Sefer Yetzirah

The first lines of the Sefer Yetzirah speak of how God created the universe with letters and with text.

With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom
engraved Yah...the living God...
Whose name is Holy...
...And He created His Universe
with three books (Sepharim),
with text (Sefer)
with number (Sephar)
and with communication (Sippur). [8]

The "32 paths" are the twenty-two characters of the Hebrew alphabet, plus the ten Sefirot. (Another interpretation is that the 32 paths are the twenty-two characters of the Hebrew alphabet, plus the numbers one through ten, which in Hebrew are represented by the first ten letters of the alphabet.) The Sefer Yetzirah states clearly that God created the universe with Hebrew letters: these first lines begin to set up the complicated relation of language to reality. On one level, divine Language is ultimate reality. Creation takes place through Hebrew letters. However, language will also come to represent the differences and distinctions which stand in opposition to divine Unity. On this second level, the duality of language masks the Oneness of ultimate reality.

Letters and numbers are the basis of the most essential elements of creation, quality and quantity. The qualities of a thing can be expressed by words formed out of letters; quantities can be expressed in numbers as well as words. However, without plurality , letters and numbers cannot exist. The Creator is absolutely unitary; thus, plurality came into existence with creation. Creation was inherently a pluralising act; letters and numbers came into being when the Divine established a separation within God's Infinite Self, between Creator and the Created Universe. The first elements of plurality in creation involved the ten Sefirot, God's quasi-attributes or aspects. The Sefirot therefore defined numbers and the concept of quantity in general. [9]

According to the Kabbalists, these thirty-two paths are alluded to in the Torah by the thirty-two times that a specific name of God, 'Elohim', appears in the account of creation in the first chapter of Genesis. The name 'Elohim' is a plural word; it therefore represents the manifestation of difference. [10] Each of the thirty-two paths, therefore, served to further delineate creation. In other words, language - as manifest in the thirty-two paths used by God to create - is equivalent with delineation and distinction.

The letters are referred to as thirty-two "Mystical Paths." The Hebrew word for "paths" used in this passage is an unusual one: instead of the ordinary 'derekh', meaning "road" or "way," the Sefer Yetzirah contains the word 'nativ', meaning "path." Kaplan's commentary indicates that this was a conscious and intentional choice of wording. "A Derekh is a public road, a route used by all people. A Nativ, on the other hand, is a personal route, a path blazed by the individual for his personal use. It is a hidden path, without markers or signposts, which one must discover on his own, and tread by means of his own devices." [11] The thirty-two paths are private paths, which must be created anew by each individual.

The thirty-two mystical paths are also paths of "Wisdom." The Hebrew word used for Wisdom is 'Chokhmah', one of the ten Sefirot. Kaplan writes that, for the mystics who used the Sefer Yetzirah (and, later, for the Lurianic Kabbalists), Chokhmah (Wisdom) is understood as pure, undifferentiated Mind. [12] Wisdom is thought which has not yet been broken up into parts or differentiated in any way. Wisdom is "the level above all division, where everything is a simple unity." [13] Wisdom is, in short, non-linguistic "thought."

Kaplan's commentary indicates that, within the paradigm of the Sefer Yetzirah, the antithesis of Wisdom is Understanding. The Hebrew word for Understanding is 'Binah' (interestingly enough, also one of the ten Sefirot) which is related to 'Beyn', meaning "between." At the level of Understanding, ideas exist separately. Understanding is the level where division and difference exist; Understanding enables and necessitates the subject/object distinction. Understanding is inherently linguistic. Within this perspective, language acts to pluralise and differentiate, thereby hiding the Oneness of divine Wisdom.

Another interpretation of the importance of Chokhmah, put forth by Leonard Glotzer, is the idea that Keter, the "first" or "top" Sefirah, is associated with Ayin (nonbeing), while Chokhmah (the "second" Sefirah) is associated with Yesh (physicality or being). "God created the world 'Yesh miAyin' - being from nonbeing. Therefore, creation is said to have begun with the Sefirah of Chokhmah, (Wisdom), the beginning of being." [14] Glotzer is careful to remind the reader that "nonbeing" in this sense does not refer to actual nothingness; Keter is called Ayin because of its incomprehensible nature, and not because of its lack of reality.

In his commentary on the Sefer Bahir, or Book of Illumination (attributed to Rabbi Nehunia ben HaKana, and thought to have been written in the first century C.E.), Kaplan writes of the Hebrew word for Wisdom, 'Chokhmah', that:

...[Wisdom] has the same letters as 'Ko'ach Mah',
the 'power' or 'potential' of What. (Zohar 3:28a, 235b)
Alternatively, Ko'ach Mah means 'a certain potential.'
In the first sense, it is the power to question, to go
beyond what is grasped with Understanding. In the alternate
sense, it is an undefined potential, a potential that cannot
be grasped with Understanding, which is a lower level, but
which must be experienced in its own right. As such, it is
man's power to experience, since Wisdom is built out of experience.
When one travels on the Paths of Wisdom, one begins with the Heart,
which is Understanding. But then, one goes beyond this, to the
Experience of Wisdom, which cannot be understood. [15]

From Understanding one must proceed to Wisdom, which is a higher level than Understanding, and which is equated with one's potential to go beyond. Wisdom is the potential of What-ness, the potential of Being. The experience of divine Wisdom is beyond understanding: such an experience is mystical union.

