Logos in the Psalms

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Ps. 33:6

τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ κυρίου οἱ οὐρανοὶ ἐστερεώθησαν
καὶ τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ στόματος αὐτοῦ πᾶσα ἡ δύναμις αὐτῶν

Aryeh Kaplan's translation

Kaplan's translation of the Sefer Yetzirah is here.

Here is a comparison with Hayman,

I would like to comment on Kaplan's translation of Sefer Yetzirah, 1997. It is much more literal than the translation by Peter Hayman, 2004. While Hayman presents the different texts, his translation is extremely difficult to work with. Here is a comparison,

Three primary letters, Aleph, Mem, Shin. Their basis is the scale of acquittal and the scale of guilt, and the language of the law holds the balance between them. Hayman

The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem, Shin
Their foundation is a pan of merit, a pan of liability and the tongue of decree deciding between them. Kaplan.

From Kaplan, one can see that the tongue of decree was the needle/pointer on the scales. Hayman's "language of law" doesn't reveal the concrete meaning of lashon or help to relate to the theme of the "tongue" throughout the text. Just one example.

Kaplan on "carve," page 72,

"The word Chatzav thus denotes the process wherein the letter sounds leave the mouth and are expressed independently. In this context, "Engrave" (chakak) indicates the articulation and pronunciation of the sounds, and "carve" (chatzav) denotes their expression."

Hum in Job 4:12-16 page 97

Carved the letters

Joanna Drucker

Sacred origins and occult traditions have long posited the alphabet as a set of cosmic elements, themselves comprising the full sum of components of the universe. Figure 7 In such a role, the letters are charged to retain their identity for reasons more profound than mere functionality. According to the Sefer Yetsirah: "Twenty-two foundation letters: he ordained them, he hewed them, he combined them, he weighed them, he interchanged them. And he created with them the whole creation and everything to be created in the future." (II.2) This Book of Creation contains echoes of the history of Mesopotamian-Persian exile, the Sumerian-Babylonian story of the Flood, the beliefs of the Gnostics, the intellectual life and legacy of Alexandrian Jewry, and the influence of the Pythagoreans. Many cultural legacies consider numbers as qualities, as fundamental elements of creation. How paltry and meager by contrast the notion of tokens and signs. Conceiving of letters as simply functional seems primitive by contrast, a crude concept, commercial and crass.

Westcott

Twenty-two letters are formed by the voice, impressed on the air, and audibly uttered in five situations, in the throat, guttural sounds; in the palate, palatals; by the tongue, linguals; through the teeth, dentals; and by the lips, labial sounds.

Saadya

The twenty-two letters are three principals, seven doubles, and twelve simples, which are cleaved in the air, traced by the voice and situated in five places in the mouth.

Notes on editions of YS

Notes on editions of YS

Origen

On page 38 of Icons of Power, Janowitz writes,

Because of the problems translation presents, Origen decides it must be "the qualities and characteristics of the sounds" Against Celsus 1.25, that give names power.

From Origen,

And while still upon the subject of names, we have to mention that those who are skilled in the use of incantations, relate that the utterance of the same incantation in its proper language can accomplish what the spell professes to do; but when translated into any other tongue, it is observed to become inefficacious and feeble. And thus it is not the things signified, but the qualities and peculiarities of words, which possess a certain power for this or that purpose.

And so on such grounds as these we defend the conduct of the Christians, when they struggle even to death to avoid calling God by the name of Zeus, or to give Him a name from any other language. For they either use the common name— God— indefinitely, or with some such addition as that of the Maker of all things, the Creator of heaven and earth— He who sent down to the human race those good men, to whose names that of God being added, certain mighty works are wrought among men.

And much more besides might be said on the subject of names, against those who think that we ought to be indifferent as to our use of them. And if the remark of Plato in the Philebus should surprise us, when he says, My fear, O Protagoras, about the names of the gods is no small one, seeing Philebus in his discussion with Socrates had called pleasure a god, how shall we not rather approve the piety of the Christians, who apply none of the names used in the mythologies to the Creator of the world? And now enough on this subject for the present. Contra Celsus 1:25 New Advent

