SEFER YETZIRAH-Book of Formation and Commentary
SEFERYETZIRAH [Book of Creation] & Saadia’s Commentary (excerpts)* Contents SEFERYETZIRAH 2 I. Chapter One ........................ 2 II. Chapter Two ........................ 3 III. Chapter Three ...................... 4 IV. Chapter Four ....................... 5 V. Chapter Five ........................ 6 VI. Chapter Six ........................ 6 VII. Chapter Seven ...................... 7 VIII. Chapter Eight ...................... 8 Commentary on Sefer Yetzirah by Saadia ben Joseph 9 I. On the Origin of the World According to the Py- thagoreans & the Sefer Yetzirah ........... 9 II. On the Divine Epithets and the Aristotelian Categories 10 III. On the “Closed” Numbers, Mothers, Doubles, & Simples 13 IV. On the Creation’s “Witnesses” ............. 14 V. On the Geometrical “Whirlwind” of the Hebrew Letters 15 VI. On the Rotation of the Letters and the Zodiac ..... 16 VII. On the Ethereal Realm and its Relation to Prophecy . 17 VIII. On the Geometry of Phonetics and the Order of the Alphabet ........................ 18 IX. On the 231 Gates of Letter Permutation ........ 19 X. On the Crowning of the Letters ............. 21 *From Saadia ben Joseph (al-Fayyumi), Commentaire sur le Séfer Yesira ou Livre de la Création par Le Gaon Saadya de Fayyoum, trans. & ed., M. Lambert, Paris, Emile Bouillon, Editeur, (1891); translated into English from the French & Hebrew by Scott Thompson and Dominique Marson, San Francisco, 1985. SEFERYETZIRAH I. Chapter One ¶ 1. In thirty-two mysterious paths of Wisdom, Yah, Eternal of Hosts [Yod-Vav- Yod], God of Israel, Living Elohim, Almighty God, High and Extolled, Dwelling in Eternity, Holy Be His Name, engraved and created His world in three Sefarim: in writing, number and word. Ten Sefirot out of nothing, twenty-two foundation letters, three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples.
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