Sefer ha-Bahir 106-108 -- the princes, the Name, and the three angels
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קו-קח
canonical late 12th c., Provence (ascribed to the 1st c. tanna) Hebrew Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Nehunya ben ha-Kanah) tr. Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted draft; pending scholarly review)
The heart of the book’s Name-mysticism. The three cosmic princes explained — Teli the likeness, Galgal the belly, Lev the heart holding the thirty-two paths (§ 106); the priestly blessing as the twelve-letter Name, three “armies” of twenty-four making the seventy-two names from Exodus 14 (§ 107); and the three princes over the holy forms — Gabriel on the left, Michael on the right, Uriel in the middle — gathered into “the Oneness of our God” by the sacrifice (§ 108).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (§ 107 cites the priestly blessing as Numbers 6:28, an impossible locus; it is at 6:24-26, noted); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ישב ר’ ברכיה ודרש מאי תלי, זה דמות שיש לפני הקב”ה דכתיב (שה”ש ה’ י”א) קווצותיו תלתלים, מאי גלגל, זה בטן, ומאי לב, דכתיב (דברים ד’ י”א) עד לב השמים, ובו כלולים ל”ב נתיבות פליאות חכמה:
Rabbi Berakhiah sat and expounded: what is Teli? This is the likeness (demut) that is before the Holy One, as it is written (Song of Songs 5:11), ‘his locks are curled (kevutzotav taltalim).’ What is Galgal (the sphere)? This is the belly. And what is Lev (the heart)? As it is written (Deuteronomy 4:11), ‘unto the heart of heaven (lev ha-shamayim).’ And in it are included the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom (netivot peliot chokhmah).
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
מאי דכתיב (במדבר ו’ כח) יברכך ה’ וישמרך, יאר ה’ פניו אליך ויחנך, ישא ה’ פניו אליך וישם לך שלום, זה שמו של הקב”ה המפורש, והוא שם בן שתים עשרה אותיות דכתיב הוי”ה הוי”ה הוי”ה מלמד ששמותיו של הקב”ה שלשה חיילים, וכל חיל וחיל דומה לחבירו, ושמו כשמו, וכולם חתומים ביו”ד ה”א ו”ו ה”א, והאיך תצרף יו”ד ה”א ו”ו ה”א כ”ד פעמים והיינו חיל אחד יברכך ה’, וגם השני יאר ה’ והם כ”ד שמותיו של הקב”ה, וגם השלישי ישא ה’ והם כ”ד שמותיו של הקב”ה, מלמד שכל חיל ראשיהם ושריהם הם כ”ד, תצרף כ”ד שלשה פעמים ויהיו ע”ב שמותיו של הקב”ה, והיינו ע”ב היוצאים מן (שמות יד יט-כא) ויסע ויבא ויט:
What is written (Numbers 6:24-26), ‘may the LORD bless you and keep you; may the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; may the LORD lift up His face upon you and grant you peace’? This is the explicit Name of the Holy One (Shem ha-Meforash), and it is the Name of twelve letters, as it is written yod-heh-vav-heh, yod-heh-vav-heh, yod-heh-vav-heh — teaching that the names of the Holy One are three armies (chayalim), and each and every army resembles its fellow, and its name is like [the other’s] name, and all of them are sealed with yod-heh-vav-heh. And how? Combine yod-heh-vav-heh twenty-four times, and that is one army, ‘may the LORD bless you’; and also the second, ‘may the LORD make shine,’ and they are the twenty-four names of the Holy One; and also the third, ‘may the LORD lift up,’ and they are the twenty-four names of the Holy One. This teaches that each army — their heads and their princes — are twenty-four. Combine twenty-four three times, and they will be the seventy-two names of the Holy One. And that is the seventy-two that come out from (Exodus 14:19-21), ‘and [the angel] journeyed (va-yisa),’ ‘and it came (va-yavo),’ ‘and he stretched out (va-yet).’
