Sefer ha-Bahir 23-25 -- the order of creation
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · כג-כה
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)
Three royal parables on the order of creation: the king who digs a spring of living water before planting his tree, so the tree endures (§ 23); the king who sets an object’s base before naming it, so the earth is founded before the heavens and “olam va-ed” becomes a name (§ 24); and the king who sets aside his fine object until its place is ready — “let there be light, and there was light,” for it already existed (§ 25).
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.
אמר ר’ רחומאי מדברך נלמד שצורך העולם הזה ברא הקב”ה קודם השמים, א”ל הן, משל למה”ד למלך שביקש ליטע אילן בגנו, השגיח בכל הגן לדעת אם יש שם מעיין נובע מים להעמיד אותו, ולא מצא, אמר אחפור מים ואוציא מעין כדי שיוכל להתקיים האילן, חפר והוציא מעין נובע מים חיים ואח”כ נטע האילן ועמד ועשה פרי והצליח בשרשיו שהשקוהו תמיד מן המעיין:
Rabbi Rechumai said: from your words we learn that the Holy One created the need of this world before the heavens. He said to him: yes. A parable — to what is it comparable? To a king who wished to plant a tree in his garden. He searched the whole garden to know whether there was a spring flowing with water to sustain it, and he found none. He said: I will dig for water and bring forth a spring, so that the tree may endure. He dug and brought forth a spring flowing with living water, and afterward he planted the tree; and it stood and bore fruit and thrived in its roots, for they watered it always from the spring.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
אמר ר’ ינאי הארץ נבראה קודם לשמים שנאמר (בראשית ב’ ד) ארץ ושמים, אמרו לו והכתיב (בראשית א’ א) את השמים ואת הארץ, אמר להם למה”ד למלך שקנה חפץ נאה ולא היה שלם ולא קרא עליו שם, אמר אשלימנו ואתקן כנו וחבורו, ואז אקרא לו שם הה”ד (תהלים ק”ב כו) לפנים הארץ יסדת ואח”כ ומעשה ידיך שמים, ואומר (שם ק”ד ב) עטה אור כשלמה נוטה שמים כיריעה המקרה במים עליותיו וגו’, ואומר (שם ד) עושה מלאכיו רוחות משרתיו אש לוהט, ואח”כ (שם ה) יסד ארץ על מכוניה בל תמוט עולם ועד, כשתיקן לה מכון אז האמיץ בה שנאמר בל תמוט, ומה שמה ועד שמה ומכונה עולם והיינו עולם ועד:
Rabbi Yanai said: the earth was created before the heavens, as it is said (Genesis 2:4), ‘earth and heavens.’ They said to him: but is it not written (Genesis 1:1), ‘the heavens and the earth’? He said to them: a parable — to what is it comparable? To a king who bought a fine object, but it was not complete, and he did not name it. He said: I will complete it, and set its base and its joining, and then I will give it a name. This is what is written (Psalm 102:26), ‘of old You founded the earth, and afterward the heavens are the work of Your hands.’ And it says (ibid. 104:2-3), ‘wrapped in light as a garment, stretching out the heavens like a curtain, who roofs His upper chambers in the waters,’ and it says (ibid. 4), ‘who makes His angels winds, His ministers a flaming fire,’ and afterward (ibid. 5), ‘He founded the earth on its bases, that it should not totter forever and ever (bal timot olam va-ed).’ When He had fixed a base for it, then He made it firm, as it is said, ‘that it should not totter.’ And what is its name? ‘va-ed’ is its name, and its base is ‘olam,’ and this is ‘olam va-ed.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
אמר ר’ ברכיה מאי דכתיב (בראשית א, ג) ויאמר אלהים יהי אור ויהי אור, ולא והיה אור, משל למלך שהיה לו חפץ נאה והקצהו עד שזימן לו מקום ושמהו שם הה”ד יהי אור ויהי אור שכבר היה:
Rabbi Berakhiah said: what is written (Genesis 1:3), ‘and God said, let there be light, and there was light (va-yehi or)’ — and not ‘and it would be light (ve-haya or)’? A parable to a king who had a fine object, and set it aside until he had prepared for it a place, and placed it there. This is what is written, ‘let there be light, and there was light’ — for it already existed.
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 spring dug before the tree
Rabbi Rechumai draws out that the ‘need of this world’ precedes the heavens: the parable of the king who, before planting his tree, first digs a spring of living water to sustain it. Sod: the spring is the higher grade that must flow before the tree of the powers can stand and bear fruit — the same figure as Bahir §§ 118-119, where the cosmic tree is ‘watered by Ḥokhmah.’ The tree endures only because it is ‘watered always from the spring’: the sefirotic tree depends on the constant overflow from above.
earth before heaven; olam va-ed
Rabbi Yanai reconciles the two creation verses — Genesis 2:4 (‘earth and heavens’) against Genesis 1:1 (‘heavens and earth’) — with the king who completes and sets the base of a fine object before naming it: the earth (the base) is founded first (Psalm 102:26; Psalm 104:2-5), and only when its ‘base’ is fixed is it made firm (‘that it should not totter’). The closing wordplay reads Psalm 104:5’s ‘olam va-ed’ (forever and ever) as a name: ‘va-ed’ is the name and ‘olam’ the base — the enduring foundation on which the world is set firm.
let there be light: the pre-existent light
Rabbi Berakhiah presses the grammar of Genesis 1:3: ‘let there be light, and there was (va-yehi) light’ — not ‘and it would be (ve-haya) light.’ The past-tense ‘va-yehi’ (‘and there was’), not the would-be ‘ve-haya’ the Bahir rejects, shows the light already existed; the king merely ‘set aside’ his fine object until a place was ready, then set it there. This is the primordial light of § 16, the light that ‘preceded the world,’ brought into place rather than made anew.
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