Sepher Yezirah: A Book on Creation — trans. Isidor Kalisch (1877)

12) The meaning is, that as the living creatures which the prophet saw in his vision were stricken with such an awe, that they could not go any further to see the divine glory, and had to return, so is the decade an eternal secret to us and we are not permitted to understand it. We find this very idea in the Pythagorean system. The disciples of Pythagoras looked upon the decade as a holy number, and swore by it and by the Tetraktys which contain the number ten,

13) See above Note 1, God, idea and word are indivisible.

14) I adopted here the reading of Judah Halevi, namely:

‏חקק וחצב בהו‎

‏בהו רפש וטיט וגו‪,‫‎ with the exception of the word ‏תהו‎ because it is obvious from "Yezirah," Chap. II, that the author signifies by the word "Tohu," nothing, and not something, as Judah Halevi erroneously thought. Moses Butarel and others tell us that they had before them a correct copy of "Sepher Yezirah," where it reads:

‏תהו זה קו ירוק וכו׳ בהו אלו אבנים‎

‏מפולמות׃‎

The same passage is mentioned in the Talmud treatise Chagigah, p. 12, a, with the addition of

‏המשוקעות בתהום שמהן יוצאין‎

‏מים.‎

The word ‏חמפולמות‎ is translated by Rashi, moist. Some say it is a compound word of ‏מפול מות‎; others of ‏פלוני אלמוני,‎ etc. But the word is not of Semitic origin; it is, according to my opinion, borrowed from the Greek as the word ‏סימן,‎ etc., Πλημη flood. ‏אבנים מפלמות‎ flood-stones. The same word is used treatise Beza, p. 24, b, ‏דגים המפולמין‎ fish that are caught from out of the flood.

15) According to the author, the space and six dimensions emanated from the ether.

16) Judah Halevi in his book entitled "Kusari," p. 456, illustrates it thus: The Creator is one, and the space has in the figurative expression six dimensions. The book "Yezirah," having ascribed to the Creator some names in the spiritual language, chooses now in the human language the finest sounds which are, as it were, the spirits of the other sounds, namely: "‏הוי‎" and says, that when the divine will was expressed by such a sublime name, it became that which the Exalted by praise wished to call forth according to the combination of ".‏הוי‎" Hence it follows, that the material world was created in such a way and manner which corresponds with the material, namely, by the sublime spiritual name, which corresponds with the material name, ‏יהו, יוה, הוי, היו, ויה, והי,‎ and out of each of them became one dimension of the world, the sphere.

17) The author shows here by the symbol of a scale and the phonetic character of the fundamental letters ,‏א״מ״ש‎ that the opposite forces and the struggle which prevail in the smallest as well as in the largest circles of creation are appeased and calmed.

18) Meaning outlets, outgates of the creative power, formations.

19) The word ‏ענג‎ signifies joy, and when transposed, forming the word ‏נגע‎ it signifies just the contrary, trouble, plague. He means to say, that the letters of the words ‏ענג‎ and ‏נגע‎ are the same, but they signify nevertheless, opposite ideas on account of transposition. Just as the sphere remains the same during the rotation on its axis in its setting and in its rising; yet it appears to us as if it had undergone a great change on account of its different position.

20) My reading is ‏עָרְפָן שָׁקְלָן וְחֵמִיוָן‎.

21) The combination of the twenty-two letters without permutation is represented in the following table:

22) The number of combinations of twenty-two letters two and two without any permutation is according to the mathematical formula

23) The ancient philosophers maintained that if God is the first cause, and He is necessarily, He, the immediate effect of Him, as an absolute unity, can only be again a unity. Hence from a being that is in every respect a unique being, there can only emanate one being; because would two essentially and truly different things issue conjointly from one being, they can only proceed from two different things of substance, that would consequently admit a division that is inconceivable. They then put the question, how came so many various beings into existence? Our author is therefore endeavoring to show that the whole universe emanated gradually from the spirit of the one living God.

24) The reading of Von Jo. Meyer and others is as follows:

‏יצר מתוחו‎

‏ממש ועשח אינו ישנו והצב עמודימ גדולימ מאויר שאינו נתפס‎

‏ויח סימן צופח ומימר עושח כל הּיצור ואת כל הדברים בשמ אחר‎

‏וסימן לדבר עשרים ושתים מניינם דגוף אחג׃‎

My reading according to a manuscript of Rabbi Isaac Luria, which I have preferred to all others, is thus:

‏יצר ממש מתוהו ועשה את אינו ישנו וחצב עמודים גדולים‎

‏מאדיר שאינו נתפס וזח סימן אות א עם כולן וכולן עם א צופה‎

‏ומימר ועשח את כל היצור ואת כל חדבור שם אחד וסימן לדבר‎

‏עשרומ ושתים חפצים בגוף א׃‎

25) It has been already mentioned above Chap. i, §1, that God, his idea and his word are a unity; hence the author signifies by the letter Aleph the air from which emanated the creative speech, etc.