Download or read book Sefer Yetzirah written by Akiba Ben Joseph and published by Parker Publishing Company. This book was released on 2024-02-21 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Formation, or Book of Creation is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. Yetzirah is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word Briah is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing from a Jewish perspective how the things of our universe came into existence. Translated from the Hebrew, with annotations by Knut Stenring. Includes the 32 paths of wisdom, their correspondence with the Hebrew alphabet and the Tarot symbols and with an introduction by Arthur Edward Waite., Book of Formation, or Book of Creation is the title of the earliest extant book on Jewish esotericism, although some early commentators treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory as opposed to Kabbalah. Yetzirah is more literally translated as "Formation"; the word Briah is used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Rabbi Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing from a Jewish perspective how the things of our universe came into existence. Translated from the Hebrew, with annotations by Knut Stenring. Includes the 32 paths of wisdom, their correspondence with the Hebrew alphabet and the Tarot symbols and with an introduction by Arthur Edward Waite.
Download or read book The Book of Formation or Sepher Yetzirah written by A. E. Waite and published by Nicolas-Hays, Inc.. This book was released on 2004-06-01 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation, although very short, is probably the most important of the Kabalistic texts. Its secrets were passed on in the Hebrew oral tradition until it was written down in the 2nd century b.c.e. It lays out the principles of Kabalistic cosmology and the Tree of Life, how humankind (the microcosm) reflects the Divine (the macrocosm). It also sets forth the Hebrew doctrine of Logos--the creation of the world in numbers, letters, and sound. As such, it is a seminal text for all serious magicians. Stenring has made a word-for-word translation from several texts, choosing only those parts which he believed to be authentic. He reveals the text's secrets in his diagrams, tables, and extensive notes. His "Master Key to the Theoretical and Practical Kabala" is a diagram of the correspondences between the English and Hebrew alphabets and is not found in other translations of the Sepher Yetzirah. Also unique in this translation is Stenring's assignment of certain tarot cards to the paths on the Tree of Life. Several authors have done this before, but Stenring asserts that he arrived at his correspondences on his own. The introduction by Waite surveys the historical background of the Sepher Yetzirah translations and the import of this foundational Kabbalistic text.
Download or read book Sefer Yetzirah written by Aryeh Kaplan and published by Jason Aronson. This book was released on 1995 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan has translated Sefer Yetzirah, the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts, and now brings its theoretical, meditative, and magical implications to light. He expounds on the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the Sefirot, souls, and angels. When properly understood, Sefer Yetzirah becomes the instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration and to aid the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers.
Download or read book Sefer Yetzirah written by Meira Epstein and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-08-21 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sefer Yetzirah is one of the oldest Jewish esoteric texts, which inspired mystics throughout the centuries, and it is hard to exaggerate its importance in the development of spiritual thought. In a concise style it describes the Divine Primordial Creation of the World --the Ten Sefirot, Physical Space, Calendric Time, the Human Body and Life Conditions-- by combining the primary Elements of Air, Fire and Water, with the creative power of Numbers and the 22 Letters of the Hebrew Alphabet as the Prima Materia.
Download or read book Zohar the Book of Enlightenment written by Daniel Chanan Matt and published by Paulist Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first translation with commentary of selections from The Zohar, the major text of the Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This work was written in 13th-century Spain by Moses de Leon, a Spanish scholar.
Download or read book Return to the Place written by Jill Hammer and published by . This book was released on 2020-09-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rabbi Jill Hammer has taken ancient Jewish mystical text and transformed it into a contemporary guide for meditative practice. In Return to the Place, Rabbi Hammer guides the reader through the story of creation as the ancient text of the Sefer Yetzirah draws readers in and invites them to become participants in the book's vibrant incantations, bringing the Creator's sacred energy into the world. The Sefer Yetzirah is a creation story like none other, describing the creation of the world in cryptic, mystical, poetic text. Rabbi Jill Hammer has taken a fresh look at this text that scholars believe goes back to the sixth century CE, embracing this text with healing intention. Through guided meditations at each step along the way, Rabbi Hammer allows readers to dig deeply into the text to experience the potential power of these ancient writings. Hammer builds a thought-provoking bridge from the past to the present-translating the text and focusing on its key aspects to give readers a relevant focus for contemplation. Advance Praise "Sefer Yetzirah has been called the foundational text of Jewish mysticism, but despite many scholarly attempts to explain it, readers still find its language baffling and its message indecipherable. Now Rabbi Jill Hammer has clarified the text for us all. Without ruining its mystery, she reveals its cosmic vision of 'space, time, and body-soul.' Beyond this, she has created a new-ancient meditative practice based on this mystical masterpiece. Her superb achievement is a gift for all of us!" -Dr. Daniel Matt, author of The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism "A tour de force -at once scholarly, whimsical, deeply poetic, and eminently accessible. Hammer combines translation, commentary, and meditations with her uniquely seasoned sensibility, one that balances feminine and masculine, sensual and philosophical." -Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, author of The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women's Wisdom "Rabbi Hammer, one of the most original religious guides of our time, opens up for us a text that has fascinated mystics and philosophers for more than a millennium - and yet has remained deeply mysterious. Return to the Place shows us that the Sefer Yetzirah is a 'doorway into the deep structure of creation'-with the power to transform the cosmos as well as each person's most intimate experience." -Dr. Nathaniel Berman, author of Divine and Demonic in the Poetic Mythology of the Zohar "Like its subject, the mysterious Book of Creation, Return to the Place brilliantly defies categorization. It is a detailed commentary, a bold spirit-guide, and a valuable work of scholarship. It is both audacious and perspicacious. And no one could have written it but Rabbi Dr. Jill Hammer." -Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson, author of Everything is God: The Radical Path of Non-Dual Judaism
Download or read book The Origin of Letters and Numerals written by Phineas Mordell and published by . This book was released on 1914 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Bahir written by Aryeh Kaplan and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 2001-01-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bahir is one of the oldest and most influential of all classical Kabbalah texts. Until the publication of the Zohar, the Bahir was the most widely quoted primary source of Kabbalistic teachings. The Bahir is quoted in every major book on Kabbalah, the earliest being the Raavad's commentary on Sefer Yetzirah, and it is cited numerous times by Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman (Ramban) in his commentary on the Torah. It is also quoted many times in the Zohar. It was first published around 1176 by the Provence school of Kabbalists; the first printed edition appeared in Amsterdam in 1651. The name Bahir is derived from the first verse quoted in the text (Job 37:21), "And now they do not see light, it is brilliant (Bahir) in the skies." It is also called the "Midrash of Rabbi Nehuniah ben HaKana," particularly by the Ramban. The reason might be that Rabbi Nehuniah's name is at the very beginning of the book, but most Kabbalists actually attribute the Bahir to him and his school. Some consider it the oldest kabbalistic text ever written. Although the Bahir is a fairly small book, some 12,000 words in all, it was very highly esteemed among those who probed its mysteries. Rabbi Judah Chayit, a prominent fifteenth-century Kabbalist, writes, "Make this book a crown for your head." Much of the text is very difficult to understand, and Rabbi Moshe Cordevero (1522-1570), head of the Safed school of Kabbalah, says, "The words of this text are bright (Bahir) and sparkling, but their brilliance can blind the eye." One of the most important concepts revealed in the Bahir is that of the Ten Sefirot, and careful analysis of these discussions yields much of what will be found in later kabbalistic works, as well as their relation to anthropomorphism and the reason for the commandments. Also included is a discussion of reincarnation, or Gilgul, an interpretation of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom, and the concept of Tzimtzum.
Download or read book Meditation and Kabbalah written by Aryeh Kaplan and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1995 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meditative methods of Kabbalah. A lucid presentation of the meditative methods, mantras, mandalas and other devices used, as well as a penetrating interpretation of their significance in the light of contemporary meditative research.
Download or read book Book of Thoth written by Aleister Crowley and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 1944-01-01 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a classic in the field, used by students of the Golden Dawn as well as by those who want to understand Crowley's tarot. This is the definitive study of the Egyptian tarot and is used as a key to all Western mystery disciplines. Color plates of eight cards.
Download or read book Sefer Yesira written by A. Peter Hayman and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sefer Yesira is a short, enigmatic text which has fascinated scholars since it first emerged into the light of day in the early tenth century. It was initially understood to be a philosophical text which had descended by oral tradition from Abraham himself. Consequently it was commented on by many of the major figures in the Jewish world in the early medieval period. Subsequently it was understood as a mystical text and became a crucial influence on the medieval mystical movement (the Kabbalah). More than seventy kabbalistic commentaries on it are known. It continued to be of interest to Christian kabbalists at the time of the Renaissance and to scholars of Judaism and mysticism to the present day. Peter Hayman's study provides the first comprehensive critical edition of this text. The texts of the earliest manuscripts of the three main recensions of Sefer Yesira (the Short, Long and Saadyan Recensions) are printed in synoptic columns with a critical apparatus, drawn from nineteen selected manuscripts, at the bottom of each column. There is an English translation of each of the recensions followed by a commentary discussing the variant readings of the manuscripts and the text of Sefer Yesira presupposed in the earliest commentaries on it. Both in the introduction and the commentary an attempt is made to reconstruct an early form of the text from which the later recensions have developed. There are four appendices setting out what parts of the text are attested in each of the manuscripts and in what order, a hypothetical reconstructed text and the text of the tenth century Vatican scroll of Sefer Yesira with the probable added material underlined. The introduction concludes with an attempt to outline how the text grew into the form which has come down to us from the medieval period.
