Nechunyah ben Hakaneh (Attibuted to). Sepher ha-Bahir. WITH: Anonymous. Sepher Ma’ayan ha-Chochmah

According to the extensive research of Gershom Scholem, the Book Bahir was the first work of Kabbalah to surface in Europe, being disseminated in Provence in the 12th-century. The date and place of its appearance, coupled with the ideas espoused therein (e.g. the novel doctrine of Gilgul, or transmigration of souls), gave Scholem the idea that the Bahir might have been influenced by Catharist thought which pervaded Languedoc about that time. See G. Scholem, Das Buch Bahir (1923); idem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, pp. 74-75, 242-243; see also D. Abraham, The Book Bahir (1994). According to Scholem, the small tract Ma’ayan ha-Chochmah was composed in the middle of the 13th-century. The book states that it was transmitted by the Archangel Michael to the angel Pali, who in turn, transmitted it to the Biblical Moses. On f.11 (left column) a kabbalistic twist is given to Maimonides’ term for the Deity, “matzuy rishon” (first existent). “Only He who invents Himself is referred to as ‘matzuy.’” See Scholem, MTJM, pp. 207, 399; B. Naor, From a Kabbalist’s Diary (2005), pp. 87-88