For to invoke angels without having obtained a knowledge of their nature greater than is possessed by men, would be contrary to reason. But, conformably to our hypothesis, let this knowledge of them, which is something wonderful and mysterious, be obtained. Then this knowledge, making known to us their nature, and the offices to which they are severally appointed, will not permit us to pray with confidence to any other than to the Supreme God, who is sufficient for all things, and that through our Saviour the Son of God, who is the Word, and Wisdom, and Truth, and everything else which the writings of God's prophets and the apostles of Jesus entitle Him. Contra Celsus 5.5

And although one may not be so exalted (as the sun), nevertheless let such an one pray to the Word of God (who is able to heal him), and still more to His Father, who also to the righteous of former times sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Contra Celsus 5.11

we preserve both the doctrine of the Church of Christ and the grandeur of the divine promise, proving also the possibility of its accomplishment not by mere assertion, but by arguments; knowing that although heaven and earth, and the things that are in them, may pass away, yet His words regarding each individual thing, being, as parts of a whole, or species of a genus, the utterances of Him who was God the Word, who was in the beginning with God, shall by no means pass away. For we desire to listen to Him who said: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away. Contra Celsus 5.22

we preserve both the doctrine of the Church of Christ and the grandeur of the divine promise, proving also the possibility of its accomplishment not by mere assertion, but by arguments; knowing that although heaven and earth, and the things that are in them, may pass away, yet His words regarding each individual thing, being, as parts of a whole, or species of a genus, the utterances of Him who was God the Word, who was in the beginning with God, shall by no means pass away. For we desire to listen to Him who said: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away. Contra Celsus 5.45

This meaning of the term" beginning," as of origin, will serve us also in the passage in which Wisdom speaks in the Proverbs. "God," we read, "created me the beginning of His ways, for His works." Here the term could be interpreted as in the first application we spoke of, that of a way: "The Lord," it says, "created me the beginning of His ways." One might assert, and with reason, that God Himself is the beginning of all things, and might go on to say, as is plain, that the Father is the beginning of the Son; and the demiurge the beginning of the works of the demiurge, and that God in a word is the beginning of all that exists. This view is supported by our: "In the beginning was the Word." In the Word one may see the Son, and because He is in the Father He may be said to be in the beginning. Commentary on John 1

So many meanings occur to us at once of the word arche. We have now to ask which of them we should adopt for our text, "In the beginning was the Word." It is plain that we may at once dismiss the meaning which connects it with transition or with a road and its length. Nor, it is pretty plain, will the meaning connected with an origin serve our purpose.

One might, however, think of the sense in which it points to the author, to that which brings about the effect, if, as we read, "God commanded and they were created." For Christ is, in a manner, the demiurge, to whom the Father says, "Let there be light," and "Let there be a firmament." But Christ is demiurge as a beginning (arche), inasmuch as He is wisdom.

It is in virtue of His being wisdom that He is called arche. For Wisdom says in Solomon: "God created me the beginning of His ways, for His works," so that the Word might be in an arche, namely, in wisdom. Considered in relation to the structure of contemplation and thoughts about the whole of things, it is regarded as wisdom; but in relation to that side of the objects of thought, in which reasonable beings apprehend them, it is considered as the Word.

As, then, life came into being in the Word, so the Word in the arche. Consider, however, if we are at liberty to take this meaning of arche for our text: "In the beginning was the Word," so as to obtain the meaning that all things came into being according to wisdom and according to the models of the system which are present in his thoughts.

For I consider that as a house or a ship is built and fashioned in accordance with the sketches of the builder or designer, the house or the ship having their beginning (arche) in the sketches and reckonings in his mind, so all things came into being in accordance with the designs of what was to be, clearly laid down by God in wisdom. And we should add that having created, so to speak, ensouled wisdom, He left her to hand over, from the types which were in her, to things existing and to matter, the actual emergence of them, their moulding and their forms. But I consider, if it be permitted to say this, that the beginning (arche) of real existence was the Son of God, saying: "I am the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last."

Commentary on John 1:22

Original use of stoicheion

Letters and Syllables in Plato

Plato employs this model in this way in the Timaeus (48 B-C), though he says that the analogy is not a good one. Here he is stating what is essentially an Empedoclean theory. Sextus Empiricus says that stoicheion, used thus to denote an ultimate material element, was a Pythag- orean term.


We nowadays naturally think first of a printed or written character. I hope to show that Plato, on the other hand, naturally thought first of the explosive beginning of uttered words like "Basileus," that is, that the letter names like "Beta" and "Sigma" were, for him, names primarily of phonetic elements or phonemes. So when Plato speaks of a child learning the letters called "Beta" and "Sigma," he is not, according to me, thinking first of all, as we should be, of the child being taught to inscribe and decipher characters, but of him learning to recognize by ear, name, and pronounce the consonants and vowels.

