Sefer ha-Bahir 141-143 -- the ten sayings, one to three
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קמא-קמג
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 ten sayings enumerated as the sefirot, one to three. The first is the supernal crown (Keter), whose people is Israel, bound to Him “to the alef” (§ 141); the second is wisdom (Chokhmah), “the beginning of His way” (§ 142); the third is the quarry of the Torah, the treasury of wisdom from which the Holy One “quarried all the letters of the Torah and engraved them in the spirit” — Binah, the mother (§ 143).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (§ 141 reads Psalm 100:3 on the ketiv/qere of לא / לו); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
מאי ניהו עשרה מאמרות, ראשון כתר עליון ברוך ומבורך שמו ועמו, ומי עמו, ישראל, דכתיב (תהלים ק’ ג) דעו כי ה’ הוא אלהים הוא עשני ולא אנחנו עמו, ולאל”ף אנחנו, להכיר ולידע אחד האחדים המיוחד בכל שמותיו:
What are the ten sayings? The first: the supernal crown (keter elyon), blessed and praised be His Name and His people. And who is His people? Israel, as it is written (Psalm 100:3), ‘know that the LORD is God; He made me, and lo we [are] His people,’ and to the alef are we — to recognize and to know the Unique One of the unique, unified in all His Names.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
שניה, חכמה, דכתיב (משלי ח’ כב) ה’ קנני ראשית דרכו קדם מפעליו מאז, ואין ראשית אלא חכמה דכתיב (תהלים קי”א י) ראשית חכמה יראת ה’:
The second: wisdom (chokhmah), as it is written (Proverbs 8:22), ‘the LORD acquired me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old.’ And ‘beginning (reshit)’ is nothing but wisdom, as it is written (Psalm 111:10), ‘the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
שלישי, מחצב התורה, אוצר החכמה, מחצבה רוח אלהים, מלמד שחצב הקב”ה כל אותיות התורה וחקקו ברוח, ועשה בו צורותיו, והיינו דכתיב (ש”א ב’ ב) ואין צור כאלהינו, ואין צייר כאלהינו:
The third: the quarry of the Torah (machtzav ha-Torah), the treasury of wisdom (otzar ha-chokhmah), the quarry of the spirit of God (machtzav ruach Elohim); it teaches that the Holy One quarried all the letters of the Torah and engraved them in the spirit, and made in it His forms; and this is what is written (1 Samuel 2:2), ‘and there is no rock (tzur) like our God’ — there is no former (tzayar) like our 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: keter (rendered as the-supernal-crown), chokhmah (rendered as wisdom). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the first saying: the supernal crown
The first of the ten sayings (by which the world was made, Avot 5:1) is the supernal crown (keter elyon) — Keter, the highest grade. ‘His people’ is Israel: ‘He made me, and lo we, His people’ (Psalm 100:3). The verse turns on a well-known variant — the word rendered ‘lo’ is written לא (‘not’) but read לו (‘to Him’) — and the Bahir hears in it the alef (the first letter of לא): ‘to the alef are we,’ belonging to the One, ‘the Unique of the unique, unified in all His Names.’ Sod: Israel is bound to Keter, the first grade, through the alef, the primal letter of thought (cf. §§ 70, 117, 140).
the second saying: wisdom
The second saying is wisdom (chokhmah) — Chokhmah, the second grade — anchored in ‘the LORD acquired me (kanani) at the beginning of His way (reshit darko)’ (Proverbs 8:22, the speech of Wisdom), for ‘beginning (reshit)’ is wisdom: ‘the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the LORD’ (Psalm 111:10). Sod: Chokhmah is the reshit, the ‘beginning’ of Genesis 1:1 (be-reshit), the point from which all unfolds (cf. § 142’s reshit and the supernal point).
the third saying: the quarry of the Torah
The third saying is ‘the quarry of the Torah (machtzav ha-Torah), the treasury of wisdom, the quarry of the spirit of God’ — the grade from which the letters of the Torah are hewn: the Holy One ‘quarried all the letters of the Torah and engraved them in the spirit, and made in it His forms.’ ‘There is no rock (tzur) like our God’ (1 Samuel 2:2) is read ‘there is no former (tzayar) like our God’ — the divine artist who shapes the letters. Sod: the third grade is Binah, the ‘quarry’ and ‘treasury’ (imma, the mother) from which the letters and forms of Torah are drawn (cf. the quarrying of the letters, Sefer Yetzirah 2:2).
Editorial decisions
- Psalm 100:3 variant. The source reads Psalm 100:3 midrashically (‘He made me, and lo we, His people’), turning on the ketiv/qere of לא (‘not’) / לו (‘to Him’) to draw out the alef. Rendered as the source gives it, with the variant explained in the apparatus. (claude-opus-4-8[session-pipe], 2026-07-03)
keter
Selected sense: the-supernal-crown
Active senses: the-supernal-crown, crown
Rationale: § 141 names the first of the ten sayings ‘the supernal crown (keter elyon).’ Rendered ‘the supernal crown’ — Keter, the highest grade, the first saying.
Lexicon: lexicon/keter
chokhmah
Selected sense: wisdom
Active senses: wisdom, the-supernal-point
Rationale: § 142 names the second saying ‘wisdom (chokhmah),’ anchored in Proverbs 8:22 (reshit) and Psalm 111:10. Rendered ‘wisdom’ — Chokhmah, the second grade, the ‘beginning.‘
Lexicon: lexicon/chokhmah
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.