Download or read book The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah written by Leonora Leet and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 1999-08-01 with total page 627 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vast reconstruction of the knowledge of the ancient Jewish priest-scientists, with vital implications for contemporary spirituality and science. • Reveals an ancient science that used geometry, sound, and number to link the finite world of human experience with the infinite realm of the divine. • Uses teachings extending back thousands of years to explicate key concepts of quantum physics and quantum cosmology. For centuries the Kabbalah has fascinated devotees of mysticism while its origins have remained obscure. Now, in her brilliant new work, Leonora Leet reveals that the Kabbalah was the product of a sophisticated, though largely forgotten, Hebraic sacred science that was the rival of any in Egypt or Greece. Not only does Leet reconstruct the secret teachings of the priest-scientists of the Hebrew temple, she also shows them to be the key to understanding both biblical and kabbalistic cosmology. Unlike previous purely historical explorations of the Jewish esoteric tradition, The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah resurrects this ancient body of knowledge to reveal eternal truths that can have a profound and positive impact on contemporary spirituality. New experimental methods of practicing Hebraic sacred science are explored that explain as never before the meaning of the central cosmological diagram of the entire Western esoteric tradition--the kabbalistic Tree of Life. Leet shows that the Kabbalah and its central diagram enshrine a key to the purpose of the cosmos, a key that has vast implications for modern physics and cosmology. In a final synthesis, she envisions a culmination in which the universe and its divine child, perfected humanity, achieve that unification of the finite and infinite which has ever been the secret doctrine of the Kabbalah.
Download or read book The Essential Zohar written by Rav P.S. Berg and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, no book has been more shrouded in mystery than the Zohar, yet no book offers us greater wisdom. The central text of Kabbalah, the Zohar is a commentary on the Bible’s narratives, laws, and genealogies and a map of the spiritual landscape. In The Essential Zohar, the eminent kabbalist Rav P. S. Berg decodes its teachings on evil, redemption, human relationships, wealth and poverty, and other fundamental concerns from a practical, contemporary perspective. The Zohar and Kabbalah have traditionally been known as the world’s most esoteric sources of spiritual knowledge, but Rav Berg has dedicated his life to making this concentrated distillation of infinite wisdom available to people of all faiths so that we may use its principles to live each day in harmony with the divine.
Download or read book The Sepher Yetzirah and the Qabalah written by Manly P. Hall and published by . This book was released on 2020-08-21 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Famed esoteric scholar Manly P. Hall examines the origins and evolution of Qabbalism and the role of the Sepher Yetzirah in a wonderful and insightful essay. He also offers a fantastic, simplified, and unique translation of the Sepher Yetzirah, the Book of Formation, for which he consulted nine separate translations in four languages (English, German, Hebrew and Latin) in order to assemble the most accurate modern representation of this classic, Qabbalistic text.
Download or read book Sepher Ha Bahir written by Nehunia HaKana and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-05-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bahir contains commentaries explaining the mystical significance of Biblical verses; the mystical significance of the shapes of the Hebrew letters; the mystical significance of the cantillation signs and vowel points on the letters; the mystical significance of statements in the Sefer Yetzirah ("Book of Creation"); and the use of sacred names in magic. The paragraphs refer to each other in segments and are broken into five sections in the Aryeh Kaplan translation. These sections are loosely grouped together but they do more or less stay within the underlying themes given by their title.
Download or read book Sefer Yetzirah written by Aryeh Kaplan and published by Weiser Books. This book was released on 1997-05-01 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the oldest and most mysterious of all kabbalistic texts. In this landmark work of mystical studies, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan brings the text’s theoretical, meditative, and magical implications to light. The book explores the dynamics of the spiritual domain, the worlds of the sefirot, souls and angels. Rabbi Kaplan explains that when properly understood the Sefer Yetzirah becomes an instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration and to aid in the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers. Through the use of various signs, incantations, and divine names, initiates could also influence or alter natural events. This translation includes the meditation in five dimensions, the transition from binah to chakhmah consciousness, the point of infinity, kabbalistic astrology, Ezekiel’s vision according to the Sefer Yetzirah, and the mystery of the 231 gates. Also included is a digest of all major commentaries on the text of the Sefer Yetzirah and a bibliography of many of the major kabbalistic works that discus it, as well as extensive notes regarding the various aspects of the translation. Rabbi Kaplan’s translation is based on the Gra version of the text, which is thought to eb the most authentic. Also included is the short version, the long version, and the Saadia version, making this volume the most complete work on the Sefer Yetzirah available in English.
Download or read book The Sepher Bahir written by Tarl Warwick and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2018-05-26 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sepher Bahir is one of the foremost works of all mystic Judaism, an important work of Kabbalah in which commentaries on sounds, words, and stories are presented in a somewhat choppy form (for it was a compiled manuscript, not a primordial single work.) The work is ascribed to a mystic rabbi named Nehunya circa the first century. It refers as well to another mystic work- the famous Sepher Yetzirah, equally as renowned for its spiritual lore.