The author argues that the most consistent use of stoicheion is that of the phoneme itself, and gramma is reserved for the written character.

Word meanings or concepts are not proposition components but propositional differences. They are distinguishables, not detachables; abstractables, not extractables

As the atoms of writing do not stand for atoms of noise, so the atoms of speech do not stand for atoms of meaning. Conversely, as an atom of writing-a character-does stand for a respect in which one uttered monosyllable may resemble other monosyllables, while differing from them in other respects; so an atom of speech -a word-does stand for a respect in which one statable truth or falsehood may resemble others, while differing from them in other respects.

In the Philebus (I7 A-B), and later 18 C Plato talks about vowels, semi-vowels and consonants.

logos and stoicheia

Aristotles Metaphysics Book VII, part 10

ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ ὁρισμὸς λόγος ἐστί, πᾶς δὲ λόγος μέρη ἔχει, ὡς δὲ ὁ λόγος πρὸς τὸ πρᾶγμα, καὶ τὸ μέρος τοῦ λόγου πρὸς τὸ μέρος τοῦ πράγματος ὁμοίως ἔχει, ἀπορεῖται ἤδη πότερον δεῖ τὸν τῶν μερῶν λόγον ἐνυπάρχειν ἐν τῷ τοῦ ὅλου λόγῳ ἢ οὔ. ἐπ' ἐνίων μὲν γὰρ φαίνονται ἐνόντες ἐνίων δ' οὔ. τοῦ μὲν [25] γὰρ κύκλου ὁ λόγος οὐκ ἔχει τὸν τῶν τμημάτων, ὁ δὲ τῆς συλλαβῆς ἔχει τὸν τῶν στοιχείων: καίτοι διαιρεῖται καὶ ὁ κύκλος εἰς τὰ τμήματα ὥσπερ καὶ ἡ συλλαβὴ εἰς τὰ στοιχεῖα.

Since a definition is a formula (logos), and every formula(logos) has parts; and since the formula (logos) is related to the thing in the same way as the part of the formula (logos) to the part of the thing, the question now arises: Must the formula (logos) of the parts be contained in the formula (logos) of the whole, or not? It seems clear that it is so in some cases, but not in others. The formula (logos) of the circle does not include that of the segments, but the formula (logos) of the syllable includes that of the letters (stocheia/atoms/elements). And yet the circle is divisible into its segments in just the same way as the syllable into its letters (stoicheia).

Icons of Power

Chapter Four, "The Meaning of Letters: From Divine Name to Cosmic Sounds," begins with the alphabet mysticism of the second-century Christian (/Gnostic?) Marcus and moves to the early Jewish texts Sefer Yetsira (Book of Creation) and Shiur Komah (Measurement of the [Divine] Body). Here Janowitz demonstrates that a theory of letters as primal cosmic elements, the comprehension of which can bring the adept to union with the Divine, was common to Jewish and Christian circles -- and even Neo-Platonists.

Marcus's ideas, described in Irenaeus's Against Heresies, revolve around the letters in holy words, even their shapes and numerical equivalents. The letters of the Greek alphabet correspond to the members of a divine "Body of Truth," while vowels supply the primal sounds for liturgy.

For Janowitz, Marcus offers a neat combination of theory and practice in late antique speculation on the letters as symbol and sound. Similar applications of this kind of theory appear in Jewish visionary texts that imagine God through a divine body composed of letters and names, or that contemplate God's emergence into the created world through letters and names, whose powers humans can harness themselves (as in the famous story of the Golem).

With a rather awkward segue, Janowitz "return[s] to the Neoplatonists" to show that they too -- Theodorus of Arsine, Iamblichus, Nichomachus, et al. -- applied their theories of letters as cosmic elements to construct ritual practices around alphabetic sounds and symbols.

by Naomi Janowitz BF1622.J45 J36 2002

Marcus

Marcus, a second century gnostic also believed that the world came into being through the letters.

