Sefer ha-Bahir 111-112 -- the twelve-letter Name and the twelve names
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קיא-קיב
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 Name that lifts its keeper. “The LORD reigns, reigned, will reign” heard as the Explicit Name one may combine and pronounce — the twelve-letter Name of the priestly blessing, written on Aaron’s forehead, handed through the angel Masmariah to Elijah on Carmel, “by which he was exalted and did not taste death” (§ 111); and the twelve precious Names of the tribes, a series of untranslatable angelic Names, “the springs of wisdom” (§ 112).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (§ 112’s twelve tribal Names are nomina barbara, transliterated; their segmentation is manuscript-uncertain); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ישב ר’ אהילאי ודרש מאי דכתיב ה’ מלך ה’ מלך ה’ ימלוך לעולם ועד, אלא זהו השם המפורש שניתן בו רשות לצרף ולהזכיר דכתיב (במדבר ו’ כ”ז) ושמו את שמי על בני ישראל ואני אברכם, והוא שם בן י”ב אותיות בשם של ברכת כהנים יברכך ה’ וגו’ שהם שלשה והם שתים עשרה, ונקודו כן יפעל יפועל יפעול, וכל השומרו ומזכירו בקדושה ובטהרה מתקבלים כל תפלותיו, ולא עוד אלא שהוא אהוב למטה ואהוב למעלה, נחמד למטה ונחמד למעלה ונענה ונעזר מיד, זה השם המפורש הנכתב על מצח אהרן, ובשם המפורש מע”ב אותיות, ובשם המפורש שהוא י”ב שמות שמסר הקב”ה למסמריה העומד לפני הפרגוד, והוא מסרם לאליהו בהר הכרמל ובהם נתעלה ולא טעים טעם מיתה:
Rabbi Ahilai sat and expounded: what is written, ‘the LORD reigns, the LORD reigned, the LORD will reign forever and ever’? Rather, this is the Explicit Name (Shem ha-Meforash), in which permission was given to combine and to pronounce, as it is written (Numbers 6:27), ‘and they shall set My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.’ And it is the Name of twelve letters, within the Name of the priestly blessing, ‘may the LORD bless you,’ and so on — which are three, and they are twelve. And its vocalization is thus: yif’al, yif’ol, yif’ul. And everyone who keeps it and mentions it in holiness and in purity — all his prayers are accepted; and moreover, he is beloved below and beloved above, cherished below and cherished above, and answered and helped at once. This is the Explicit Name written upon the forehead of Aaron. And [there is] the Explicit Name of seventy-two letters; and the Explicit Name that is twelve names, which the Holy One handed to Masmariah, who stands before the curtain (pargod), and he handed them to Elijah on Mount Carmel, and by them he was exalted and did not taste the taste of death.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ואלו הן השמות המפורשות היקרות והמפוארות שהם שתים עשרה לשנים עשר שבטי ישראל אהציצה”רון אכליתה”רון שמקת”רון דמושה”רון וצפצפסית”רון הורמי”רון ברחיה”רון ער”ש גדר”און בסאו”ה מנא”הון חז”הויה הוהי”רי הא”ה אהי”ה והראית”הון. וכולם נכללים בל”ב השמים ומתחלקין לכ”ד שמות, ובהם כלול זכר ונקבה ופקודים בתלי וגלגל ולב, והם מעיינות החכמה:
And these are the Explicit Names, the precious and the glorious, which are twelve, for the twelve tribes of Israel: Ahatzitzahron, Akhlitahron, Shemakteron, Demushahron, ve-Tzaftzafsitahron, Hurmiron, Berachyahron, Ersh Gadraon, Basaoh, Manahon, Chazhoyah, Hohiri, Hah, Ehyeh, ve-Hareithon. And they are all included in the thirty-two of heaven, and are divided into twenty-four names; and in them are included male and female and the numbered ones (pekudim), in Teli and Galgal and Lev; and they are the springs of wisdom (ma’ayanei ha-chokhmah).
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). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the twelve-letter Name, Aaron, and Elijah
The threefold ‘the LORD reigns / reigned / will reign’ is heard as the Explicit Name (Shem ha-Meforash) that may be ‘combined and pronounced’ (Numbers 6:27, ‘they shall set My name upon Israel’) — the Name of twelve letters latent in the priestly blessing (three clauses, each with the four-letter YHVH). Its keeper is ‘beloved above and below,’ his prayers answered; it was written on Aaron’s forehead. And there is the Name of seventy-two letters (§§ 95, 110), and the Name of twelve names handed to the angel Masmariah ‘before the curtain (pargod)’ and by him to Elijah on Carmel, by which Elijah ‘was exalted and did not taste death’ (2 Kings 2). Sod: the ascending Names — twelve-letter, twelve-name, seventy-two-letter — and the theurgy of the Name that lifts its keeper.
the twelve Names of the tribes
A series of nomina barbara — untranslatable, apparently angelic, Names, most ending in the theophoric ‘-ron’ — given for the twelve tribes and reproduced verbatim in the Hebrew; the English transliterates them. The text calls them ‘twelve’ (for the twelve tribes), but their exact segmentation into twelve is uncertain and varies across the manuscripts, so the transliterated sequence follows the source’s letters without forcing a twelvefold division. They are ‘included in the thirty-two of heaven,’ divide into twenty-four, hold ‘male and female,’ and are ‘the springs of wisdom’ — tied to the three cosmic princes Teli, Galgal, and Lev (§§ 101, 106).
Editorial decisions
- §112 nomina barbara. The twelve tribal Names are nomina barbara (untranslatable magical/angelic names). Reproduced verbatim in the Hebrew original; transliterated in the English following the source’s letters and gershayim-segmentation. The count ‘twelve’ is the text’s; the manuscript segmentation is uncertain, so no artificial twelvefold division was imposed. Flagged in the apparatus. (claude-opus-4-8[session-pipe], 2026-07-03)
chokhmah
Selected sense: wisdom
Active senses: wisdom, the-supernal-point
Rationale: § 112’s ‘the springs of wisdom (ma’ayanei ha-chokhmah),’ rendered ‘the springs of wisdom’; the frame hears the grade Ḥokhmah, the source from which the twelve Names (the tribes / channels) draw — of a piece with the sea of wisdom (§ 96) and the thirty-two paths.
Lexicon: lexicon/chokhmah
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.