Sefer ha-Bahir 172 -- the seven forms and the citron
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · קעב
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 four species of Sukkot read as the divine “body.” The seven holy forms mirrored in man (in the image of God); the six extremities and the covenant, with the seventh in the wife, taken from the “side”; and the king who plants a citron — the female — among nine male date-palms, so that the world may endure (§ 172), opening the extended reading of the etrog, lulav, myrtle, and willow that follows.
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (two flagged citation slips: Genesis 2:22 for the verse at 2:24, Leviticus 23:1 for the four-species verse at 23:40); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ומה הם הבנים, כבר אמרתי לכם ששבע צורות קדושות יש לו להקב”ה וכולם כנגדן באדם שנאמר (בראשית ט’ ו’) כי בצלם אלהים עשה את האדם, (שם א’ כ”ז) בצלם אלהים ברא אותו זכר ונקיבה ברא אותם, ואלו הן שוק ימין ושמאל, יד ימין ושמאל, גוף ברית וראש הרי שש, והא אמרת שבע, שבעה הוי באשתו דכתיב (שם ב’ כב) והיו לבשר אחד, והא מצלעותיו נלקחה דכתיב (שם כא) ויקח אחת מצלעותיו, אמר אין מצלעותיו, ואית ליה צלע, אין, כדאמרת (שמות כ”ו כ) ולצלע המשכן ומתרגמינן ולסטר משכנא, ומאי סטר אית ביה. משל למה”ד למלך שעלה בלבו ליטע בגנו תשעה אילנין זכרים, והיו כולם דקלים, אמר כשיהיו כולם ממין אחד אי אפשר להתקיים, מה עשה נטע אתרוג ביניהם, והוא אחד מאותו התשעה שעלה בלבו להיות זכרים, ואתרוג מאי הוי נקבה והיינו דכתיב (ויקרא כ”ג א) פרי עץ הדר, כפת תמרים, מאי פרי עץ הדר, כדמתרגמינן פרי אילנא אתרוגין ולולבין:
And what are the sons? I have already told you that the Holy One has seven holy forms, and all of them correspond to [something] in man, as it is said (Genesis 9:6), ‘for in the image of God He made man,’ (ibid. 1:27) ‘in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.’ And these are: the thigh, right and left; the hand, right and left; the body, the covenant (brit), and the head — behold, six. But you said seven! The seventh is in his wife, as it is written (Genesis 2:24), ‘and they shall be one flesh.’ But she was taken from his rib, as it is written (ibid. 21), ‘and he took one of his ribs (tzalotav).’ He said: [is it] ‘of his ribs’? and does He have a rib (tzela)? Yes — as you said (Exodus 26:20), ‘and for the side (tzela) of the tabernacle,’ and we render [in the Targum] ‘and for the side (setar) of the tabernacle’; and what side does it have? A parable: to a king who took to his heart to plant in his garden nine male trees, and they were all date-palms. He said: when they are all of one kind, it is impossible [for them] to endure. What did he do? He planted a citron (etrog) among them; and it is one of those nine that he took to heart to be male, and the citron — what is it? Female. And this is what is written (Leviticus 23:40), ‘the fruit of a goodly tree (pri etz hadar), branches of palm trees’; what is ‘the fruit of a goodly tree’? As we render [in the Targum]: ‘the fruit of the tree, citrons and palm-branches.’
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)