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומי הם אלה השרים, מלמד ששלשה הם, שהגבורה שר על כל הצורות הקדושות מצד שמאל של הקב”ה והוא גבריאל, ומימיני שר על כל הצורות הקדושות והוא מיכאל, ובאמצע הוא האמת והוא אוריאל שר על כל הצורות הקדושות, וכל שר כ”ד צורות ואין חקר לגדודיו דכתיב (איוב כ”ה ג) היש מספר לגדודיו, אם כן הרי ע”ב וע”ב, א”ל לא, דבשעה שישראל מקריביו קרבן לפני אביהם שבשמים מתיחדים יחד והיינו יחידו של אלהינו:
And who are these princes? It teaches that they are three: for Gevurah is prince over all the holy forms, from the left side of the Holy One, and it is Gabriel; and from the right, a prince over all the holy forms, and it is Michael; and in the middle is Truth (Emet), and it is Uriel, prince over all the holy forms. And each prince has twenty-four forms, and there is no searching out His troops, as it is written (Job 25:3), ‘is there a number to His troops?’ If so, then that is seventy-two and seventy-two! He said to him: no; for at the time when Israel offer a sacrifice before their Father in heaven, they unite together, and that is the Oneness of our God (yichudo shel Eloheinu).
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
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This edition sets the verbatim Hebrew beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus: a running commentary on the passage, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, and cross-references to the lexicon and to related sections. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.
Controlled terms noted in this passage: chokhmah (rendered as wisdom), gevurah (rendered as the-sefirah-gevurah). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the three princes explained
Teli is ‘the likeness before the Holy One’ — the celestial figure of ‘his locks curled (taltalim)’ (Song of Songs 5:11), the axis or dragon of the heavens; Galgal (the sphere) is the belly; and Lev (the heart) is ‘the heart of heaven’ (Deuteronomy 4:11), holding ‘the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom.’ Sod: the three axes of the Sefer Yetzirah (6:1-3) — Teli, the sphere, and the heart — the last the seat of the thirty-two paths (cf. §§ 98, 101).
the priestly blessing and the seventy-two-fold Name
The priestly blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), with its three ‘LORDs (YHVH),’ is ‘the explicit Name (Shem ha-Meforash),’ a Name of twelve letters (three times the four-lettered YHVH); its three clauses are three ‘armies,’ each of twenty-four names sealed with YHVH — twenty-four times three, the seventy-two names, ‘the seventy-two that come out from’ the three verses ‘va-yisa, va-yavo, va-yet’ (Exodus 14:19-21). Sod: the seventy-two-letter Name (the Shem ha-Meforash of § 95, constructed in § 110), heard here out of the blessing’s threefold structure. (The verbatim Hebrew cites the blessing as Numbers 6:28, an impossible locus; the blessing is at 6:24-26.)
Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel
The three princes over the holy forms: Gabriel on the left (Gevurah, severity), Michael on the right (Ḥesed, mercy), and Uriel in the middle (Emet, Truth — Tiferet) — each with twenty-four forms, and beyond counting (‘is there a number to His troops?’ Job 25:3). Not ‘seventy-two and seventy-two,’ for when Israel offer a sacrifice the forms ‘unite together’ — ‘the Oneness of our God.’ Sod: the right, left, and center of the divine (Ḥesed, Gevurah, Tiferet), figured as Michael, Gabriel, and Uriel (cf. Michael and Gabriel, §§ 11-12); the seventy-two-fold multiplicity gathered into the One by the offering.
Editorial decisions
- §107 Numbers citation. The verbatim Hebrew cites the priestly blessing as Numbers 6:28, an impossible locus (Numbers 6 has 27 verses); the blessing is at 6:24-26 (a chet/dalet slip, 28 for 24). Rendered the correct locus with a note, since the invalid numeral cannot be reproduced as a chapter:verse. (claude-opus-4-8[session-pipe], 2026-07-03)
chokhmah
Selected sense: wisdom
Active senses: wisdom, the-supernal-point
Rationale: § 106’s ‘the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom (netivot peliot chokhmah)’ in the heart (Lev), rendered ‘paths of wisdom’ — the Sefer Yetzirah’s thirty-two paths (1:1; cf. §§ 98, 101); the frame hears the grade Ḥokhmah.
Lexicon: lexicon/chokhmah
gevurah
Selected sense: the-sefirah-gevurah
Active senses: the-sefirah-gevurah, might, judgment
Rationale: § 108 names ‘Gevurah’ as the prince over the holy forms ‘from the left side of the Holy One… and it is Gabriel’ — the sefirotic sense is explicit: Gevurah, the left grade (severity), figured as the angel Gabriel; kept as the grade-name.
Lexicon: lexicon/gevurah
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.