Sefer ha-Bahir 155-156 -- the east and the west, the seed and the gathering
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קנה-קנו
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 seventh grade as east and west, seed and gathering. The east from which “the seed of Israel” comes — new seed if Israel are worthy, else the seed that already came (§ 155); and the west, called ma’arav because “there all the seed is mixed,” the modest bride who stores the wealth and yields it at the end — “from the east he sows in the west, and afterward gathers what he sows” (§ 156).
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.
שביעי הוי מזרחו של עולם, ומשם בא זרעם של ישראל, כי חוט השדרה משוך מן המח של אדם, ובא לאמה ומשם הוא הזרע, דכתיב (ישעי’ מ”ג ה) ממזרח אביא זרעך, כשישראל טובים מזה המקום אביא זרעך, ויתחדש לך זרע חדש, וכשישראל רעים מן הזרע שכבר בא לעולם שנאמר (קהלת א’ ד) דור הולך ודור בא, מלמד שכבר בא:
The seventh is the east of the world, and from there comes the seed of Israel; for the spinal cord (chut ha-shidrah) is drawn from the brain (moach) of man and comes to the member, and from there is the seed, as it is written (Isaiah 43:5), ‘from the east I will bring your seed’ — when Israel are good, from this place I bring your seed, and a new seed is renewed for you; and when Israel are evil, [it comes] from the seed that has already come into the world, as it is said (Ecclesiastes 1:4), ‘a generation goes and a generation comes,’ teaching that it has already come.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי דכתיב (ישעי’ מ”ג ה) ממערב אקבצך, מאותה המדה שנוטה תמיד למערב, למה איקרי מערב מפני ששם מתערב כל הזרע, משל למה”ד לבן מלך, שהיה לו כלה נאה וצנועה בחדרו, והיה לוקח מבית אביו עושר ומביא לה תמיד, ולוקחת הכל ומצנעת אותו תמיד ומערבת הכל, לסוף ימים בקש לראות מה אסף ומה קיבץ, והיינו דכתיב וממערב אקבצך, ומאי ניהו, בית אביו, דכתיב ממזרח אביא זרעיך מלמד שממזרח מביא וזורע במערב ואחר כך הוא מקבץ מה שזורע:
And what is [the meaning of] what is written (Isaiah 43:5), ‘and from the west I will gather you’? From that measure that always inclines to the west. Why is it called ma’arav (west)? Because there all the seed is mixed (mit’arev). A parable: to a king’s son who had a fine and modest bride in his chamber, and he would take wealth from his father’s house and always bring it to her; and she takes it all and always stores it away and mixes it all together. At the end of days he wished to see what she had gathered and what she had collected; and this is what is written, ‘and from the west I will gather you.’ And what is it? His father’s house, as it is written, ‘from the east I will bring your seed’ — teaching that from the east he brings and sows in the west, and afterward he gathers what he sows.
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 east: the seed of Israel
The seventh ‘is the east’ from which ‘the seed of Israel’ comes: as in the body ‘the spinal cord is drawn from the brain and comes to the member,’ so ‘from the east I will bring your seed’ (Isaiah 43:5). When Israel are worthy, ‘a new seed is renewed’; when not, it comes ‘from the seed that already came into the world’ — ‘a generation goes and a generation comes’ (Ecclesiastes 1:4), the returning generation of the transmigration (cf. §§ 121-122). Sod: the east is the generative grade (Yesod, the tzaddik and foundation), the channel through which the seed / flow descends from the brain (the supernal grades) to the world.
the west: the bride who gathers the seed
’And from the west I will gather you’ (Isaiah 43:5) is ‘the measure that always inclines to the west,’ called ma’arav because ‘there all the seed is mixed (mit’arev).’ A parable: a king’s son brings his father’s wealth to his modest bride, who ‘stores it and mixes it all,’ until at the end he ‘gathers what he sows.’ Sod: the west is the receiving grade — the Shekhinah / Malkhut, the bride who gathers and stores the seed (the flow) sown from the east (Yesod), and yields it up in the end; the divine feminine as the treasury of all that the masculine grade sends down (cf. the king’s daughter, §§ 54, 132).
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