The Book of Brilliance (Sefer ha-bahir)

Sefer ha-bahir is a collection of midrashic traditions, written in Hebrew and Aramaic, traditionally assigned to the first-century rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah. Scholars generally date this work to late twelfth-century Provence or northern Spain, but there are parallels with some of the earlier writings of the German Pietists, Hekhalot literature, and other mystical and speculative texts. Sefer ha-bahir is the first book to treat the ten words by which God created the world (see m. Avot 5:1) as divine emanations termed sefirot. It divides them into three upper and seven lower emanations and the divine realm into male and female components. It also depicts the sefirot as a complicated, interwoven tree. Sefer ha-bahir became popular among thirteenth-century kabbalists in Provence.