Sefer ha-Bahir 113-116 -- the tribes as channels and the point as soul
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קיג-קטז
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 channels of the flow, and the point that is the soul of the letters. The twelve tribes as the twelve pipes of a spring, filled by merit (§ 113); the “tribe” as a simple line, and the circle that runs within the square (§ 114); the vowel-point as the round soul the letters cannot live or be spoken without (§ 115); and the point descending through the channels by the sacrifice’s smell into the unity of the Shema (§ 116).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (§§ 114-116 are largely Aramaic in the source); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ישב ר’ רחומאי ודרש מאי י”ב שבטי ישראל, אלא מלמד שי”ב שבטים יש לו להקב”ה, ומאי ניהו, מלה”ד למלך שהיה לו מעין נאה ולכל אחיו אין להם מים אחרים אלא מאותו המעיין, ואינן יכולין לסבול צמא, מה עשה, עשה למעיין י”ב צנורות וקראם על שמות בני אחיו, ואמר אם יהיו הבנים טובים כאבותם יזכו ואמלא הצנורות, ירוו אבותם וישתו בניהם אחריהם ואם לא יזכו הבנים ולא יעשו דברים הגונים לפני הרי צנורות עומדות על ענין זה אתן להם מים על מנת שלא יתנו לבניהם דבר אחרי שאינם עושים רצוני:
Rabbi Rechumai sat and expounded: what are the twelve tribes of Israel? Rather, it teaches that the Holy One has twelve tribes. And what are they? A parable: to what is it comparable? To a king who had a fair spring, and all his brothers had no other water except from that spring, and they could not bear the thirst. What did he do? He made for the spring twelve pipes (tzinorot), and called them by the names of his brothers’ sons. And he said: if the sons are as good as their fathers, they will merit, and I will fill the pipes, [so that] their fathers are watered and their sons drink after them; and if the sons do not merit and do not do fitting things before me, behold, the pipes stand for this purpose: I will give them water on condition that they give nothing to their sons, since they do not do my will.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי לישנא דשבט, דבר פשוט הוא שאינו מרובע, מ”ט, דלית אפשר מרובע בגו מרובע אחר, אלא עיגולה בגו ריבועא רהטי, ואי מרובע בגו ריבועא לא רהטי:
And what is the term ‘tribe (shevet)’? A simple thing (davar pashut) that is not squared. Why? Because it is not possible [to have] a square within another square; rather, a circle within a square runs [fits]; but a square within a square does not run.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי ניהו עיגולא, הדין נקודה דאורייתא דמשה דאינהו כולהו עיגולא ודמיין באתוותא כנשמתא דחיי בגופיה דאינש דלית אפשר ליה למיתי כל היכא דלית קיימא בגויה, ולא למנקט מימרא זוטרא ורבתא בלא נשמתא כוותיה דהדין נקודה דלית אפשר למלתא זוטרא או רבתא לאתאמרה בלא נקודה:
And what is the circle (igula)? This is the point (nekudah) of the Torah of Moses, which are all circle, and resemble, among the letters, the soul of life in the body of a person — which cannot come [to be] anywhere it does not stand within, and one cannot take a small or great utterance without a soul like it; [so is] this point, without which it is not possible for a word, small or great, to be uttered without a point.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
וכל נקודה עיגולא, וכל אתיא רבועא, ומתקיימא אתיא בנקודה ואינון חייהון, והדין נקודה אתיא דרך הצינורות להדין אתיא על ידי ריח הקרבן ומיד יורד דכתיב (ויקרא א’ ט) ריח ניחוח לה’, שיורד לה’, היינו דכתיב (דברים ו’ ד) שמע ישראל ה’ אלהינו ה’ אחד:
And every point is a circle, and every letter (ot) is a square; and the letter is sustained by the point, and they [the points] are their [the letters’] life. And this point comes through the channels (tzinorot) to this letter by way of the smell (rei’ach) of the sacrifice, and immediately it descends, as it is written (Leviticus 1:9), ‘a pleasing aroma to the LORD’ — that it descends to the LORD; this is what is written (Deuteronomy 6:4), ‘Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.’
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: tzinor (rendered as channel). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
⁂
the twelve tribes as channels
The twelve tribes are the twelve ‘pipes (tzinorot)’ of a spring, named for the king’s nephews: the water reaches the fathers and, if the sons merit, the sons after them; if not, the channels are shut to the sons. Sod: the twelve conduits of the flow (the shefa) through which grace descends from the source — Binah, the spring and ‘sea’ (§ 96) — to the world, gated by merit; the twelve channels below the sefirot (cf. the gimel-channel, §§ 17-20, and the window of § 54).
the tribe as the simple line
’Tribe (shevet)’ — also ‘staff, rod’ — is ‘a simple thing (davar pashut),’ not squared, because ‘a square within a square does not run (fit), but a circle within a square runs.’ Sod: the straight line (the channel, the staff) against the square (the vessel); and the circle that moves within the square — the geometry of the point (circle) within the letter (square), unfolded next.
the point as the soul of the letters
The ‘circle’ is the point (nekudah) — the vowel-points of ‘the Torah of Moses,’ which are all round — and it stands to the letters as ‘the soul of life’ stands to the body: nothing exists or is uttered without it, as no word, small or great, can be spoken without a vowel-point. Sod: the vowel-points as the animating soul, the flow, within the consonantal letters (the vessels); the point is the life the letter-body holds.
the point, the channels, and the Shema
Every point is a circle, every letter a square; the letter is ‘sustained by the point,’ which is ‘their life.’ The point reaches the letter ‘through the channels (tzinorot), by the smell of the sacrifice,’ and ‘immediately descends’ — ‘a pleasing aroma to the LORD’ (Leviticus 1:9), that it descends to the LORD — and this is ‘Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one’ (Deuteronomy 6:4). Sod: the sacrifice draws the animating point (the flow) down through the channels into the letters, and the descent culminates in the unification of the divine Name — the Shema (cf. the korban that ‘brings near,’ § 109).
tzinor
Selected sense: channel
Active senses: channel, pipe, conduit
Rationale: §§ 113, 116 speak of the twelve ‘pipes / channels (tzinorot)’ of the spring through which water reaches the tribes, and through which the point descends to the letters. Rendered ‘pipes / channels’ — the conduits of the flow (the shefa) from the source (Binah, the spring) to the world.
Lexicon: lexicon/tzinor
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.