The gnosis of the Palestinian Marcus conceived the world to have come into being through the permutation of letters (Grätz, "Gnosticismus und Judenthum," pp. 105 et seq.). The στοιχεῖα of the alphabet corresponds to the στοιχεῖα of the universe (Wobbermin, l.c. p. 128). Epstein calls this view an astrological one, and he expounds it further (l.c. pp. 23 et seq.). The several elements of the alphabet play an important rôle in this cosmologic system, a reflection of which is found in one of the haggadah, in which the letters, beginning with the last, appear before God, requesting that the world be created through them. They are refused, until bet appears, with which begins the story of Creation. Alef complains for twenty-six generations, and is only pacified when it heads the Decalogue (Gen. R. i. 1). It was evidently held that the world came into being with the first sound that God uttered. Johanan thought that a breath sufficed, hence the world was created by ת (Gen. R. xii.). This view is connected with another view, according to which God first caused the spirit ("ruaḥ" = wind) to be. In the Sefer Yeẓirah, the three principal elements of the alphabet are ; that is, (air), (water), and (fire: Epstein, l.c. pp. 24 et seq.). According to this conception there are three, not four, elements, as was commonly assumed after the Arabic period. Curiously enough, the second book of "Jeu," p. 195, and the "Pistis Sophia," p. 375 (quoted in Herzog-Hauck, l.c. vi. 734), refer to three kinds of baptism —with water, with fire, and with spirit.

Jewish Encyclopedia

Aristotle's Metaphysics

Book V

"All the causes now mentioned fall under four senses which are the most obvious. For the letters are the cause of syllables, and the material is the cause of manufactured things, and fire and earth and all such things are the causes of bodies, and the parts are causes of the whole, and the hypotheses are causes of the conclusion, in the sense that they are that out of which these respectively are made; but of these some are cause as the substratum (e.g. the parts), others as the essence (the whole, the synthesis, and the form). The semen, the physician, the adviser, and in general the agent, are all sources of change or of rest. The remainder are causes as the end and the good of the other things; for that for the sake of which other things are tends to be the best and the end of the other things; let us take it as making no difference whether we call it good or apparent good.

"'Element' means (1) the primary component immanent in a thing, and indivisible in kind into other kinds; e.g. the elements of speech are the parts of which speech consists and into which it is ultimately divided, while they are no longer divided into other forms of speech different in kind from them. If they are divided, their parts are of the same kind, as a part of water is water (while a part of the syllable is not a syllable). Similarly those who speak of the elements of bodies mean the things into which bodies are ultimately divided, while they are no longer divided into other things differing in kind; and whether the things of this sort are one or more, they call these elements. The so-called elements of geometrical proofs, and in general the elements of demonstrations, have a similar character; for the primary demonstrations, each of which is implied in many demonstrations, are called elements of demonstrations; and the primary syllogisms, which have three terms and proceed by means of one middle, are of this nature.

Book VII

The formula of the circle does not include that of the segments, but that of the syllable includes that of the letters; yet the circle is divided into segments as the syllable is into letters.-And further if the parts are prior to the whole, and the acute angle is a part of the right angle and the finger a part of the animal, the acute angle will be prior to the right angle and finger to the man. But the latter are thought to be prior; for in formula the parts are explained by reference to them, and in respect also of the power of existing apart from each other the wholes are prior to the parts.

The word and the circumcision

Here is a discussion which once again draws a parallel between the tongue and the penis.

From the above, we learn that the "tongue" and the "procreative organ" (the two manifestations of the "single covenant"--the union of God and man) are interrelated in essence. From this we may infer that their "rectification" is interdependent. The "correction" of one's faculty of speech (to speak only good and "sweet" words) and the "guarding" of the covenant of one’s procreative organ (to express one's true love for one’s spouse in marital relations in holiness), depend upon and influence one another. For this reason the two terms: "the word (in Hebrew, milah) of the tongue" and "the circumcision (in Hebrew milah) of the procreative organ," are the same.

The most basic model of Divine service, as taught by the Ba'al Shem Tov, is the three-stage process of chash, mal, mal--"silence, circumcision, and speech" (equivalent to "submission, separation, and sweetening"). The last two stages, circumcision and speech, correspond to the two levels mentioned in our mishnah: "the circumcision of the procreative organ" and "the word of the tongue."

In The Covenant of Circumcision by Elizabeth Wyner Mark, Wolfson writes, (with reference to Gitakilla)

the covenant of the tongue is intertwined with the convenant of the foreskin page 67 He refers to Abraham Abulafia who, in the 'Osar 'Eden Ganuz, says that the one is the covenant of Abraham and the other of Moses. "The organ brings us to this world and the tongue will bring us to life in the world-to-come." He writes of the "phallomorphic nature of the convenant of Torah."

