Sefer ha-Bahir 97-100 -- the Heart, the tree, and the forms
Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance
ספר הבהיר · צז-ק
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 offering, the tree, and the forms that guard the way. The offering read as lifting God up in prayer, and the righteous who nourish “the Heart” (§ 97); the lulav as Israel’s inner tree and its thirty-two paths of wisdom, each watched by a form (§ 98); the cherubim and the whirling sword on the paths that preceded Eden, and heaven as fire (§ 99); and heaven as the very Name of the Holy One, whose power precedes all the forms (§ 100).
A provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim (with two flagged citation problems — § 99’s garbled numeral for Genesis 1:6, and § 100’s 1 Kings 5:32 for the verse at 8:32); the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.
ישב ר’ ברכיה ודרש מאי דכתיב (שמות כ”ה ב) ויקחו לי תרומה, הרימו אותי בתפלותיכם ’ ומי, אותו שנדבו לבו להמשך מן העוה”ז, כבדוהו כי בו אני שמח שיודע שמי, וממנו ראוי לקחת את תרומתי שנאמר (שם ב) מאת כל איש אשר ידבנו לבו תקחו את תרומתי, מאותו המתנדב, ואמר ר’ רחומאי הצדיקים והחסידים שבישראל שמרימין אותי על כל העולם בזכותיהן ומהן מתפרנס הלב והלב מפרנסן:
Rabbi Berakhiah sat and expounded: what is written (Exodus 25:2), ‘and let them take for Me an offering (terumah)’? Lift Me up (harimu oti) by your prayers. And who [is worthy]? The one whose heart moved him to be drawn away from this world — honor him, for in him I rejoice, since he knows My name; and from him it is fitting to take My offering, as it is said (ibid. 25:2), ‘from every man whose heart moves him you shall take My offering’ — from that willing one. And Rabbi Rechumai said: the righteous and the pious of Israel, who lift Me up over all the world by their merits; and from them the Heart (lev) is nourished, and the Heart nourishes them.
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
וכל הצורות הקדושות ממונות על כל האומות וישראל קדושים נטלו גוף האילן ולבו, מה לב שהוא הדר פרי הגוף, אף ישראל נטלו פרי עץ הדר, מה אילן תמר ענפיו סביביו ולולבו באמצע אף ישראל נטלו גוף האילן זה שהוא ל ב ו, וכנגד הגוף חוט השדרה באדם שהוא עיקר הגוף, ומה לולב זה כתיב לו לב אף לב מסור לו, ומה לב, זה שלשים ושתים נתיבות פליאות חכמה בו אף בכל נתיב מהן צורה שומרת דכתיב (בראשית ג’ כד) לשמור את דרך עץ החיים:
And all the holy forms (tzurot) are appointed over all the nations, and Israel are holy; they took the body of the tree and its heart. As the heart is the beauty of the fruit of the body, so Israel took ‘the fruit of the beautiful tree (pri etz hadar)’ [Leviticus 23:40]. As the palm tree (tamar) has its branches around it and its lulav in the middle, so Israel took the body of this tree, which is its heart. And corresponding to the body is the spinal cord in a person, which is the essence of the body. And [of] this lulav, ‘lo lev (it has a heart)’ is written — so too the heart is given to Him. And what is the heart? This is the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom (thirty-two netivot peliot chokhmah) that are in it; and in each path of them a form guards, as it is written (Genesis 3:24), ‘to guard the way of the tree of life.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומאי ניהו צורות, דכתיב (שם) וישכן מקדם לגן עדן את הכרובים ואת להט החרב המתהפכת לשמור את דרך עץ החיים, ומאי וישכן מקדם לגן עדן, וישכן באותם הנתיבות שקדמו לאותו מקום הנקרא גן עדן ושקדם לכרובים דכתיב (שם) את הכרובים, ושקדם ללהט דכתיב (שם) ואת להט החרב המתהפכת, שקדם, והכתיב שמים דמים ואש קדמו דכתיב (שם מו) יהי רקיע בתוך המים ויהי מבדיל בין מים למים, וכתיב (שם ח) ויקרא אלהים לרקיע שמים, ומנלן דשמים הוי אש דכתיב (דברים ד, כד) כי ה’ אלהיך אש אוכלה הוא אל קנא:
And what are the forms? As it is written (ibid.), ‘and He placed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flame of the whirling sword, to guard the way of the tree of life.’ And what is ‘and He placed east of the garden of Eden’? He placed [them] in those paths that preceded that place called the garden of Eden, and that preceded the cherubim, as it is written (ibid.), ‘the cherubim,’ and that preceded the flame, as it is written (ibid.), ‘and the flame of the whirling sword’ — which preceded. But it is written that heaven, water, and fire preceded, as it is written (Genesis 1:6), ‘let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide between water and water,’ and it is written (ibid. 8), ‘and God called the firmament heaven’; and whence [do we know] that heaven is fire? As it is written (Deuteronomy 4:24), ‘for the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.‘
Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)
ומנלן דשמים הקדוש ברוך הוא, דכתיב (מ”א ה’ לב) ואתה תשמע השמים, אטו שלמה התפלל אל השמים שישמעו תפלתם, אלא אותו שנקרא שמו על השמים דכתיב (שם כ”ז) השמים ושמי השמים לא יכלכלוך, הרי שמו של הקב”ה והוי אש ואמרת קדם, אלא אימא כחם קדם של אותם צורות של המקום ההוא ואח”כ הצורות הקדושות ההם, ומאי ניהו כחם, כד”א (ש”א ב’ ב) אין קדוש כה’ כי אין בלתך ואין צור כאלהינו:
And whence [do we know] that ‘heaven’ is the Holy One? As it is written (1 Kings 5:32 in the source; the verse is at 8:32), ‘and You shall hear [in] the heavens.’ Is it that Solomon prayed to the heavens, that they should hear their prayer? Rather, [to] the One whose name is called upon the heavens, as it is written (ibid. 27), ‘the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You’ — behold, the name of the Holy One. And it is fire, and you said [it] preceded; rather say: their power (kocham) preceded, of those forms of that place, and afterward those holy forms. And what is their power? As it is said (1 Samuel 2:2), ‘there is none holy as the LORD, for there is none besides You, and there is no rock (tzur) like our God.’
