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The Creation of the World in the Sefer Yetzirah

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino Politecnico di Torino Porto Institutional Repository [Article] The Creation of the World in the Sefer Yetzirah Original Citation: A.C. Sparavigna (2014). The Creation of the World in the Sefer Yetzirah. In: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCES, vol. 3 n. 5, pp. 11-17. - ISSN 2305-3925 Availability: This version is available at : http://porto.polito.it/2543427/ since: May 2014 Publisher: England: Alkhaer Publications Published version: DOI:10.18483/ijSci.498 Terms of use: This article is made available under terms and conditions applicable to Open Access Policy Arti- cle ("Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0") , as described at http://porto.polito.it/terms_and_ conditions.html Porto, the institutional repository of the Politecnico di Torino, is provided by the University Library and the IT-Services. The aim is to enable open access to all the world. Please share with us how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Publisher copyright claim: This is the publisher version of an article published on INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCES, Publisher [pin missing: publisher], Vol 3 , Number 5 Year 2014 (ISSN [pin missing: issn] )The present version is accessible on PORTO, the Open Access Repository of the Politecnico of Torino (Article begins on next page) 1Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy Abstract: The Sefer Yetzirah is the "Book of Creation", one of the earliest extant texts about the creation of the world of the Jewish tradition, a book that some scholars are supposing of an early Medieval origin. The Sefer tells the origin of the world as it was revealed to Abraham, in a cosmogony based on numbers and letters of the alphabet, through their combinations and permutations. The reading of this book can be interesting for a comparison to the thoughts of some medieval philosophers, Al-Farabi, Ibn Gabirol, Robert Grosseteste and others, about the primordial point and its spatial extensions. Keywords: Cosmogony, Ancient cosmology. 1. Introduction enumerations (Sefirot) and the twenty-two letters of The Sefer Yetzirah, the "Book of Creation", is one of the Hebrew alphabet. The twenty-two letters are the earliest extant book of a Jewish tradition about divided in three "mother" letters (Aleph, Mem, Shin), the creation of the world. In Hebrew, "Yetzirah" can seven "doubles", (Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaph, Pe, Resh, mean either "creation" or "formation", but can also Taw), and twelve "simples" or "elementals" (He, refer to the created or formed object itself [1]. Waw, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yodh, Lamedh, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tsade, Qoph) [1]. These divisions About the origin of this book, it was asserted that the correspond to some concepts such as the 3 letters of Biblical patriarch Abraham was the recipient of the the name of God, the 7 days of the week, the 12 divine revelation collected in it, so that the rabbis of tribes of Israel and the 12 months of the calendar. the classical rabbinic era never doubted that Abraham However, there are also the early philosophical ideas was the author of the Sefer [1,2]. According to such as 3 elements (fire, water, air), 7 planets, 10 modern historians, the origin of the text is unknown: directions, the 12 zodiacal constellations and various some scholars are supposing an early Medieval origin human physical functions and parts of the body [1]. of it, while others emphasize earlier traditions The book describes how God used 10 Sefirot and 22 appearing in the book [1,3]. Letters and finally how he revealed this secret to Abraham as a covenant with him. Both the The reading of this book can be interesting for a macrocosm, the world, that is the universe, and the comparison to some medieval texts concerning the microcosm, that is the human being, are viewed in origin and creation of the world, for instance, the this system as products of the combination and thought of Al-Farabi, Avicenna, Ibn Gabirol, or to the permutation of these characters. The linguistic light metaphysics of Robert Grosseteste, that he theories of the author of the Sefer Yetzirah are an discussed in the treatise entitled De Luce [4]. For integral component of his philosophy; other parts of what concerns Grosseteste, it is also interesting a the book are from astrological and Gnostic comparison of the Sefer to his treatise on the cosmogony [1,2]. The three letters Aleph, Mem, generation of sound and phonetics [5]. In general, the Shin, are not only the three "mothers" from which the knowledge of the Sefer is of great importance to any other letters of the alphabet are formed, but they are inquire on medieval cosmogonies, concerning the also symbolical figures