"Sefer Yesirah" and Its Contexts. Tzahi Weiss
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twenty-two letters are the foundations: three immot letters, seven double (letters), and twelve simple (letters) … three immot A, M, Š … seven double letters B, G, D, K, P, R, T … twelve simple letters H, W, Z, Ḥ, Ṭ, Y, L, N, S, ‘, Ṣ, Q.”21
Notably, the criteria for this division are not clear-cut; we are left wondering about the basis for the division of the letters into these three groups. According to Sefer Yeṣirah, the triad of alef, mem, and shin represents initials of three of the four foundations: alef stands for air (אויר), mem for water (מים), and shin for fire (אש).22
The next set of letters, the double letters, comprises the six Hebrew letters that can grammatically be pronounced in two ways—plosive and fricative, B, G, D; and K, P, T, as well as the letter resh. For example, the letter bet can be pronounced both as b and v; and the letter pe can be pronounced as p or as f. But to these six, rightfully identified as double letters, Sefer Yeṣirah adds the resh, which does not have a double pronunciation in regular Hebrew grammar. A few scholars have presented important accounts of the role of the resh, indicating contexts in which it could have had a double pronunciation.23 These observations explain why resh, and not other letters of the alphabet, had this attribute; I agree with Joseph Dan that grammatical determinants are not the only reason for this anomaly.24 As we saw at the beginning of this introduction, Sefer Yeṣirah argues that the world has ten dimensions and not six, in order to demonstrate that the number ten can be found in the foundation of the universe. Similarly, in the paragraphs dealing with the triad A-M-Š, Sefer Yeṣirah states that there are only three, not four, elements: air, water, and fire; it does not mention earth.25 As several scholars have stressed, Sefer Yeṣirah subjects the facts to its ends where necessary and, in the case before us, alters received wisdom so that the given will correlate with the preordained numbers in the three groups of letters, not the other way around.26 It seems that here, too, Sefer Yeṣirah wants to demonstrate that a classical typological number such as seven stands at the heart of the created world; therefore, the resh was added to the group.
The third group of letters, “simple letters,” appear, in all probability, to be designated as such, insofar as they are devoid of any specific shared characteristics. Along with the grouping of the letters, the discussions in Sefer Yeṣirah devoted to the letters reveal a singular, if not innovative, attitude. The letters are described as units that can be combined with one another and thus create the world in its ontological and epistemological pathways. Combinations of letters demarcate, according to the book, the limits of human knowledge and allow for the creation of everything: “Twenty-two letters: he carved them out, he hewed them, he weighed them and exchanged them, he combined them and formed with them the life of all creation and the life of all that will form.27 How did he weigh and exchange them? Alef with them all, and them all with alef; bet with them all, and them all with bet. And they all rotate in turn. The result is that [they go out] by 221 (231) gates. The result is that all creation and all speech go out by one name.”28
In this description, we find that, despite a limited number of letters in the alphabet, amounting to one name, everything can be created: “the result is that all creation and all speech go out by one name.” A similar approach to the letters, their infinite combinations, and creation that derives from them can be found later on in Sefer Yeṣirah: “How did he combine them?29 Two stones30 build two houses: three build six houses: four build twenty-four houses: five build 120 houses; six build 720 houses; seven build 5,040 houses. From here on, go out and ponder what the mouth cannot speak and what the eye cannot see and what the ear cannot hear.”31
This articulation that a limited number of basic signifiers, the letters or the stones, enable unlimited creativity within language, the houses, is interesting from a modern linguistic perspective. Since the basic components of the language expounded by Sefer Yeṣirah are not the phonemes but rather the written letters, the linguistic approach of Sefer Yeṣirah presents a clear preference for written language over speech. And consider the linguistic structure advanced by Sefer Yeṣirah: the limited number of signifiers and unlimited creativity within language looks like a raw model of the Saussurian differentiation between parole and langue: “From here on, go out and ponder what the mouth cannot speak and what the eye cannot see and what the ear cannot hear.”
The Structure of Discussion About the Letters
Sefer Yeṣirah’s discussions about the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters contain interesting insights as well as an exposition of the enduring structures involved in sustaining the created world. An example of such a structure is the three parallel levels of the created world. According to Sefer Yeṣirah, each letter functions and signifies on three levels: the celestial world or the universe (עולם), mankind or the human body (נפש), and the year or time (שנה): “Seven double letters: B, G, D, K, P, R, T. He carved and hewed them, he combined them, weighed them and he formed with them the planets in the universe, the days in the year and the apertures in mankind.… He made bet rule, and bound to it a crown, and combined one with another, and formed with it Saturn in the universe, the Sabbath in the year, and the mouth in mankind.”32 Every letter is responsible for a certain aspect of each level. It seems that a letter governs its aspect, perhaps even creating it. Thus in the last example, the letter bet rules: “Saturn in the universe, the Sabbath in the year, and the mouth in mankind.” Another structural issue, which is of much interest yet remains abstruse, is the description of the last triple structure, A-M-Š., as divided into male and female. Although assumptions as to the meaning of this division may abound, the laconic language of Sefer Yeṣirah, on this issue as well as others, tends to hide more than it reveals. For example, one finds this division described: “He made alef rule over wind, and bound to it a crown, and combined them with each other, and formed with them air in the universe, and humidity in the year, and corpse in mankind, male and female—male with alef, mem, shin, and female with alef, shin, mem.”33
Abraham the Patriarch and Sefer Yeṣirah
Abruptly, at the end of Sefer Yeṣirah, the book’s laconic discussions are replaced by a new and totally different discourse, which appears in a sole paragraph describing Abraham the patriarch as having investigated and understood the secrets of Sefer Yeṣirah: “When Abraham our father came, and looked, and saw, and investigated, and understood, and carved, and combined, and hewed, and pondered, and succeeded, the Lord of all was revealed to him. And he made him sit in his lap, and kissed him upon his head. He called him his friend and named him his son, and made a covenant with him and his seed forever.”34
The last paragraph is thought to be from a late layer in the evolution of Sefer Yeṣirah because of its pronounced developed literary form. Further support for the view that this paragraph is alien to the spirit of Sefer Yeṣirah can be seen in the fact that biblical heroes or later Jewish figures had otherwise received no mention in the body of Sefer Yeṣirah, as well as in the fact that in this paragraph, Abraham is said to be contemplating an already-extant Sefer Yeṣirah. Furthermore, although there are versions of this paragraph in all the recensions of Sefer Yeṣirah, its second part, which gives a detailed description of the meeting of God and Abraham—“And he made him sit in his lap, and kissed him upon his head. He called him his friend and named him his son, and made a covenant with him and his seed forever”—is absent from the earliest recension of Sefer Yeṣirah, from the tenth-century manuscript found in the Cairo Geniza.
Gershom Scholem and Moshe Idel give divergent readings of Abraham’s contemplative relationship to Sefer Yeṣirah. Scholem argued that when Abraham studied Sefer Yeṣirah, he achieved a mystical revelation. In this mystical vision, God “made him sit in his lap, and kissed him upon his head. He called him his friend and named him his son.”35 Idel argues that the key word in this paragraph is “succeeded,” demonstrating that after Abraham “came, and looked