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), chokhmah (rendered as wisdom). For each, the apparatus carries the sense set and the reason for the rendering chosen.
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the offering as lifting God up; the Heart
’Let them take for Me an offering (terumah)’ (Exodus 25:2) is read as ‘lift Me up (harimu oti) in your prayers.’ The worthy giver is the one ‘drawn away from this world,’ who ‘knows My name.’ And (Rabbi Rechumai) the righteous and pious ‘lift Me up over all the world by their merits,’ and ‘from them the Heart (lev) is nourished, and the Heart nourishes them.’ Sod: prayer and the merit of the righteous raise and sustain ‘the Heart’ — the divine center, the heart of the sefirotic order (Tiferet, and the Shekhinah below); a reciprocal nourishing between the tzaddikim and the grade above.
the lulav, the tree, and the thirty-two paths
The holy ‘forms’ are set over the nations, but Israel took ‘the body of the tree and its heart.’ As the heart is ‘the beauty of the fruit of the body,’ Israel took ‘the fruit of the beautiful tree (pri etz hadar)’ (Leviticus 23:40, the Four Species) — the palm (tamar) with its branches around and its lulav within; and ‘lo lev (it has a heart)’ is heard in ‘lulav.’ The heart is ‘the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom’ (Sefer Yetzirah 1:1; cf. §§ 63, 92), in each of which ‘a form guards, to guard the way of the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24). Sod: Israel holds the inner heart of the cosmic tree, the thirty-two paths, each watched by a guarding form.
the forms that guard the way
The ‘forms’ are the cherubim and ‘the flame of the whirling sword’ that God ‘placed east of the garden of Eden to guard the way of the tree of life’ (Genesis 3:24) — placed in ‘the paths that preceded’ Eden, the cherubim, and the flame. A dispute over what ‘preceded’: heaven, water, and fire (Genesis 1:6-8), heaven being fire (‘the LORD your God is a consuming fire,’ Deuteronomy 4:24). Sod: the guarding forms stand on the primordial paths, older than the garden; the elements and the firmament as the first structure. (The verbatim Hebrew’s chapter numeral for Genesis 1:6 is garbled in the source; the verse is ‘let there be a firmament,’ Genesis 1:6.)
heaven as the Name; the power that preceded
’Heaven’ is the Holy One: Solomon did not pray to the sky but to ‘the One whose name is called upon the heavens’ (‘the heavens cannot contain You,’ 1 Kings 8:27; cf. § 94). And though heaven is ‘fire’ and said to have ‘preceded,’ the resolution: not the forms themselves but ‘their power (kocham)’ preceded — ‘there is none holy as the LORD… and there is no rock (tzur) like our God’ (1 Samuel 2:2). Sod: the divine Name is what ‘heaven’ names; what precedes creation is the power, the ‘rock’ (tzur), of God, the ground of the forms. (The source cites this verse as 1 Kings 5:32; it is at 8:32 — a he/chet scribal slip, flagged in the text.)
Editorial decisions
- §99 and §100 citations. § 99: the verbatim Hebrew’s chapter numeral for the ‘firmament’ verse is garbled; the verse is Genesis 1:6, rendered as the correct locus with a note. § 100: the source cites 1 Kings 5:32 for ‘and You shall hear the heavens,’ which is at 8:32 (a he/chet slip); rendered as the source gives it with the correct locus flagged, at publish. (claude-opus-4-8[session-pipe], 2026-07-03)
tzaddik
Selected sense: righteous-one
Active senses: righteous-one, yesod
Rationale: § 97’s ‘the righteous (tzaddikim) and the pious of Israel who lift Me up… and from them the Heart is nourished,’ rendered plainly ‘the righteous.’ The frame hears the tzaddik-grade (Yesod) as the channel through which the merit of the righteous below sustains the grade above.
Lexicon: lexicon/tzaddik
chokhmah
Selected sense: wisdom
Active senses: wisdom, the-supernal-point
Rationale: § 98’s ‘the thirty-two wondrous paths of wisdom (netivot peliot chokhmah),’ rendered ‘paths of wisdom’ — the Sefer Yetzirah’s thirty-two paths (1:1); the frame hears the grade Ḥokhmah from which the paths issue.
Lexicon: lexicon/chokhmah
No public-domain translations indexed for this chunk.