More in Venturing Beyond: Law and Morality in Kabbalistic Mysticism By Elliot R. Wolfson

Sefer Yetzirah by Aryeh Kaplan.

2 Sam. 23:2 "his word is on my tongue." The circumcision of the tongue refers to the ability to probe the mysteries of the Torah. Moses says, "how will Pharoah listen to me, when I have uncircumcised lips?" Ex. 6:12.

Tongue as phallic symbol

In exploring the formation of speech in the Sefer Yeztira, is is worth noting that the consonants are described in relation to the tongue as a point of articulation. The other parts of the mouth are mentioned but the tongue occupies the central place.

Twenty-two foundation letters: three mothers, seven doubles, and twelve simples. He hewed them in spirit, carved them in voice, fixed them in the mouth in five place: Alef, He, Het, Ayin [ahacha]; Bet, Vav, Mem, Feh [bumaf]; Gimel, Yod, Khaf, Qof [gikhaq]; Dalet, Tet, Lamed, Nun, Tav [datlanat]; Zayin, Samech, Tsadeh, Resh, Shin [zsats'ras]. Alef, He, Het, Ayin are pronounced at the end of the tongue at the place of swallowing; Bet, Vav, Mem, Feh between the teeth with the tip of the tongue; Gimel, Yod, Khaf, Qof on the palate; Dalet, Tet, Lamed, Nun, Tav on the middle of the tongue and pronounced with the voice; Zayin, Samech, Tsadeh, Resh, Shin between the teeth with the tongue at rest. Chap. 2.2

Seven doubles: Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, Tav, which are to be pronounced in two tongues: Bet, Vayt, Gimel, Ghimel, Dalet, Dhalet, Kaf, Khaf, Peh, Feh, Resh, Rhesh, Tav, Thav, a pattern of hard and soft, strong and weak. Chap. 4.3

This can only be explained by the centrality of the tongue to speech. In one version of the Sefer Yetzira, we find this line in the ending,

He made a covenant between the ten toes of his feet - it is the covenant of circumcision. He made a covenant between the ten fingers of his hand, it is the covenant of language (lashon - the tongue.)

That the tongue is a phallic symbol in Sefer Yetzirah is recognized by Nathaniel Deutsch in Guardians of the Gate.

How are we supposed to deal with the notion of the primacy of the tongue as a point of articulation and as a symbol of the male organ in reproduction? We know that a "vessel" is a symbol of the feminine womb in Judaism and seems also appropriate as that which forms speech and shapes the different sounds.

A further problem presents itself, in that references to the tongue do not appear in all manuscripts.

For a contrasting analysis, one can read in Kaplan's essay on this topic,

The forming of spirit into matter is described using the analogy of forming breath into language. Humans bring sounds into being by passing breath through chambers of various shapes.

Composite entities are created as the elements are then passed through chambers of various shapes, represented by the remaining letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Some of these letters are “single” letters, letters that have only one possible pronunciation. Other letters are “double” letters, letters that have two possible pronunciations, depending upon how tightly closed the shaped human mouth is as air passes through. As elements pass through the chambers of the “double” letters, they become objects and forces that have dual aspects, such as right and left eye, or wisdom and folly.

My problem with Kaplan's analysis is that I have not found support for the notion that "chambers" or "vessels" form speech sounds in the Sefer Yetzira. It makes intuitive sense but does not connect welll with the text.

The next part of Kaplan's essay deals with commentators on the Sefer Yetzirah and this may bring in the notion of "chambers." I'll be looking for it.

-------

References to "vessel" as symbol of the feminine.

The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Spirituality By Gordon S. Wakefield, we read,

This receptivity to the other, the birth process, and nurturing is rooted in cyclic images more than in linear ones. Archetypal symbols often used to portray this cyclic aspect of feminine spirituality are the vessel, the circle, the moon and the ocean. These symbols are more apt to initiate one into the Mystery of God's eternal creatvty than into an episodic understanding of salvation history. Throughout church history, these symbols have been metaphorically identified with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who remains, perhaps, the pre-eminent symbol of feminine spirituality. page 149 (Nancy c. Ring)

From NewKabbalah.