The divine Name associated with Understanding is 'Elohim'. Elohim represents difference and distinction, which necessarily only exist on the linguistic level of Understanding. Wisdom, by contrast, is a single undifferentiated mind - the "mind," if you will, of God - and is only divided into thirty-two different paths by the mediation of Understanding, or language. The initial act of creation was an act of differentiation: the separation between the infinity of the 'Ein Sof' and the finite created universe came into existence simultaneously with the subject/object distinction and with language.

The second half of the verse speaks of the "three books" with which God created the universe. The "three books" to which the verse refers are 'Sefer', translated as "book" or as "text;"; 'Sefar', translated as "number;" [16] and 'Sippur', translated as "communication" or, literally, "telling." These three divisions represent quality, quantity, and communication. They are letters, numbers, and the manner in which they are used. [17] These three books also correspond directly to the three divisions of creation defined by Sefer Yetzirah, namely, Universe, Year, and Soul. (In modern terms, these could be alternately defined as Space, Time and Spirit.) These three aspects are most perceivable in the letters of the alphabet. Letters can be interpreted in three ways: they have a physical form, as they are written; this is the aspect of text. Hebrew letters are also numbers; each one has a numerical value, and this is the aspect of number. Finally, there is the sound of the letter, which corresponds to communication.

These three aspects define the word 'Sefirah'. "Sefirah" shares a root with "Sefer," or book; like a book, the Sefirot can record information, and some scholars consider the Sefirot to be memory banks for the Eternal. The etymology reveals a deep-rooted connection between the two concepts of Sefirah and Sefer. The Sefirot, which can be understood as divine emanation, funnelled through specific characteristics or attributes, are analogous to books. Humanity can strive towards the divine, and hope to gain access to God, through written Hebrew texts (i.e. Torah) and through contemplation of the Sefirot; therefore the Sefirot and [Hebrew] books are analogous.

The word "Sefirah" also shares a root with "Sefar," or number; it is the Sefirot that introduce an element of number and plurality into existence. "Sefirah" also shares a root with "sippur," or communication; the Sefirot are the means by which the Divine communicates with Creation. They are also, according to the Sefer Yetzirah, the means by which we can communicate with God. It is only through the mediation of the Sefirot that we can begin to grasp the Ein-Sof, the Infinite Divine.

While the Sefirot are knowable and the Ein-Sof is beyond human understanding, the dualism between knowable Sefirot and unknowable Ein-Sof is not a dualism of opposition. These two ways of conceptualising God, the division within God between knowable and unknowable, reflect the dualism of concealed versus revealed. The two "parts" are not opposed to one another; they do not cancel each other out. One analogy (found in the Zohar) is that of a lamp and the rays of light which emanate from it. When one approaches the lamp to examine the rays of light, one discovers that in truth only the lamp exists as a tangible thing. God can be understood in much the same way: the Sefirot have no ontological reality.

From the point of view of the divine essence,
only the unique unity of En-Sof exists, and
the difference between the hidden, infinite
Emanator and the revealed, limited, emanated
beings...is nothing but a reflection of the
divine in the mirror of created things, which,
because of their limited nature and their lack
of unity, are not sufficiently able to grasp
absolute unity and infinity.[18]

The dualism within God between Ein-Sof and Sefirot is a reflection of the inherent limitations of the (linguistic) human mind and powers of perception, not a reflection of an actual division within the Divine.

The three "books," or aspects, to which the Sefer Yetzirah refers are not merely conceptual; they have deep practical applications. They are the key to the methods of the Sefer Yetzirah. If one wants to influence or affect anything in the physical universe (space), she must make use of the physical shape of the letters (perhaps through visualisation or envisioning letter combinations). If one wants to affect time, she must use the numerical values of the letters. And if one wants to influence the spiritual realm, she must make use of the sounds of the letters, or of their spoken names.

The second verse of chapter 1 is only five lines long, and expresses the structure of the letters and of the Sefirot.

Ten Sefirot of Nothingness
And 22 Foundation Letters:
Three Mothers,
Seven Doubles,
And twelve Elementals.

