Kalisch dismisses the planetary order of Chapter IV as "undoubtedly an interpolation of a later time, as the author of the book "Yezirah" lived many years before Ptolemy". Neither half holds. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon is the descending sequence of Hellenistic astronomy, older than Ptolemy and the basis of the planetary week, so it cannot date anything to after him. And Kalisch's own preface names Rabbi Akiba, who died in the 130s, as the likely author: Ptolemy's near contemporary, not his predecessor by many years. The note is worth reading as a sample of how nineteenth-century scholarship dated a text by the science it seemed to contain.
Sepher Yezirah: A Book on Creation — trans. Isidor Kalisch (1877)
Open to all
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
page 13
The translator’s English as printed (Isidor Kalisch). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
26) Here is meant: ethereal air, ethereal water, ethereal fire, the macrocosm, the courses of time and microcosm. Many offspring or derivations came from the latter three, as their progenitors, as it is explained afterwards in the chapter.
27) The author endeavors to show how the creative divine word became more condensed and how a new series of productions came out of three elements.
28) In ancient times coldness was considered to be a substance. [See Psalm 147, 17.]
29) Id est, made it the reigning power.
30) Namely, with the two other elements.
31 That is to say a different combination of the elements.
32) According to the opinion of the author, it may be arranged as follows:
Aleph.
Mem.
Sheen.
World:
Air,
Earth,
(Inclusive of Land and Sea)
Heaven or Atmosphere.
Man:
Breast,
Belly,
Head.
Year:
Moistness,
Coldness, Heat.
33) The aspirating pronunciation of ρ in the Greek, was adopted by the ancient Jews in Palestine for the Hebrew letter ר. They pronounced it partly aspirated and partly unaspirated. [See Dr. Geiger's Lehr-und Lese-buch der Mischnah, p. 22, and Dr. Graetz's Gnosticismus, p. 117.]
34) According to the idea of our author, there emanated from the unity of God three ethereal elements: primitive air from the spirit, from the air, primitive water, and from the water, primitive fire or ether, out of which came other spheres of existence in the significant and highly important number, seven, from which descended smaller spheres and which produced again others. He endeavors to show how the ideal became, after numerous emanations, more condensed, palpable and concrete. The whole creation is thus contemplated as a pyramid, terminating in a point at the top with a broad basis. [See Dr. Graetz's Gnosticismus, p. 224.]
35) Compare Chapter I, Section 3, Note, 8.
36) The order of the planets (including the Sun) is stated here according to the Ptolemaic system which was in vogue even among the learned men till the middle of the fifteenth century, namely: Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. But this arrangement is undoubtedly an interpolation of a later time, as the author of the book "Yezirah" lived many years before Ptolemy. And indeed Prof. Jo. Friedrich Von Meyer and others of reliable authority had in their copies of "Yezirah" the following order: .חמח ניגח כוכב לבנה שבתי צדק מאדינ Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun.
37) Philo (Allegor 1, 42,) after having called attention to the fact that the heptade is to be found in many biblical laws, in the vowels of the Greek language, in the gamut and in the organs of the human body, exclaims, similar to our author: "The whole nature exults in the heptade!"
38) The rule for permutation is as follows: (n--1) n. 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 7=5040. In our edition it reads: חמשת אלפים וארבע בתימ Five thousand and four houses, which is obviously a mistake, it should read: 5040 houses. .חמשת אלפים וארבעם בתים
39) I read גרגרת instead of קורקובן for two reasons. In the first place, the same thing is mentioned afterwards, and in the second place, it is proved by the expression לעיטה that the author meant גרגרת and not קורקובן.
40) Some maintain that by the expression Tali is understood the constellation Draco or Dragon, which is a very large constellation extending for a great length from East to West; beginning at the tail which lies half way between the Pointers and the Pole Star, and winding round between the Great and Little Bear by a continued succession of bright stars from 5 to 10 degrees asunder, it coils round under the feet of the Little Bear, sweeps round the pole of the ecliptic, and terminates in a trapezium formed by four conspicuous stars from 30 to 35 degrees from North Pole. Dr. Steinshneider (see Magazin fuer Literatur des Auslandes, 1845) and Dr. Cassel (in his commentary to the book entitled Kusari,) maintain that the ancient Jewish astronomers signified by the word Tali, not the constellation Draco, but the line which joins together the two points in which the orbit of the moon intercepts the ecliptic (Dragon's head and tail). Dr. Cassel is of the opinion that our author meant here, probably the invisible, celestial or universal axis that carries the whole Universe.
41) Our author means to say that the water has a great disposition to unite itself with the caloric, thus for instance is the fire latent in steam, but the air equipoises them.
42) The meaning is, as God is the centre of the Universe, so have the macrocosm, the seasons and temperature and the microcosm, their centres receiving power from the principal centre to regulate and rule.
43) The substance of this Mishnah is mentioned in the Talmud treatise Berachoth, p. 55, a. It reads there:
אמר רב יחידח אמר רב יודע חיה
בצלעל לצרף אותיות שנבראו בהן שמיס וארץ׃