Sefer ha-Bahir 123-125 -- the ten sefirot
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קכג-קכה
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)
Where the Bahir names the ten sefirot and gives the word its meaning. Aaron’s blessing after the sacrifice, a unification of the upper grades (§ 123); the ten fingers as the ten sefirot “by which heaven and earth were sealed,” the Ten Commandments, and the 613 — with the tet, “the belly,” held apart (§ 124); and the name itself: they are “sefirot” because “the heavens declare the glory of God,” from the root that means both to count and to tell (§ 125).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim from the Hebrew Wikisource transcription; the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
אמר ר’ אמוראי מאי דכתיב (ויקרא ט’ כ”ב) וישא אהרן את ידו אל העם ויברכם, וירד, והרי כבר ירד, אלא וירד מעשות החטאת והעולה והשלמים ואח”כ וישא אהרן את ידיו אל העם, נשיאות זו למה, לפי שהקריב קרבן ונתקרב לפני אביהם שבשמים כדאמרינן צריך אותו שמקרבן לעליונים ומייחדן לייחד בכללן אלו, ומאי העם דכתיב אל העם, בעבור העם:
Rabbi Amorai said: what is written (Leviticus 9:22), ‘and Aaron lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them, and he descended’? [Had he not] already descended? Rather, ‘and he descended’ from making the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the peace-offerings; and afterward, ‘Aaron lifted his hands toward the people.’ This lifting — why? Because he had offered a sacrifice and drawn near before their Father in heaven, as we said: the one who offers [them] to the upper ones and unifies them must unify all these in their totality. And what is ‘the people,’ as it is written, ‘toward the people’? For the sake of the people.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי טעמא בנשיאות כפים וליברוך להון בברכה, אלא משום דאית בידים עשר אצבעות, רמז לעשר ספירות שבהם נחתמו שמים וארץ, ואותם העשרה כנגד עשרת הדברות, ובכלל אותן י’ נכללו תרי”ג מצות, ומנה אותם אותיות של י’ דברות ותשכח דאינו”ן תרי”ג אותיות, ובהם כל כ”ב אותיות בר מן ט’ דליתא בהון, מאי טעמא, ללמדך דט’ הוא בטן ואינה בכלל הספירות:
And what is the reason [it is] in the lifting of the hands, and to bless them with a blessing? Rather, because there are in the hands ten fingers, a hint to the ten sefirot by which heaven and earth were sealed. And those ten are corresponding to the Ten Commandments (aseret ha-dibrot); and within those ten are included the six hundred and thirteen commandments. Count the letters of the Ten Commandments, and you will find that they are six hundred and thirteen letters, and in them are all twenty-two letters, except for the tet, which is not among them. What is the reason? To teach you that the tet is the belly (beten), and is not among the sefirot.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ואמאי קרי ליה ספירות, משום דכתיב (תהלים י”ט ב) השמים מספרים כבוד אל:
And why does he call them ‘sefirot’? Because it is written (Psalm 19:2), ‘the heavens declare (mesaprim) the glory of God.’
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: sefirot (rendered as the-ten). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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Aaron’s blessing as unification
’And Aaron lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them, and he descended’ (Leviticus 9:22) is read: he ‘descended’ from offering the sin-, burnt-, and peace-offerings, and then ‘lifted his hands.’ The lifting-and-blessing follows the offering because ‘one who offers to the upper ones and unifies them’ must ‘unify all these in their totality’; and ‘toward the people’ means ‘for the sake of the people.’ Sod: the priestly blessing, hands raised after the sacrifice, is a theurgic unification of the upper grades on behalf of Israel (cf. the korban that ‘brings near,’ § 109).
the ten fingers and the ten sefirot
The blessing is given with the ten fingers because they hint at the ten sefirot ‘by which heaven and earth were sealed’ — corresponding to the Ten Commandments, which contain the six hundred and thirteen commandments (the letters of the Decalogue are counted as 613, holding all twenty-two letters save the tet). The tet is excluded because ‘the tet is the belly (beten)’ and ‘is not among the sefirot.’ Sod: here the ten sefirot are explicitly named as the ten — the emanations by which the world was made (Sefer Yetzirah 1:1-4, ‘ten sefirot of nothingness’), mirrored in the ten fingers, the Ten Words, and the whole Torah; the tet, the ninth letter and the ‘belly,’ held apart from the count.
why they are called ‘sefirot’
The grades are called ‘sefirot’ because ‘the heavens declare (mesaprim) the glory of God’ (Psalm 19:2) — from the root s-p-r, to count, to tell, to declare. Sod: the sefirot are at once the ‘numbers’ (the ten) and the ‘tellings,’ the utterances by which the hidden God is declared; the heavens — the grades — speak the glory. The word also resonates with sappir, sapphire, the throne of § 96.
sefirot
Selected sense: the-ten
Active senses: the-ten, emanations, divine-attributes
Rationale: §§ 124-125 name ‘the ten sefirot by which heaven and earth were sealed,’ and give the word’s etymology (Psalm 19:2, ‘the heavens declare’). Rendered ‘the ten sefirot’ — the ten emanations/grades themselves, here explicitly counted and named, mirrored in the ten fingers and the Ten Words.
Lexicon: lexicon/sefirot
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.