This translation is based on gra version of the sefer yetzirah and includes the authors extraordinary commentary on all its mystical aspects including kabbalistic astrology, ezekiels vision and the 231 gates. The tree of life good and evil, light and darkness. Download pdf sefer yetzirah free online new books in politics. Aug 30, 2017 magic, the occult, astrology all have been painted in the modern world as fringe and we have been discouraged from even learning about such knowledge but what do you do with the fact that the. And so, sefer yetzirah means the book of creation but it refers to a. If one now joined the aleph and gimmel with a line, and then with the dalet, and so on with all the letters, you would have a total of 231 lines. The earliest source to which the sefer yetzirah is attributed is the patriarch abraham.
Traditionally, the wisdom of sefer yetzirah is attributed to abraham. Circling of an object in a religious procession is a popular jewish custom. This figure is derived simply by drawing a circle and writing the aleph bet around the circumference of the circle. The hebrew letters can he placed in pairs in 242 different positions.
Sefer hayetzirah the book of formation gra version. Rabbinic tradition teaches that systematic meditation upon the various combinations will open the mind to the mysteries of god. Magic, the occult, astrology all have been painted in the modern world as fringe and we have been discouraged from even learning about such knowledge but what do you do with the fact that the. He expounds on the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of sefirot, souls and angels. Sefer yetzirah ebook by aryeh kaplan 9781609254483. Journal for the study of jewish mystical texts, vol. Sefer yetzirah this is how aleph is weighed, combined with everything and everything with aleph. Gan naul is one of three commentaries on sefer yetzirah by abraham abulafia. It was written prior to rabbi shimons zohar, or the book of splendor.
Its brief notelike style has made it one of the most commented upon works in the field of kabbalah. The sepher yetzirah is one of the most important founding works of qabalah. The 231 gates represent all possible pairings between the 22 hebrew letters code for kabbalistic astrology i. God of the armies of israel, everliving god, merciful and gracious, sublime, dwelling on high, who inhabiteth eternity.
In two and thirty most occult and wonderful paths of wisdom did jah the lord of hosts engrave his name. Rabbi kaplans translation of this oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts provides a unique perspective on the meditative and m. This figure is arrived at simply by drawing a circle and writing the aleph bet around the circumference of the circle. Now in its 7th printing since republication in 1997, the sefer yetzirah has established itself as a primary source for all serious students of kabbalah. God created the world with the holy language, hebrew. Pdf sefer yetzirah download full pdf book download. The sepher yetzirah is one of the most famous of the ancient qabalistic texts. The sefer yetzirah or yesira, or other transliterations has been dated to wildly different periods of time, and is, depending on the commentary you read, the earliest hebrewlanguage book of science, or a key work of kabbalah a form of jewish mysticism apparently beginning in the late. Symbols, occult symbols, jewish history, jewish art, menorah, book of shadows, sacred geometry, mystic, inspiration. The sepher yetzirah translated from the hebrew by william wynn westcott note. Sefer yetizrah the book of formation, the very first kabbalistic text, describes this process and mentions that gates two letter combinations of hebrew lettersare a central ingredient in the construction of the universe. Sefer ha yetzirah the book of formation gra version translated by aryeh kaplan chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 chapter 6 chapter 1 1. Pdf download sefer yetzira the book of creation free.
This is twice the number of the 231 gates discussed below 2. Pdf sefer yetzira the book of creation download full pdf. Rabbinic tradition teaches that systematic meditation. Sefer yetzirah by aryeh kaplan read online on bookmate. The foundation of the hebrew language, naturally, is its 22 letters. Yah, jehovah of hosts, the living elohim, king of the universe, omnipotent, allking and merciful, supreme and extolled, who is eternal, sublime and most holy, formed and created the universe in thirtytwo mysterious paths of wisdom by three sepharim, namely. It is thought that mediation on the various combinations of the letters and spokes will open the mind up to the mysteries of god.
He was the head of the great jewish academy at sura, babylonia, which under his leadership became the highest seat of jewish learning, and a. Because hebrew has 22 letters, there are 462 or 231 front and back, possibilities for combining. Sepher yirah, book of formation, or book of creation is the title of the earliest extant book on jewish mysticism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to kabbalah. He expounds on the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the sefirot, souls, and angels.
