Ner Elohim - EverburningLight.org

Ner ElohimCandle of GodBy Abraham AbulafiaTranslated by Sharron ShatilE-mail: info@everburninglight.orgWWW: http://www.everburninglight.org

viNer Elohim – Candle of GodPrefaceIn “Ner Elohim” Abulafia lays down the foundations ofhis entire system of prophetic Kabbalah. It begins with aninterpretation of the Blessing of the Priests, where Abulafiaexplains that the effect of the blessing depends on theknowledge of holy names, their composition, and theirfunction. This leads him to describe the basic principlesbehind the workings of holy names and lettercombinations, as outlined in the fundamental kabbalistictext of Sefer Yetzira, since “formation cannot exist withoutthe combination of letters”.For Abulafia, The spiritual forces responsible for theformation of the physical universe can only be conceivedalong with the lines of the interrelationship between names,letters, and numbers. These three emerge from a singlesource – Ruach Ha-Kodesh (Holy Spirit) composed ofintellect, voice, and speech – and they always coexisttogether so that every name is composed of letters andnumbers, every letter has a number and a name, and everynumber has a letter and a name. The complex relationshipsbetween them create space, time, matter, form, andlanguage, govern the physical world and its composition,and represent divine providence over all created beings.Through the faculty of speech, these spiritual forces are allimprinted on the essence of mankind, which gives it theability to manipulate these forces and receive reward orpunishment accordingly. Thus, in this work you will findAbulafia’s description of the basic techniques of lettercombinations that allow for a replication of the divineprocess of formation, and the creation of new spiritualforces that reveal the divine intention behind the creation

Ner Elohim – Candle of God viiof the world. This is thus the foundation of Abulafia’s entirekabbalistic outlook, revealing what he takes to be theworkings of the Sefirot, angelic forces, letters, and holynames, and how these are reflected in the structure andoperation of the physical universe.A special thank to Fabrizio Lanza and Talib Din for theirsupport in this translation project.Sharron Shatil