There is also a decided erotic aspect to the Breaking of the Vessels. The vessels, as described by Luria's most important disciple, Chayyim Vital, are envisioned as being located in the womb of the feminine Partzuf, the Cosmic Mother, an expression of the age-old symbol of the feminine as "vessel", "receptacle" and "container". Further, the shattering of these vessels brings about a state of affairs in which the masculine and feminine aspects of the cosmos, which had hitherto been in a "face to face" sexual conjunction, turn their backs upon one another and become completely disjoined. The "chaos" brought about by the Shevirah ("breakage") leads to an erotic alienation, a condition that can only be remedied through a rejoining of opposites through a renewed coniunctio of the sexes.

Mainstream Mysticism
In Kabbalah, women find a way to make spirituality integral to their daily lives.
By Jacqueline Egosi

Since Kabbalah is about accessing the hidden dimensions of Judaism, there is a special connection that women have, she says. "Women understand things in a more experiential than intellectual way than men. For me as a woman, the hidden, inner dimensions of life resonate.

"Kabbalah means 'to receive.' The feminine is the vessel, and the feminine energy is all about receiving. We are vessels in a way that men have to learn how to be."

Adolphe Franck

The Religious Philosophy of the Hebrews

This is a scholarly study of the origin and evolution of the Kabbalah. Originally published in French in 1843, with a second French edition in 1889, this book traces the origins of the philosophical concepts of the Kabbalah to the ancient Zoroastrians. Franck goes into fascinating detail about the doctrine of the Kabbalah, as expressed in the Sepher Yetzirah and the Zohar. He uses internal evidence to trace the origins of these texts many centuries prior to their first known publication in the thirteenth century C.E.

Franck carefully compares the philosophy of the Kabbalah with Greek philosophy, the Alexandrians, Philo, and the Gnostics, and concludes that, although there are similarities, none of them can claim to be the source of the Kabbalah. However, he does find many more similarities with the ancient Zoroastrian beliefs. By this process of elimination, he comes to the conclusion that the doctrines of the Kabbalah had their origin during the Babylonian exile circa 500 B.C.E., which was also the time when Zoroaster was active in the same geographical region. This thesis is worth considering, and potentially adds more weight to the already numerous contributions of Zoroastrianism to world culture.

The Dying God, The Hidden History of Western Civilization by David Livingstone

It is at this time that a faction of the Jews develop a system of magic and sorcery later known as the Kabbalah. These Jewish heretics rejected the God of the Bible, because he forbade the practice of magic, and instead revered his enemy, who introduced man to the "forbidden knowledge". This devil they identified with the dying-god of the Babylonians, who was identified with the planet Venus, whose original Latin name was Lucifer.

Because they came from Babylon, the various scholars of the ancient world confused these early Kabbalists with the Chaldean Magi. In fact, in the Book of Daniel, Chapter 2:48, Daniel is made chief of the "wise men" of Babylon, that is, of the Chaldean Magi, and yet remains faithful to the laws of his own religion.

This is what has caused so much confusion among modern scholars. Originally, the Magi were the official priests of the religion of the Persians, who conquered Babylon in 539 BC. The Persians were followers of Zoroaster, the founder of the religion of Zoroastrianism.

However, as scholars have repeatedly demonstrated, the teachings that were attributed to the Magi by ancient scholars held nothing in common with orthodox Zoroastrianism. Rather, as recognized by Franz Cumont, who was perhaps the greatest scholar of the last century, those Magi, which these historians referred to, and which he referred to instead as Magussaeans who followed a heretical interpretation of the religion. Rather, as I demonstrate in my book, these Magi followed a set of beliefs that were essentially identical to the early Kabbalah.

Therefore, it is by following the development and influence of these so-called Magi, that we can determine the influence of the early Kabbalah on those beliefs in the ancient world that eventually shaped the Western occult tradition, and ultimately Western society as a whole.

A Babylonian scholar

Origin of the Speculative Cabala.

Eleazar of Worms' statement that a Babylonian scholar, Aaron b. Samuel by name, brought the mystic doctrine from Babylonia to Italy about the middle of the ninth century, has been found to be actually true.

Indeed, the doctrines of the "Kerub ha-Meyuḥad," of the mysterious power of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and of the great importance of the angels, are all found in the geonic mystic lore. Even those elements that seem later developments may have been transmitted orally, or may have formed parts of the lost works of the old mystics.

If, now, the German Cabala of the thirteenth century is to be regarded as merely a continuation of geonic mysticism, it follows that the speculative Cabala arising simultaneously in France and Spain must have had a similar genesis.

