Sefer ha-Bahir 61-63 -- the tzadi, the field, and the thirty-two paths
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · סא-סג
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)
From the letters to the divine feminine. The tzadi read as the tzaddik, “the foundation of the world” — Yesod (§ 61); the “field” of Song of Songs heard as “the song,” the heart’s longing to range rather than rest (§ 62); and the heart of it: the heart (lev) is thirty-two, the thirty-two paths of wisdom, gathered by the Holy One into the daughter and her garment — the Shekhinah, called sister, daughter, and mother, with a warning that this inquiry undid Ben Zoma (§ 63).
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.
שאלו אותו מאי צד”י, אמר להם זה נו”ן יו”ד צד”י אף זוגו נו”ן יו” ד הה”ד (משלי י’ כה) וצדיק יסוד עולם:
They asked him: what is the tzadi (צ)? He said to them: it is a nun (נ), a yod (י), [and] a tzadi; and its pair too is a nun, a yod. This is what is written (Proverbs 10:25), ‘and the righteous is the foundation of the world (tzaddik yesod olam).’
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
שאלו אותו מאי דכתיב (במדבר כ”ג יד) ויקחהו שדה צופים, מאי שדה צופים, דכתיב (שה”ש ז’ יב) לכה דודי נצא השדה, מאי השדה, אל תקרי השדה אלא השירה, ומאי השירה, א”ל לבו להקב”ה לכה דודי נצא השדה לטייל ואל אשב תמיד במקום אחד:
They asked him: what is written (Numbers 23:14), ‘and he took him to the field of watchers (sdeh tzofim)’? What is ‘the field of watchers’? As it is written (Song of Songs 7:12), ‘come, my beloved, let us go out to the field.’ What is ‘the field’? Do not read ‘the field (ha-sadeh)’ but ‘the song (ha-shirah).’ And what is ‘the song’? His heart said to the Holy One: ‘come, my beloved, let us go out to the field’ — to stroll, and let me not sit always in one place.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי לבו, א”ל א”כ בן זומא מבחוץ ואתה עמו, לב הוא שלשים ושתים והיו סתומים ובהם נברא העולם, מאי ל”ב, א”ל ל”ב נתיבות, משל למלך שהיה בחדרי חדרים ומנין החדרים ל”ב, ולכל חדר יש לו נתיב, נאה למלך זה להכנס הכל בחדרו על דרך נתיבתיו, אמרת לא, נאה לו לגלות פניניו ומשבצותיו ומצפוניו וגנזיו וחמודותיו, אמרת לא, מה עשה נגע בבת וכלל בה כל הנתיבות ובמלבושה, והרוצה להכנס בפנים יסתכל הנה, ונשאה למלך גם נתנה לו במתנה, לפעמים קורא אותה באהבתו בה אחותי כי ממקום אחד היו, ולפעמים קורא אותה בתו כי בתו היא, ולפעמים קורא אותה אמי:
And what is ‘his heart (libo)’? He said to him: if so, Ben Zoma is outside, and you are with him. The heart (lev) is thirty-two, and they were closed, and by them the world was created. What is ‘lev [thirty-two]’? He said to him: thirty-two paths (netivot). A parable: to a king who was in the innermost chambers, and the number of the chambers was thirty-two, and to each chamber there was a path. Is it becoming for this king that everyone should enter his chamber by way of his paths? You said: no. Is it becoming for him to reveal his pearls and his settings and his hidden things and his treasures and his precious things? You said: no. What did he do? He touched the daughter (bat) and included in her all the paths, and [set them] in her garment; and whoever wishes to enter within, let him look here. And he married the daughter to a king, and also gave her to him as a gift. Sometimes, in his love for her, he calls her ‘my sister,’ for they were from one place; and sometimes he calls her ‘my daughter,’ for she is his daughter; and sometimes he calls her ‘my mother.’
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: tzaddik (rendered as righteous-one). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the tzadi and the tzaddik (Yesod)
The letter tzadi (צ) is analyzed as a nun (נ) bent together with a yod (י), and ‘its pair’ — the final tzadi (ץ) — likewise a nun and a yod: the letter is read to encode the tzaddik, ‘the foundation of the world’ (Proverbs 10:25). In the developed system this is Yesod, the ninth sefirah, the righteous foundation and the channel through which the flow passes to the world; the bent nun and the yod (figured as female and male) mark the union that grade effects.
the field and the song
Numbers 23:14’s ‘field of watchers’ is led through Song of Songs 7:12 (‘come, my beloved, let us go out to the field’) to an al-tikri reading: not ha-sadeh (‘the field’) but ha-shirah (‘the song’). The heart’s longing to ‘go out and stroll’ rather than ‘sit always in one place’ is the desire to range through the grades and their song, not to rest in a single station.
the thirty-two paths and the daughter
The heart (lev, לב) has the numerical value 32 — the ‘thirty-two paths of wisdom’ by which, in the Sefer Yetzirah (1:1), the world was created (here ‘closed,’ concealed). The parable: a king in thirty-two innermost chambers, each reached by its own path, can neither let all enter by all the paths nor reveal all his treasures; so he ‘touches the daughter’ and gathers every one of the thirty-two paths into her and into her garment, and whoever would enter looks to her. The daughter is the Shekhinah (as in § 54), who contains and conveys the paths, married to a king (the divine groom) and given as a gift. Her threefold naming — <em>sister</em>, <em>daughter</em>, <em>mother</em> — marks the Shekhinah’s shifting relation to the grades: sister to the groom (‘from one place,’ Tiferet), daughter to the supernal Father (Ḥokhmah), and mother to the world below. The warning ‘Ben Zoma is outside’ invokes the tanna who ‘gazed and was stricken’ in the Pardes (b. Chagigah 14b): this inquiry is perilous.
tzaddik
Selected sense: righteous-one
Active senses: righteous-one, yesod
Rationale: The § 61 prooftext, Proverbs 10:25, is rendered plainly ‘the righteous is the foundation of the world.’ The passage itself makes the sefirotic identification the frame hears: the tzaddik is Yesod, the ninth sefirah, ‘the foundation of the world’ — the righteous foundation and channel of the flow — the very grade the letter tzadi is read to encode.
Lexicon: lexicon/tzaddik
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