Kabbalistic Diagram and Calendar

Unknown

1507

Manuscript page of Hebrew text with diagram in the center of a circle with circumscribed square, half circles, and thick lines, as well as a thick curved tail below. — This page from a kabbalistic manuscript depicts the inner processes of the divine (the *sefirot*). Visualization plays an important part in kabbalah, and these diagrams provided a divine cartography, mapping out the *sefirot* via text and images, with the godhead at the top.

Manuscript page of circle with Hebrew text inside and two triangles and two squares on its perimeter. — This astrological calendar contains a zodiac rota, divided into twelve astrological signs. The rota was one of the authoritative schemata that kabbalists used to map the structure of the sefirot, the ten divine emanations.

These pages come from the same manuscript of a midrashic commentary. The first image depicts the inner processes of the divine emanations (the sefirot). Visualization plays an important part in kabbalah, and these diagrams provided a divine cartography, mapping out the sefirot via text and images, with the godhead at the top. The second image is an astrological calendar containing a zodiac rota, divided into twelve astrological signs. The rota was one of the authoritative schemata that kabbalists used to map the structure of the sefirot.

Credits

© The British Library Board, Add MS 27089. From the collection of The British Library, The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts.
© The British Library Board, Add MS 27089. From the collection of The British Library, The Polonsky Foundation Catalogue of Digitised Hebrew Manuscripts.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.