Sefer Yetzirah, the Cube of Space, and the Emergence of ... - Maqom

More documents

Recommendations

Info

successful leader, then we will generally tend to assume a leadership role regardless ofthe changes in the surrounding circumstances. By applying the same patterns to differentsituations, we create not only a more varied universe, we also do it with a minimum ofeffort. In summary, verse 2:2 not only asserts that the world is created from primarycomponents, it also gives a detailed account of the steps involved in the creative process:decreeing, shaping, combining, measuring, and finally, the substitution of a successfulpattern into a variety of situations.Now we return to verse 1:2 where we read that the twenty-two letters of the Hebrewalphabet are divided into three groups: three mother letters, seven double letters, andtwelve plain.“Ten sefirot of restraint and 22 foundation letters: three mothers, seven doublesand twelve plain.” (Sefer Yetzirah 1:2)In verse 3:4, the three mother letters are identified and associated, respectively, with theelements of air, water, and fire.“Three Mothers, aleph-mem-shin, in the Universe are air, water, fire. Heavenwas created from fire Earth was created from water and air from Breath decidesbetween them.” (Sefer Yetzirah 3:4)14
The associations of air, water, and fire with aleph, mem, and shin are quite natural in thatthe Hebrew word for air (aleph-vav-yud-resh) begins with aleph, the Hebrew word forwater (mem-yud-mem) begins with mem, and the Hebrew word for fire (aleph-shin) endsin shin. Also, this verse reiterates the primary creative pattern found in the Sefer Yetzirahof a triad of two opposites connected by an intermediary principle. Additionally, wecould say that all three mother letters are contained in the Name (shem, shin-mem) sinceyou cannot say shem without the air from the silent letter aleph to connect the shin withthe mem. Now, let us backtrack for a moment to verse 3:2.“Three mothers aleph-mem-shin, a great and wondrous secret, covered andsealed with six rings, and out of them air, water, fire, and from them originatedfathers, and from fathers, consequences.” (Sefer Yetzirah 3:2)The three fathers are explicitly identified by Kaplan 8 as the three letters yud, hey, and vavthat are used in the most sacred masculine name for God (yud-hey-vav-hey), and this isquite appropriate in terms of verse 1:13 that we’ll explore next. Also, in ancient timesthe ring of the king was used to impress a seal upon official documents. As we will seein the verse coming up, the letters yud, hey, and vav, which correspond to aleph, mem andshin, may be arranged in six different permutations, and these permutations seal the sixdirections. And by so doing, a more limited world is created that separates us from thewondrous secrets of larger reality.8 Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation by Aryeh Kaplan15
Page 3: “With thirty-two wondrous paths o
Page 10 and 11: destruction of the original state o
Page 12 and 13: exaggeration to say that letters cr
Page 16 and 17: “He selected three letters from t
Page 19 and 20: In our next verse from the Sefer Ye
Page 21 and 22: to begin to dissolve. And in so doi
Page 23 and 24: “These are the ten sefirot of res
Page 25 and 26: Hebrew Letter Glyph Assignment in S
Page 27 and 28: Sefer Yetzirah, attached to cube in
Page 29 and 30: was the Ark of the Covenant that co
Page 31 and 32: The passage from the Bahir that wil
Page 33 and 34: The Zohar, The Book of Splendor (Ra
Page 35 and 36: We will now examine one more concep
Page 37 and 38: Because the Hebrew word for sapphir
Page 39 and 40: “It is written: And the intellige
Page 41 and 42: If we want to convert a three-dimen
Page 43 and 44: Again, we don’t know precisely ho
Page 45 and 46: hexagon, 6 for the Star of David, a
Page 47 and 48: diagram is to think of all the ways
Page 49 and 50: Recall also how in the Sefer Yetzir
Page 51 and 52: other words, learn to discipline yo
Page 53 and 54: To move up the central column of th
Page 55 and 56: It is now time to examine the twelv
Page 57: Letters Glyph GRA Short Version Lon

Sefer Yetzirah, the Cube of Space, and the Emergence of ... - Maqom

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?