for the three primordial primordial point and its spatial extensions. elements of the existence [1,2]. In this paper we report some discussions about the 3. Spirit, air and cosmos Sefer Yetzirah. After, we will read some parts of As told in Job 33:4, “the Spirit of God hath made me, English translations of it [6,7], translations that we and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life”. In can find in the public domain. the Sefer Yetzirah, it is the same for the creation of the world. The first emanation from God was the 2. Number and letters Spirit or Air. This spirit produced water, which, in its The Sefer Yetzirah is devoted to speculations turn, generated the fire. In the beginning, however, concerning God's creation of the world. The book these three substances had only a potential existence, describes how the universe was created by God and came into actual being only by means of the three through thirty-two “ways of wisdom”, that is the ten letters Aleph, Mem, Shin. These are the principal [email protected], [email protected] + 39-011-564-7360 The Creation of the World in the Sefer Yetzirah parts of speech, so those three substances are the Sefirot, which before this had only an ideal existence, elements from which the cosmos has been formed became realities … The letters are neither [1,2]. independent substances nor yet as mere forms. They seem to be the connecting-link between essence and The cosmos consists of three parts: the world, the form. They are designated as the instruments by time, and the human being. These three parts contains which the real world, which consists of essence and the three primordial elements. The water formed the form, was produced from the Sefirot, which are earth; heaven was produced from the fire; and the merely formless essences” [1,2]. Spirit produced the air between heaven and earth. The time is given by the year and its three seasons, winter, 4. Gnostic elements summer, and the rainy season, which correspond to According to Reference 1, the Sefer Yetzirah is water, fire, and air. In the same manner, the body of a similar to various Gnostic systems. As the Sefer human being consists of a head, torso and the other Yetzirah divides the Hebrew alphabet into three parts of the body, equivalent to water [1,2]. In the groups, “so the Gnostic Marcus divided the Greek creation of the cosmos, matter consists of the three letters into three classes, regarded by him as the primordial elements, which are connected and can be symbolic emanations of the three powers which modified physically. include the whole number of the upper elements” [1,2]. In the Sefer and in the thought of Marcus, The seven double letters produced the seven planets, combinations and permutations of letters are used in the seven days, and the seven apertures in man (two explaining genesis and evolution of multiplicity from eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth). As the unity. Another point of agreement is in viewing God seven double letters vary, being pronounced either not only the beginning but also the end of all things, hard or soft, so the seven planets are in continuous and that spirit of God was transformed into movement, approaching or receding from the earth. “pneuma”, and this into water, which becomes fire The seven days, were created by the seven double and rocks, thus agreeing with the Sefer Yetzirah letters because they change in time according to their [1,2]. relation to the planets [1,2]. For what concerns the twelve "simple" letters, they created the twelve signs As told in [8], about the connections between the of the zodiac, and to them belong the twelve months Sefer Yetzirah and the Gnostic system, Shlomo in time. Power (in Greek, dunamis) emanates from Pines, a scholar of Jewish and Islamic philosophy, the seven and the twelve heavenly bodies, or, in other proposed the Pseudo-Clementine Homilies as a words, from the planets and the signs of the zodiac possible source of influence on Jewish traditions, in [1,2]. There is also a "dragon", probably the particular for the elaboration of spatial extension of constellation of Draco, which represents the cosmic the point in the process of emanation [9]. In axis, that is the axis of the world; this constellation examining the mystical ideas on “point, language and coils around the North Star and thus around the universe”, besides the Pseudo-Clementine, Reference celestial axis, where it is intersecting the celestial 8 is also suggesting a comparison to Gikatilla’s sphere [1,2]. speculations in Ginnat ‘Egoz on the primordial point and its spatial extensions. Therefore, the Sefer Yetzirah aimed to harmonize the Biblical creation "ex nihilo" with the doctrine of the The Pseudo-Clementine tells that “preceding from primordial elements [1,2], through the ten Sefirot Him, as from the Center, an essence abounding in which are ideal objects.
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