It is the Sefer Yeẓirah which thus forms the link between the Cabala and the geonic mystics. The date as well as the origin of this singular book are still moot points, many scholars even assigning it to the Talmudic period. It is certain, however, that at the beginning of the ninth century the work enjoyed so great a reputation that no less a man than Saadia wrote a commentary on it. The question of the relation between God and the world is discussed in this book, the oldest philosophical work in the Hebrew language.

...

The importance of this book for the later Cabala, overestimated formerly, has been underestimated in modern times. The emanations here are not the same as those posited by the cabalists; for no graduated scale of distance from the primal emanations is assumed, nor are the Sefirot here identical with those enumerated in the later Cabala. But the agreement in essential points between the later Cabala and the "Sefer Yeẓirah" must not be overlooked.

Kabbalah, Cabala

This reviews the history of Kabbalah in great detail.

The geonim of Babylonia and the shaping of medieval Jewish culture / Robert Brody.

Derrida

According to Wolfson, a key to grasping the relationship between deconstruction and Judaism lies in the Jewish mystical view that “reality is a text” and that the world’s most basic elements are the twenty-two letters of the holy tongue, which are in turn comprised of the four letters (YHVH) of the divine name.27

Both the conservative Kabbalist Recanti and the radical postmodernist Derrida can agree on “the absolute centrality of the book.” The former understands the book as a vehicle through which one can intuit the infinite God, whereas the latter understands it as a prism through which one encounters an infinitude of free-floating meanings.

“From Recanti to Derrida the nature of the infinity changed, but not the absolute statement regarding the all-inclusiveness of the text.”58 Idel goes so far as to suggest a theological significance to Derrida’s point of view, holding that Derrida’s exploration of the infinite plenitude of meaning within the text, to be an exploration of an imminent divine.

Jacques Derrida and the Kabbalah ©Sanford L. Drob, 2006

Letters are a crucial part of the kabbalistic theory of creation. The Sefer Yetzirah says God created the world in part by using the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

The Bible tells of God creating the universe with a few words, like “Let there be light,” but the Sefer Yetzirah takes that account one step further. Remember that kabbalists believe God existed before the creation of the universe, and that God then created the universe in the form of the sefirot—the ten sacred numbers.

Following the creation of the numbers, the second set of sefirot appeared—the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Kabbalists believe these letters combined into different combinations, and in turn created the world. As the letters interacted, parts of the world took shape. Each letter and word created both matter and other letters and words, giving rise to language and the universe at the same time. Sparknotes

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The Hebrew alphabet, the Aleph Beit, is said by the Kabbalists to embody wonderful and miraculous powers. The Hebrew word for letter, ot, also means “sign” or “wonder” or “miracle.”

According to the earliest known book on Jewish mysticism, The Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), written more than fifteen centuries ago, God formed the entire universe through speaking aloud the twenty-two letters. Out of the nothingness of silence, with the vibration of God’s cosmic utterances, all things spring to life. “God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”

The letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, as the manifestations of God’s speech, are therefore the energetic and vibrational building blocks of creation. They are analogous to physical elements. Just as, for example, an atom of oxygen gas unites with two atoms of hydrogen gas to form a molecule of water, so does one letter combine with another to create new entities.

The Hebrew Alphabet is like the periodic table of elements. Rabbi Marcia Prager writes, “This perception of Hebrew words and letters as the constituent spiritual elements of existence undergirds most Jewish mystical teaching.” The Oracle of Kabbalah

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The Otiyot Yesod or "Foundational Letters" are first described in the early proto-Kabbalistic work, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Formation). In this work we find, alongside the notion that the world is composed of ten Sefirot, an additional and at times parallel symbolism in which the entire cosmos is said to be created from the 22 consonant/letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The letters and the Sefirot together are spoken of as "the thirty wondrous paths of creation" (Sefer Yetzirah 1:1). According to the author of Sefer Yetzirah it was through the Otiyot Yesod, the Foundational Letters, that God "formed substance out of chaos and brought forth existence from nonexistence" (2:6). Sefer Yetzirah emphatically describes the role of these in the creation of the world:

Twenty-two foundation letters: He engraved them, He carved them, He permuted them, He weighed them, He transformed them, And with them, He depicted all that was formed and all that would be formed (Sefer Yetzirah, A Kaplan trans., p. 100).

