Kabbalah and Sex Magic by Marla Segol

Author:Marla Segol
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penn State University Press

The Letters

Verses 11–28 (15–44) gender the letters of the Sefer Yetsirah to show them creating human beings by means of sexual reproduction. In the Sefer Yetsirah, the Hebrew letters play a crucial role in articulating the main ideas of this first layer. They, too, are embodied, gendered (and bi-gendered), and generative. Drawing upon earlier images, verses 11–28 (15–44) describe the use of letters to create human beings by means of sexual reproduction, showing a microcosmic and substantial relationship between human and divine bodies. These verses use the letters to transfer the eroticism of the relationship between God and the heart to that between human and divine, depicting intimate and sexualized relations between God, God’s heart, and the human being. In the Bahir, both human and divine bodies are constructed of letters, such that they are substantially connected. At the same time, the text describes an expansive body that encompasses various levels within its frame. At its center is the heart, which will later become the birthplace of letters, the sefirot, and wisdom. In verse 8 (10), the text asks, “What is the meaning of ‘from eternity’ (me-olam)? This means that it must be concealed from the world (he-elam). It is thus written: (Ecc 3:11) He has also placed the world in their hearts [that they should not find out the work that God has done from the beginning to the end.] Do not read HaOlam, but HeElam.”43 Thus we see the human heart embodying first the world and then knowledge of divine creation. The heart encompasses the world, which at first prevents knowledge of the divine but then gives way to it.

Earlier verses assert that Abraham’s and God’s bodies are structurally alike and composed of letters. Verse 11 (15) develops this concept as it discusses the sexualized mode of their creation by letters: “What does the Bet resemble? It is like a man, formed by God with wisdom. The Alef, however, is open from behind. This teaches us that the tail of the Bet is open from behind. If not for this, man could not exist. Likewise, if not for the bet on the tail of the aleph, the world could not exist.”44 This shows the letters, first of all, sharing substance by means of encompassment—the bet is within the aleph. This relationship of encompassment, according to Elliot Wolfson, is a key feature of early theosophy.45 Both letters are also open; the bet is open so that man can exist and the aleph so that the world can exist. This is clearly a narrative of creation by sexual reproduction, of the human being through the opening in the bet, the world through the opening in the aleph. The gendering here is flexible—both the male and the female letters have reproductive openings.46

Subsequent passages develop this notion to assert something more radical—that God is a man and that letters also constitute the divine body. Verse 18 (26) glosses Exodus 15:3, describing God as an ish Milchamah, or man of war:

Rabbi Amorai said:

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