Commentary: On the Book of Creation (Sefer yetsirah)

Introduction

[ . . . ] I say then that of these nine schools of thought, there is only one, the first, that does not firmly hold to the doctrine of the creation of existent things. That is, there are people at this time who say that existent things have neither beginning nor end. Scripture indicates that a similar view was found in ancient times, as it is said: Will you keep the old path which wicked men have trodden? Who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a stream (Job 22:15–16). The interpretation of these two verses is as follows: “Have you noticed the school of thought of the dahariyyun [who believe in the eternity of the universe], who walk in the path of wicked men, who were destroyed when it was not their time and whose foundations poured away like a river?”

Scripture refers to the school of thought of these people as the old path because they think time [dahr] has neither limit nor measure. And it refers to those who walk that path as wicked men because they construct false proofs to support it, for they say, “Let us draw a conclusion about what is hidden based on what is manifest. Since we find in the case of the manifest that there is no person who is not [born] from [a previously existing] person and no plant that does not come from [a previously existing] plant, we know that past time and future time likewise have not ceased and will not cease.” This—may God guide you on the right path!—is a specious argument of theirs, for if it were the case that there were no person who is not [born] from [a previously existing] person, it would be impossible for humans to exist at all. The fact that we find [that] humans [exist] indicates to us that there was [once] a person who was not preceded by another person; for were that not the case, we would not find humans [existing at all].¹

An example of this is a person who commands that no one enter a [particular] building until someone has already entered. In this case, it would be impossible to find someone inside it. If one were indeed found there, it would indicate that someone had [in fact] entered who had not been preceded by someone else. This is also comparable to someone who swears he will not speak a single word that day unless he has already said something and like someone who swears he will not eat a single date unless he has already eaten one. These are cogent proofs that this school of thought is wrong. Scripture has already made it a matter of revelation that the existence of all things indicates that they once had a beginning, as is His saying: Remember the prior things of old, for I am God and there is none else; [I am] God, and there is none like me, [declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done.] (Isaiah 46:9–10). [ . . . ]

Chapter 3

[Sefer yetsirah:] Ten sefirot of nothingness [belimah]

The explanation is that he is speaking further of the meaning of [the word] belimah, which is derived from [the Hebrew root found in]: his mouth to be curbed [livlom] (Psalms 32:9). [The author’s] intention [here] is that you should curb your mouth and your mind from thinking and speaking too much or too little about them [i.e., the numbers (sefirot)]. If someone were to object [to saying they are ten], saying: Indian arithmetic has but nine numbers, since they set the ten upon the stand of the one, such that twenty will be in the place of the two, thirty in the place of the three, and so on until ninety in the place of the nine, following which they set one hundred in the place of the one, the two hundred in the place of the two, and so on until one thousand, and so on for all greater [numbers], we would respond that they were only able to understand it this way because of the limited number of signs that can be written on a board. But when it comes to belief about the numbers themselves, there is no doubt that [even] for them the [number] ten has a status that the [number] one does not replace; it is said of it, “ten, one,” in the same way it is said, “five, one” [or] “three, one,” and so forth. If a person wanted to invent forms of [numerical] signs that reach [only] five and then return to one and then return until reaching forty, he could do so. But the complete number upon which the system is built is ten, no more and no less. [ . . . ]

As for the numbers, they are not so; man is not free to establish a beginning where he pleases: not from three, not from five, and not from any other [number], as he cannot choose as its beginning anything other than one. This is a remarkable statement regarding the distinction of the [number] one. For among the reasons that necessitate calling the Creator “One” is the fact that there is nothing that precedes the one, neither as an existent thing nor as an intelligible. He [God] is similar; there is nothing that precedes Him. He is the one who causes things to be, and nothing exists which has the same meaning as Him, as [scripture] says: Unto you it was shown, that you might know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him (Deuteronomy 4:35).

[Scripture] also says: That you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no god formed, neither shall any be after Me (Isaiah 43:10). The meaning of that you may know concerns that which has passed; and believe Me concerns that which currently exists; and understand concerns that which will come to be; I am He means that He is the First without likeness and the Eternal without change. His saying: before Me there was no god formed, and after Me, etc., does not necessitate that He has a past and a future. Rather, [it means] that He is prior to all past and after all future, by way of parable and abridgment [i.e., shorthand]. Its saying before Me and after Me means prior to His creation of the world and after His destruction of it. It is also possible that by this He means prior to His revelation at Mount Sinai and after His finishing that revelation. It is further possible that He meant prior to His sending the prophets and after the last of them. Or prior to the deliverance from Egypt and after it. Or prior to the building of Jerusalem and after it. Or prior to the salvation that we await and after it. Or prior to the existence of the next world and after its existence. Indeed, any one of these that were mentioned, or any similarly exalted times in which signs and miracles occurred, could be intended and correct. [ . . . ]

Chapter 8

The interpretation of this is well known. Its summary is as follows. The author of the book determined that there were six directions for the world: up, down, east, west, south, and north, which are connected to one another through the power [of God]. He further found that the three letters of the name [of God], YHV, make up six words: two that begin with [the letter] yod, YHV and YVH; two that begin with [the letter] heh, HYV and HVY; and two that begin with [the letter] vav, VYH and VHY. He then set them [the six words] corresponding to the six connected [directions] by way of analogy and approximation, as if they were “sealed” to each another. Some people have learned from this—as well as from the influences of the letters in the air—to embrace amulets.

He placed the south on the right and the north on the left, in accordance with the statement of scripture: The north and the right, You have created them (Psalms 89:13)—and not in the way that some of the philosophers placed the east on the right and the west on the left, or in the way that some others placed the south on the left and the north on the right. Furthermore, he placed the east in front and the west in back, in accordance with the principle [b. Bava Batra 25a] that the divine presence [shekhinah] is in the west—since the entrance to the Tabernacle was to the east, as it says, Those who camped before the Tabernacle toward the east [kedma], before the Tent of Meeting eastward [mizraḥa] (Numbers 3:38)—and the ark [of the covenant] in the west. For this reason, the movement of the stars from the west to the east is called “bowing down before God,” as it says: And the host of heaven bows down to You (Nehemiah 9:6). It ends up also corresponding to the ten sefirot; the four elements and the six directions together make ten. [ . . . ]