ANONYMOUS. Sepher Yetzirah ["Book of Creation": cosmogony]. With traditional commentaries of Ramba"n and Ra'avad
AUCTION 44 |
Thursday, June 25th,
2009 at 1:00
Fine Judaica: Hebrew Printed Books, Manuscripts, Autograph Letters, Graphic & Ceremonial Art
Lot 165
(KABBALAH)
ANONYMOUS. Sepher Yetzirah ["Book of Creation": cosmogony]. With traditional commentaries of Ramba"n and Ra'avad
Mantua: Jacob Cohen of Gazolo 1562
Est: $7,000 - $9,000
PRICE REALIZED $22,000
"The earliest extant Hebrew text of systematic speculative thought” (Scholem).
The Sepher Yetzirah (attributed to Abraham the Patriarch), is the most esoteric of all Kabbalistic texts and certainly the most influential. The central subject of the Sepher Yetzirah is a compact discourse on cosmogony. It opens with the declaration that God created the world with “thirty-two secret paths of wisdom.” These paths are defined as the Ten Sephiroth and the enty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The first chapter elaborates upon the Sephiroth and the remaining five chapters on the function of the letters. In Talmudic times, it was believed that by utilizing the Sepher Yetzirah one could create life (see TB Sanhedrin 65b).
A FINE COPY OF THIS IMPORTANT TEXT, INCLUDING THE TANTALIZINGLY ELUSIVE VOLVELLES, HERE INSERTED IN THE APPROPRIATE PLACES.