Such linguistic mysticism is amply evident in the very early Kabbalistic source, Sefer ha-Bahir, major portions of which are written as an exegetical inquiry into the mystical significance of the Hebrew alphabet.

A mysticism of language is echoed consistently amongst the subsequent Kabbalists and Hasidim. For example, in the Zohar we read:

For when the world was created it was the supernal letters that brought into being all the works of the lower world, literally after their own pattern (Zohar I:159a).

Schneur Zalman of Lyadi proffered a number of linguistic mystical ideas, including (1) that the world is created and sustained by divine speech, (2) that the world's substance is composed of letters in the holy tongue, (3) that the name of an object is its soul, and (4) that the entire Torah is the name of God. NewKabbalah

Reading List

A reading list

Prager, Marcia Path of Blessing VST
Green, Arthur. Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow VST
Steinsalz, Adin, The Thirteen Petalled Rose VST
Matt, Daniel Zohar Koerner BM525.A52 M37
Munk, M. Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet BM565 .M86 1983
Green, Arthur. Guide to the Zohar Koerner BM525.A59 G73 2004
Dan, Joseph. Kabbalah : a very short introduction BM525 .D355 2006
Sefer Yetzirah BM525.A412 S8 1923A
Brody, Robert. The geonim of Babylonia and the shaping of medieval Jewish culture BM501.5 .B76 1998

The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet

The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Michael Munk

The story is told how Rebbe Nachmanof Breslov once suffered from amnesia and could not remember any of the Torah he had learned. In desperation, he asked one of his disciples to recite the Hebrew alphabet. He did -- and the Rebbe's memory came back to him. After reading this excellent book, you will understand how that is possible. The Hebrew alphabet is much more than 22 letters written on paper. Each letter has a numerical value, a number of symbolic Torah meanings, and a mystical connection to the Creation of the Universe. According to kabbalah, the Hebrew letters are the primal "energies" with which God spoke the Creation into existence. The inner essence of a thing are the letters which compose its name in Hebrew. (The Overview in the book is entitled "Protoplasm of Creation," and explains this concept in more detail than I can do here.)

Koerner library BM565 .M86 1983

Bezalel [the builder of the Tabernacle in the Wilderness] knew how to combine he letters with which the heaven and earth were created. For it is written (Exodus 31:3) [with regard to Bezalel]: I have filled him with godly a Godly spirit, wth wisdom, understanding, and knowledge; (Berachos 55a)... Introduction 1

If the letters were to remove themselves for an instant, God forbid, and return to their source, the entire heaven would become an absolute vacuum. (Tanya, Shaar HaYichud V'haEmunah 1)

The word for letter in Hebrew is אוֹת

Some building blocks: stoicheia

This is clearly demonstrated by the Kabbalistic notion that 'principalities-arche and powers-exousia' [Colossians 2:15] also relates to First Principles or First Cause: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first-ARCHE principles-STOICHEION {ie. the elements such as the letters of the alphabet: The letters of the alphabet, primary body, element, 'shadow', the more important denotation of the term stoicheion was 'a member of a row'.

The earliest attested use of the term stoicheion is in Plato Theaet. 201e, where it is obvious that Plato still feels the original connotation of 'letter of the alphabet'. Aristotle uses the term to refer to the basic ingredient of a composite (Meta. 1014a), or perhaps primary unit indivisible into kinds different from itself. That means that the term is basically a 'formal' term that takes on its specific meaning from the 'thing' of which it is primary component. Thus in the early literature stoicheia specifically means such things as letters or phonemes that make up syllables, notes on a musical scale, the components of physical bodies, the elementary principles or rules
of politics, etc.

It was frequently used by philosophers in the phrase, ta stoicheia tou kosmou, to refer to those primary components from which the world was made, namely, earth, water, air, and fire; but that was only one of its many specific meanings. By the time of the atomists, stoicheion compares the basic bodies of the physical world to the letters of the alphabet which have no significance of their own, but by manipulating their order (taxis) and position (thesis) one can construct them into aggregates with different meanings (Aristotle, Meta. 985b; De gen. Et corr. I, 315b).

Thus stoicheion is a 'formal' word which means 'primary inherent component,' and which takes on its specific meaning from the universe of discourse from which it is taken. In that regard it is similar to the English word 'element '. [Courtesy: Ian Dengler, [Basics of ] Stoicheion, a predecessor term to ideometry and the philosophy of taxon, 25 May 2001]

from a sci.tech list.