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Sefer Jecira. Rys historyczny i bibliograficzny

100%

Brylla D.

Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne

2011

issue 25

7-36

The article presents the history of the Sepher Yetzirah (Book Yetzirah, Yetzirah Book) – the earliest written work of Jewish mysticism or esoterism. Sepher Yetzirah arose in the first centuries A.D., so the prevalent opinion that it exemplifies the kabbalistic writing is false (viz. Kabbalah is the branch of Jewish mysticism/esoterism which came into being around XII century). The article deals with the hypotheses about the time the treatise was written, the problem of the authorship of the book, it analyses the title and presents the main ideas of this influential work – Sefer Yetzirah played namely an enormous role in the whole Jewish mystical, esoteric system of thought. Apart from Sefer ha-Zohar and Sefer ha-Bahir, the Book Yetzirah was the fundamental book which was explored and widely commented by a great number of kabbalists. For this reason the article briefly characterizes also the Jewish commentators of the book, as well as takes up the question of the variety of versions and editions of Sepher Yetzirah, and, besides, contains the information about the translations of the book (written in various languages). Furthermore, the present text describes the structure of the work and gives the characteristic of each yetziratic chapter, placing emphasis on the role playing in the Yetzirah Book by the concept of ten sephiroth and twenty two letters of Hebrew alphabet. The article is also noted into bibliographical guidelines on the presented topic.

Differentia specifica kabalistycznej kategorii Ein Sof

59%

Brylla D.

Roczniki Teologii Fundamentalnej i Religiologii

2012

vol. 4

179-203

The present article deals with the fundamental concept in Kabbalah, i.e. the classical Jewish mysticism (Jewish esoterism) from the 11th century onwards, namely the Ein Sof category. Ein Sof - the term that indicates the status of Deus absconditus, Deus otiosus, the totally transcendent God - exemplifies the apophatic, ultra-negative way of thinking and talking about God. Ein Sof, literally “without end”, “endlessness”, refers to God in “his” unknowable, unthinkable, inaccessible, and non-revealing peculiarity. And yet, Jewish mystics did try not to leave this concept completely without any specifications. As a matter of fact, kabba- lists, to talk about the manifested Ein Sof, use the conception of sephiroth that in developed kabbalistic exegesis means divine attributes, potencies, and emanations, through which - cause they are the immanent part of Ein Sof’s nature - God can be comprehended and even described. Jewish mystics treated the sephiroth as the divine “instruments”, “vessels” (kelim), and the question of great significance was how far the kelim were consubstantial, isomorfic with Ein Sof. The majority of kabbalists came to a conclusion that the sephirothic kelim are in fact identical with Ein Sof in their essence, with the assertion that in sephiroth Ein Sof, i.e. Deus absonditus, becomes Deus revelatus. Hence, sephiroth are simultaneously the substance of Ein Sof and the divine “instruments”, and it is only owing to them that God Ein Sof can be anyhow held forth on.

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1 Poznańskie Studia Teologiczne

1 Roczniki Teologii Fundamentalnej i Religiologii

2 Brylla D.

1 2021

1 2011

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Sefer Jecira. Rys historyczny i bibliograficzny

Differentia specifica kabalistycznej kategorii Ein Sof