The Sefer Yetzirah is now defining the thirty-two paths as twenty-two letters and ten Sefirot. According to some Kabbalists, the ten Sefirot also parallel the ten Hebrew vowels. Together with the twenty-two letters, they comprise the totality of the Hebrew language. [19] The Sefirot are described as being "of Nothingness." The Hebrew phrase used in this line, 'b'li-mah' can be translated either as "nothingness" or "ineffable;" both interpretations lead one to the same conclusion, namely that the Sefirot are ultimately ineffable and incomprehensible, because they are part of God. Just as some scholars refer to the Sefirah of Keter as Ayin, nothingness, to indicate its ineffability, all ten Sefirot are now referred to as "of nothingness." The Sefirot are in this way distinguished from letters. Letters exist both as components of communication and as powerful aspects of divine emanation; the Sefirot are inexpressible by their very nature.

The letters of the alphabet are called "Foundation letters" because it is these letters which are the foundation for the universe. In chapter 1, verse 1 of the Sefer Yetzirah we read that God created the universe with text, number, and communication; these three aspects of language exist through the Hebrew letters, which enable text, number, and communication. Glotzer writes that "[i]t has been said that the letters compose the body of the Sefirot, the vessels. Their soul is the inner light that flows through them." [20] In this interpretation, the Hebrew letters themselves compose the "body" of the Sefirot, the structure through which divine emanation flows.

Regardless of whether Hebrew letters are conceptualised as the structure through which divine emanation flows, or as the actual divine emanation itself, it is clear that these letters serve as powerful divine tools. Hebrew letters, conceptualised as divine emanation, are part of God; at the same time, being emanation, they are also partially not-God, or at least they are not the actual Ein-Sof itself.

This understanding of the power of letters is corroborated by the writings of Shabbatai Donnolo, a medieval commentator upon the Sefer Yetzirah. In his commentary, the Sefer Hakhmonah, Donnolo wrote:

...[T]wo thousand years before the creation of the
world the Holy One, blessed be He, played around
with the twenty-two letters of the Torah and He
combined and rotated them and made from all of them
one word. He rotated [the word] frontwards and
backwards through all the twenty-two letters...
All this the Holy One, blessed be He, for He wanted
to create the world by means of His word and the
epithet of the great name. [21]

For Donnolo, the twenty-two letters of the alphabet (which also comprise the Torah) are identical with the word formed on the basis of those letters, as well as with the divine name of God. Eliot Wolfson, a modern commentator, writes of Donnolo that "The specific connection with the logos is also brought out in another passage that describes God as... [containing everything with his Word.] The linguistic process is thus the first act of creation." [22] The word of God (comprised of the twenty-two foundation letters) is identical with God's creative power. It was through the letters of the alphabet that the universe was created; it is through these same letters that the universe is sustained. It follows that if one knows how to manipulate these letters correctly, one can also manipulate the most elemental forces of creation.

The letters are divided into three categories. The twelve Elementals are the twelve letters of the Hebrew alphabet with only one sound. The seven Doubles are the seven letters in Hebrew which have two sounds: for example, Peh, which has both a "p" sound and an "f" sound; or Beth, which sounds both like the English "b" and the English "v." The three Mothers are by far the most complicated category of letters described in the Sefer Yetzirah. The three Mothers are 'Aleph', 'Mem', and 'Shin'. Kaplan explains that these letters are called the three Mothers because they span the entire alphabet, and thus encompass the potential of all twenty-two letters. Aleph is the first letter of the alphabet; Mem is the middle; and Shin is the second-to-last (the last letter, Tav, is one of the Doubles.) Since these letters contain between themselves the potential of the entire alphabet, it is as though they give rise to that potential, or give birth to it; thus the epithet of "Mothers." The three Mothers will be discussed at great length in chapters two and three of the Sefer Yetzirah.

It is in Chapter 1, verse 4, that the Sefer Yetzirah begins to provide instructions for the process of reaching the plane of undifferentiated Mind, and attaining Wisdom (in other words, reaching the level of the Ein-Sof, and becoming a part of the Divine: mystical union.) These instructions detail the methods by which an adept can use language to transcend language. In the fourth verse of Chapter 1, the reader reaches the couplet "Understand with Wisdom/ Be Wise with Understanding." The paradox in this set of phrases is the key to a technique for transforming consciousness. Understanding, as discussed before, requires verbal thought. Wisdom, by contrast, is nonverbal and un delineated. Wisdom is pure consciousness. Attaining pure consciousness (what Kaplan calls Chokhmah consciousness) is very difficult; it is in an attempt to reach Chokhmah consciousness that meditative techniques (such as mantras or contemplation) are used. The instructions "Understand with Wisdom, be wise with Understanding," involve a deliberate oscillation between verbal Binah consciousness and nonverbal Chokhmah consciousness. This ability is vital if one wishes to grasp the Sefirot. The Sefirot are non linguistic and ineffable; they cannot be understood verbally. They must be reached by "paths of Wisdom," i.e. through the paths of nonverbal Chokhmah consciousness.[23]