Book of Creation (Sefer yetsirah)

Sefer yetsirah is one of the most cryptic medieval Jewish texts, containing cosmological speculation centered on the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Scholars have long debated its origins, dating, and meaning. It is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham or to R. Akiva, a mishnaic sage. Some place this Hebrew work in the second or third century, but most consider it a product of the eighth- or ninth-century Arabic-speaking world. Popular in the medieval period, it merited commentaries from several well-known figures, including Se‘adya Ga’on. Early interpreters read it as a scientific text, but it was eventually adopted by kabbalists. The work opens with a description of the thirty-two paths of wisdom, a sum reached by adding the number of Hebrew letters and the ten sefirot, which would become central to kabbalistic thought. This excerpt comes from the version quoted in Se‘adya’s commentary.