Sefer ha-Bahir 84-86 -- the mem and the nun, male and female
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · פד-פו
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 letters as male and female. The open mem composed of both, the closed mem a belly (§ 84); “mem” as “mayim,” water and the moist belly, the essence male and the open form added for the female (§ 85); and the reason the letters are doubled — “the woman is cold” and must be warmed by the male, and “his name shall be continued” through two nuns: it must be by male and female (§ 86).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (§ 85 reads “pechuta,” rendered “open” per the sense, and ends with an illegible fragment); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
מ”ם פתוחה, מאי מ”ם פתוחה, כלולה מזכר ונקבה, מ”ם סתומה מאי, עשויה היא כמין בטן מלמעלה, והא אמר רבי רחומאי, הבטן כמין ט, ההוא דאמר כמין ט בפנים, אנא דאמרו כמין ט בחוץ:
An open mem (מ) — what is the open mem? Composed of male and female. A closed mem (ם) — what? It is made like a kind of belly (beten) from above. And Rabbi Rechumai said: the belly is like a tet (ט). That one said ‘like a tet within’; but I say ‘like a tet without.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי מ”ם, אל תקרי מ”ם אלא מים מה המים הללו לחים אף הבטן לח לעולם, ולמה מ”ם פחותה כלולה מזכר ונקבה וסתומה זכר, ללמדך שעיקר המ”ם הוא זכר, והוסיפה פתוחה לשם נקבה, ומה הזכר הזה אינו מוליד בפתיחה אף מ”ם סתומה אינה מולדת אלא בפתוחה, ומה הנקבה מולידה בפתוחה אף מ”ם סתומה ופתוחה. לט:
And what is mem? Do not read ‘mem’ but ‘mayim (water)’: as this water is moist, so the belly is always moist. And why is the open mem composed of male and female, and the closed one male? To teach you that the essence of the mem is male, and the open was added for the [sake of the] female. And as this male does not give birth in [the state of] opening, so the closed mem does not give birth except through the open; and as the female gives birth in opening, so [with] the mem, closed and open.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומה ראית לרבות מ”ם בפתיחה וסתימה, משום דאמרינן אל תקרי מ”ם אלא מים, והאשה קרה על כן צריכה להתחמם בזכר, ומה ראית לרבות נו”ן כפופה וארוכה דכתיב (תהלים ע”ב יז) לפני שמש ינון שמו, משני נוני”ן, נו”ן כפופה וארוכה, וצריך להיות ע”י זכר ונקבה:
And what did you see, to derive the mem in opening and closing? Because we say, do not read ‘mem’ but ‘mayim’; and the woman is cold, therefore she needs to be warmed by the male. And what did you see, to derive the nun as bent and long? As it is written (Psalm 72:17), ‘before the sun his name shall be continued (yinnon)’ — from two nuns, a bent nun and a long [one]; and it must be by [means of] male and female.
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 open and closed mem; the belly
The open mem (מ) is ‘composed of male and female,’ the closed final mem (ם) ‘made like a belly from above.’ A dispute (Rabbi Rechumai) whether the belly’s tet-shape is seen ‘within’ or ‘without.’ Sod: the two forms of the mem as two aspects of the generative — the open (male-and-female, generative) and the closed (the sealed womb); the letter-shapes read as figures of gender and gestation.
mem as water; male and female
’Mem’ is read as ‘mayim (water)’: as water is moist, so the belly. The essence of the mem is male (the closed), and the open form ‘was added for the female’; the closed ‘does not give birth except through the open,’ as the male generates only through the female. Sod: the letter as the union of male and female, its closed and open forms figuring the sealed and the opened. (The source reads ‘pechuta,’ lesser, where the sense and § 84 require ‘petucha,’ open — a chet/tav scribal slip, rendered ‘open’; and § 85 ends with an illegible fragment in the source.)
why the two mems and the two nuns
The mem is derived ‘in opening and closing’ because ‘mem’ is ‘mayim (water)’ and ‘the woman is cold’ and must be ‘warmed by the male’ — the union. And the nun is derived ‘bent and long’ from Psalm 72:17, ‘before the sun his name shall be continued (yinnon)’ — a word written with two nuns, a bent and a long — ‘and it must be by male and female.’ Sod: the doubled letter-forms as the necessary pairing of male and female, the union that generates and endures (the name ‘continued before the sun,’ read in the tradition of the enduring, even messianic, name).
Editorial decisions
- §85 pechuta and the trailing fragment. The source reads ‘mem pechuta’ (lesser), rendered ‘open mem’ (petucha) per the sense and § 84’s usage — a chet/tav scribal slip — and flagged in the apparatus. § 85 ends with an illegible fragment (‘לט’) in the source, preserved in the verbatim Hebrew and noted, not rendered into English. (claude-opus-4-8[session-pipe], 2026-07-03)
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