Oddcast episode
November 16, 2022
Tzvi Langermann on the Sefer Yetsira: Cosmology, Science, and Kabbala
‘History is not a science; it’s literature which answers to certain scientific standards.’
We are delighted to speak with Tzvi Langermann on the reception-history of that most ‘generative’ of books: the Sefer Yetsira.
Our interview begins with a sweeping survey of the earliest surviving commentary-tradition on Sefer Yetsira, Hebrew and Judæo-Arabic works beginning with the commentary of Sa‘adia Gaon in the tenth century and reaching at least as late as Yudah Barceloni, writing in Iberia in the twelfth century; this stratum of commentary treats the Yetsira as a work of scientific cosmology.
We then turn to the book itself, discussing its internal structures, both numerical and thematic, possible datings, possible influences, and possible redaction-history, to get a better idea of what these scientific commentators were working with.
We then turn to the Sefer Yetsira commentary of Isaac the Blind, which brings the text into the purview of Kabbalistic hermeneutics and cosmology, while keeping the earlier, scientific approach; the later Kabbalistic commentary-tradition would run with Isaac’s alphanumeric, sephirothic insights, while largely ditching the earlier cosmological tradition of interpretation. The Sefer Yetsira had been rebranded as a work of Kabbalah. This history culminates, notionally, in the extraordinary work of Aryeh Kaplan – twentieth-century physicist and Kabbalist – whose work brings science back in through the side-door, finding in the Sefer Yetsira the esoteric insights of the kabbalists alongside non-Euclidean geometry and quantum theory.
A further exegetical level is added as we consider the foundational scholarly work of Paul Kraus, Shlomo Pines, Gershom Scholem, and others, who attempted to frame historicist understandings of this work. The interview concludes with some reflections on where the kabbalistic hermeneutics might end and the scholarly work begin, and how to trace the difficult, liminal space ostensibly dividing the two enterprises.
Interview Bio:
Tzvi Langermann is Emeritus Professor of Arabic at Bar Ilan University, a codicologist of note, and a historian of science active in the academic and public spheres. You need to check out his Academia page. Trust me. His draft article ‘Who Owns the Sefer Yesira’ can be found there, and puts in writing some of the findings discussed in this interview.
Works cited in this interview and recommended reading:
Prof. Langermann has gone above and beyond the call of duty and compiled a luscious, detail-rich bibliographical exploration for us. No sense in cutting-and-pasting it here, but please download the Notes and Bibliography for Sefer Yesira Podcast and have a read.
Themes
Alphanumeric Speculation, Amulets, Arithmology, Aryeh Kaplan, Christian Kabbala, Elements, Esoteric Hermeneutics, Gershom Scholem, Golem, Interview, Isma‘ilism, Jewish Kabbala, Lettrism, Occultism, Pseudo-Clementine Literature, Sefer Yetsira, Sephiroth, ʿIlm al-Ḥurūf
Matthew Fortin
January 21, 2025
This opinion of the Sefer Yetzirah needs challenging.
Dr. Tzvi Langermann suggests that the twenty-two foundational letters signaled to in the Sefer Yetzirah were interpreted by later Kabbalists to be the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet because the Hebrew alphabet also happens to contain twenty-two letters; but this doesn’t go far enough. The Sefer Yetzirah argues there are three analytical categories within the twenty-two letters: the three Mothers, seven Doubles, and twelve Simple letters. For example, the seven Double letters are called so because each letter within this category makes two sounds and the Sefer Yetzirah names them specifically. It is quite clear the Sefer Yetzirah is referring specifically to the Hebrew alphabet. An argument to the contrary necessitates an explanation of how the three analytical categories, within the twenty-letters, could make sense within a different alphabet.
An instance of the category of the seven Double letters appears in a later manuscript which suggests the Sefer Yetzirah played a larger role in Kabbalistic exegesis than currently afforded by the scholastic conversation.
Housed in the Jewish Museum in Prague is a copy of Chaim Vital’s “Etz Chaim” (Ms 69, 18th century) which contains a curious illustration of a man’s face with Hebrew letters scattered about. At first glance, it appears to just be an odd sketch but a closer look suggests something more. The letters on the face are the seven Double letters outlined in the Sefer Yetzirah. In Chapter 4, of the Sefer Yetzirah, the seven Doubles are also the seven Gates in the Soul: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, one mouth. The illustration of the face in Etz Chaim, in the Jewish Museum in Prague, is an exemplification of the Sefer Yetzirah’s handling of a specific analytical category of letters. What does this illustration imply?
Chaim Vital’s incorporation of this illustration implies that Isaac Luria was deeply familiar with the Sefer Yetzirah, and it serves as a pillar within Lurianic Kabbalah, because the illustration of the face necessitates a deep familiarization with the Sefer Yetzirah.
Why is the scholastic field of Kabbalah so reticent to accept the Sefer Yetzirah into the literary canon of Kabbalah? I argue in support of two theories: 1) The Sefer Yetzirah correlates the twelve Simple letters to the twelve signs of the Zodiak, and the scholastic field appears to want to maintain distance between it and astrology. 2) The Sefer Yetzirah clearly states the Sefirot are “ten and not eleven” (chpt 1:4) which creates a problem for the later addition of the Sefirot Da’at.
If the Sefer Yetzirah is not a Kabbalistic text, then why is one of its core concepts illustrated in Chaim Vital’s magnum opus redaction of Isaac Luria’s teachings, the Etz Chaim?