gnostics, occupies a prominent place in the Sefer Yetzirah. This doctrine is based on the assumption that the physical as well as the moral world consists of a series of contrasts mutually at war, yet pacified and equalized by the unity, God. Thus in the three prototypes of creation the contrasting elements fire and water are equalized by ; corresponding to this are the three "mothers" among the letters, the mute מ ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - Theories of contrast in nature

The essential elements of the book are characteristic of the third or fourth century; for a work of this nature, composed in the geonic period, before the Jews had become acquainted with Arabic and Greek learning, could have been cast only in the form of Jewish gnosis, which remained stationary after the fourth century, if indeed it had not already become extinct. The date and origin of the book can not be definitely determined so long as there is no critical text of it. The editio princeps (Mantua, 1562) contains two recensions, whic ...

Read more here: » Sefer Yetzirah: Encyclopedia II - Sefer Yetzirah - Date