The book of creation in theory and practice kindle edition by kaplan, aryeh. The sefer yetzirah ia a very small and concised book. Of these the most exact and useful corresponds the 231 gates to the. Also included are three alternative versions to make this volume the most complete work on the sefer yetzirah available in english. Rabbi aryeh kaplan has translated sefer yetzirah, the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts, and now brings its theoretical, meditative, and magical implications to light. Sefer yetzirah download ebook pdf, epub, tuebl, mobi. Download pdf sefer yetzirah free online new books in. Creation through letters in the sefer yetzirah servants of the light. The 231 gates mathematically shows 231 lines drawn from letter to letter connecting each of the 22 hebrew letters when forming a circle.
Sefer yetizrah the book of formation, the very first kabbalistic text, describes this process and mentions that gatestwo letter combinations of hebrew lettersare a central ingredient in the construction of the universe. The saadia commentary on the sefer yetzirah by saadia ben joseph alfayumi 882942 ad jewish scholar, b. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones. Paths, the 231 gates are revealed, but first, here are the 32 paths. May 07, 2012 231 gates means for this order in the o. The sepher yetzirah is the ultimate basis of the golden dawn system of correspondences embodied in crowleys liber 777.
And from nothingness did he make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and. These gates are a means through which one ascends and descends along the 32 paths. Deeper reality kabbalah, chassidism and jewish mysticism. The concepts contained within it detail the basic acts of creation through. Deeper reality the principles of kabbalah lech lecha. Yetzirah is more literally translated as formation. Westcotts translation of the sepher yetzirah was a primary source for the rituals and knowledge lectures of the golden dawn. The cosmos are ruled by the letters gd moves through the 12 palaces throughout the year, starting in nissan aries, the 1st month each palace is built with. Work of the chariot the 231 gates of the sepher yetzirah chabad. Among the implications of this for the initiate is included the at tainment of a specific sort of. He set them in a cycle like a kind of wall with two hundred and thirtyone gates. It can be read from the sefer yetzirah that the sefirot really refer to the vowels.
Similarly the body reads its genetic information, pairing up amino acids into chains in order to create proteins to. Abraham and the wisdom of the book of formation the number 18 permutations of the tree david r. Sefer yetzirah is both the first book of kabbalah and the first book of hebrew grammar or more precisely linguistic theory. The sepher yetzirah, book of creation refers to the lines connecting each pair of hebrew letters as gates. God of the armies of israel, everliving god, merciful and gracious, sublime, dwelling on. The previous verses of chapter 2 founded the three mothers on a mediation between fullness and emptiness, and then described a series of engraving, carving, weighing, permutingtransposinginverting, combining amalgamating operations of the twentytwo autiot as a whole, which result in the formation of the soul of everything that is, or ever will be, formed. Sepher yetzirah book of formation gra version hermetics. Pdf sefer yetzira the book of creation download full. And so, sefer yetzirah means the book of creation but it refers to a type of creation that is involved with the urge.
Cellular consciousness, the metabolism of time and the 231 gates. Gra version of the sepher yetzirah chapter 1 the sephirah. Cellular consciousness, the metabolism of time and the 231. Fernando pessoa, the book of disquiet bearing in mind that the sefirot are not described by these traditional titles in the sefer yetzirah and these terms first appear nearly a thousand years later.
When the title is considered in this light, it is hardly surprising that the meditations found in the sefer yetzirah have theurgic repercussions. The 231 gates of the sepher yetzirah sacred geometry, the. The sefer yetzirah, or the book of creation, was written approximately 3,000 bce, and was the first kabbalistic book to be written. The sepher yetzirah book of jezihra introduction the sepher yetzirah, or book of formation, is acknowledged as being one of the most important kabbalistic texts. Could the 231 gates of wisdom mentioned in the sepher. The sefer yetzirah speaks of 231 gates through which the world was created. This system sees the sephiroth as the levels of initiation, while the 38 paths of the complete array along with their regular geometries of triangles, quadrangles, pentangles, and. Because hebrew has 22 letters, there are 462 or 231 front and back, possibilities for.