Sefer ha-Bahir 14-16 -- the letter bet and the primordial light
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · יד-טז
canonical late 12th c., Provence (ascribed to the 1st c. tanna) Hebrew Anonymous (attributed to R. Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah) tr. Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted, provisional)
The letters and the light: why the bet is a “house” for the world, built by wisdom, so the Torah opens with it (§ 14); how the shapes of the bet and the alef interlock so that the world endures (§ 15); and Rabbi Rechumai’s primordial light, with the parable of the crown prepared for the King’s son before he exists — the plan that “arose in thought” (§ 16).
This is 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.
למה ב סתומה מכל צד ופתוחה מלפניה ללמדך שהוא בית לעולם והיינו דקב”ה מקומו של עולם ואין העולם מקומו, ואל תקרא ב אלא בית הדא היא דכתיב (משלי כ”ד ג) בחכמה יבנה בית ובתבונה יתכונן:
Why is the bet (ב) closed on all sides and open in front? To teach you that it is a house (bayit) for the world — and this is the meaning of the Holy One being the place of the world, while the world is not His place. And do not read ‘bet’ but ‘bayit (house),’ as it is written (Proverbs 24:3), ‘by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ולמה ב’ דומה, לאדם שנוצר בחכמה שסתום מכל צד ופתוח מלפניו והאל”ף פתוחה מלאחריו, לומר זה זנב הב’ שפתוחה מלאחריו, שאלמלא כן לא יתקיים האדם כך אלמלא בית בזנבה של א’ לא יתקיים העולם:
And to what is the bet comparable? To a man, formed with wisdom, who is closed on all sides and open in front; and the alef (א) is open behind. That is to say: this [opening] is the tail of the bet, which is open behind. For were it not so, a man could not endure; likewise, were it not for the bet at the tail of the alef, the world could not endure.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
אמר ר’ רחומאי האורה קדמה לעולם שענן וערפל סביביו שנאמר (בראשית א’ ג) ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי אור, אמרו לו קודם יצירת ישראל בנך תעשה לו עטרה, א”ל הן, משל למה”ד למלך שהתארה לבן ומצא עטרה נאה קלוסה ומשובחת שמח שמחה ואמר זה לבני לראשו כי לו נאה, א”ל ויודע הוא שבנו ראוי, אמר שתוקי כך עלה במחשבה ונודע שנאמר (שמואל ב’ י”ד יד) וחשב מחשבות וגו’:
Rabbi Rechumai said: the light preceded the world, for cloud and thick darkness surround it, as it is said (Genesis 1:3), ‘and God said, let there be light, and there was light.’ They said to Him: before the formation of Israel Your son, will You make him a crown (atarah)? He said: yes. A parable — to what is it comparable? To a king who longed for a son, and found a fine crown, praised and excellent; he rejoiced greatly and said: this is for my son, for his head, for it befits him. They said to him: and does he know that his son is worthy? He said: be silent — thus it arose in thought, and it became known. As it is said (2 Samuel 14:14), ‘and He devises plans, that none be cast out from Him.’
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.
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the bet as the house of the world
The letter bet (ב), closed on three sides and open in front, is read as bayit (house): the Holy One is ‘the place of the world’ (a rabbinic epithet, Genesis Rabbah 68:9) while the world is not His place. Proverbs 24:3 (‘by wisdom a house is built’) makes the house built ‘by wisdom’ — the world structured through Chokhmah — and answers why the Torah opens with bet (bereshit): creation begins with the letter of the ‘house.‘
the bet and the alef interlocked
An early instance of the Bahir’s letter-mysticism, of a piece with the Sefer Yetzirah. The bet — like a man ‘formed with wisdom’ — is closed on all sides and open in front; the alef (א) is open behind. The alef’s rear-opening is joined to the ‘tail’ of the bet, so the two letters interlock, and the world ‘endures’ only through this joining, as a man endures only whole. The shapes of the letters are read as cosmic structure.
the primordial light and the crown
Rabbi Rechumai: the light preceded the world (Genesis 1:3), surrounded by ‘cloud and thick darkness’ (echoing Psalm 97:2, where these surround God; the antecedent of ‘surround it’ hovers between the light and the Holy One). The crown (atarah) prepared for the King’s son (Israel) before Israel existed — the parable of the king who finds the crown first — teaches that the plan ‘arose in thought’ (machashavah) before its object was actual or worthy (2 Samuel 14:14, ‘He devises plans, that none be cast out from Him’). Sod: the atarah is the diadem, the Shekhinah / Malkhut as the crown of Israel, prepared in the pre-cosmic Thought; ‘be silent’ guards the mystery of an election that arises in thought before it is deserved.
chokhmah
Selected sense: wisdom
Active senses: wisdom, the-supernal-point
Rationale: Chokhmah appears in the plain sense in Proverbs 24:3 (‘by wisdom a house is built,’ § 14) and in ‘a man formed with wisdom’ (§ 15); rendered ‘wisdom’ in the body. The pardes frame hears the sefirah Chokhmah (the-supernal-point) as the sod — the world/house built through the second grade — kept to the apparatus, not substituted into the body.
Lexicon: lexicon/chokhmah
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.