Sefer ha-Bahir 7-9 -- the sea and the south
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · ז-ט
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)
A short aggadic cluster on Deuteronomy 33:23 (“possess the sea and the south”): the sea read as the world to come and the south as this world (§ 7); the letter heh added to Abraham’s name, whose gematria 248 matches the body’s limbs (§ 8); and the same verse’s “yerashah” heard as holding the divine name Yah, with the parable of the king’s two treasuries (§ 9).
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.
ישב רבי אמוראי ודרש מאי דכתיב (דברים ל”ג כג) ומלא ברכת ה’ ים ודרום ירשה, כך אמר משה אם תלך בחוקותיו תירש העולם הזה והעולם הבא, העולם הבא שהוא נמשל לים שנאמר (איוב י”א ט) ורחבה מני ים, והעוה”ז נמשל לדרום שנאמר (יהושע ט”ו יט) כי ארץ הנגב נתתני ומתרגמינן ארי ארעא דרומא:
Rabbi Amorai sat and expounded: what is written (Deuteronomy 33:23), ‘and full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the sea and the south’? Thus said Moses: if you walk in His statutes you will inherit this world and the world to come — the world to come, which is likened to the sea, as it is said (Job 11:9), ‘and broader than the sea’; and this world, likened to the south, as it is said (Joshua 15:19), ‘for you have given me the land of the Negev,’ which we render in the Targum as ‘the land of the south.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ועוד למה הוסיף הקב”ה ה”א באברהם יותר משאר אותיות אלא כדי שיזכו כל אבריו של אדם לחיי עולם הבא שהוא נמשל ליום, כביכול בו נשלם הבנין דכתיב (בראשית ט’ ו) כי בצלם אלהים עשה את האדם, ואברהם בגמטריא רמ”ח כמנין אבריו של אדם:
And further: why did the Holy One add a heh to Abraham’s name more than to the other letters? Only so that all the limbs of a man should merit the life of the world to come, which is likened to a day — as it were, by it the building was completed, as it is written (Genesis 9:6), ‘for in the image of God He made man.’ And ‘Avraham’ in gematria is two hundred and forty-eight, the number of a man’s limbs.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
מאי דכתיב (דברים ל”ג כג) ירשה רש היה לו לומר, אלא אפי’ הקב”ה בכלל, והיינו רש יה, למה”ד למלך שהי’ לו ב’ אוצרות והקצה אחד מהם, לסוף ימים אמר לבנו טול מה שיש בשני אוצרות הללו, אמר הבן שמא לא יתן לי מה שהקצה, א”ל טול הכל, והיינו דכתיב ים ודרום ירשה, ויה רש וינתן לך הכל ולואי שתשמור דרכי:
What is written (Deuteronomy 33:23), ‘shall possess it (yerashah)’? It should have said ‘shall possess (rash)’ — rather, even the Holy One is included, and this is ‘rash Yah’ (Yah is possessed within it). To what is this comparable? To a king who had two treasuries and set one of them aside. At the end of days he said to his son: take what is in these two treasuries. The son said: perhaps he will not give me the one he set aside. He said to him: take all. And this is what is written, ‘the sea and the south, possess it (yam va-darom yerashah)’ — read as ‘and Yah, take, and all shall be given to you’ — would only that you keep My ways.
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 sea and the south
Derash on Deuteronomy 33:23 (‘full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the sea and the south’): the two are read as the two worlds — the sea as the world to come (Job 11:9, ‘broader than the sea’) and the south (Negev) as this world (Joshua 15:19). Characteristically the Bahir clinches the point with the Aramaic Targum’s rendering of ‘Negev’ as ‘the south.‘
the heh added to Abraham and the 248 limbs
On the renaming Abram -> Abraham (Genesis 17:5), where God adds the letter heh. The gematria of Avraham (אברהם) is 248 — alef 1 + bet 2 + resh 200 + heh 5 + mem 40 — matching the 248 limbs of the body in rabbinic anatomy (Mishnah Ohalot 1:8). The added heh ‘completes the building’ of the human form made in the divine image (Genesis 9:6), so that every limb shares in the life of the world to come.
yerashah read as ‘rash Yah’
A wordplay: the verse’s ‘yerashah’ (ירשה, ‘shall possess it’) is heard as containing the divine name Yah (יה) — ‘rash Yah,’ so that even the Holy One is part of the inheritance. The parable of the king’s two treasuries (the one given openly and the one ‘set aside’) teaches that the faithful son is granted all, even the hidden portion. Sod: the concealed divine is bestowed on the one who keeps the ways.
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