Jewish Mysticism by Joseph Dan

Author:Joseph Dan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
Published: 1998-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

SIX

Three Phases of the History of the Sefer Yezira

I

The first period in the history of the Sefer Yezira is the one between the authorship of the book, probably in the third century,1 and the beginning of the tenth century. During this period, apparently, the book was known to very few people, had no impact, and did not influence Jewish culture. It should be remembered that during the six or seven centuries of this phase, most of talmudic and midrashic literature was written, assembled, edited, and organized in the scores of volumes that are before us today. These include, for instance, the great midrash Bereshit Rabba, dealing in great detail with the problems of creation. If our chronological parameters are correct, the editors and redactors of this great midrash had before them the Sefer Yezira. If so, they deliberately ignored it completely, and we cannot find any direct or indirect reference to it, despite the fact that many of their exegeses and ideas referred to central subjects in the Sefer Yezira. During this period, also, the midrash known as the Alpha Beth of Rabbi Akiva was composed,2 relating to the central subject of the Sefer Yezira—the alphabet—yet no connection or reference to it can be found there. Even the late midrash Pirkey de-Rabbi Eliezer, edited after the Islamic conquests and including chapters dealing with the creation, does not refer to this book.3 If indeed the Kalir does refer to the Sefer Yezira, the problem becomes even more demanding, because this serves as a proof that the book was known in the middle of the period in which many midrashim were edited. Why is the Kalir’s reference to it a lonely one, in a period of active, vibrant Hebrew creativity in subjects so close to the Sefer Yezira, when so many opportunities existed to refer to it, either favorably or unfavorably? Other paytanim, especially Jose ben Jose and Yanai, described the creation; none of them made use of any kind to the Sefer Yezira. Why?

This problem is closely related to the question of whether the reference to in the Talmud is indeed connected with our Sefer Yezira,4 but it is a rather complicated relationship, because we should distinguish between the possibility that Rabbi Hanina and Rabbi Hoshaia (and, by implication, Rava as well), indeed used the Sefer Yezira in a version close to the one we have before us, and the possibility that even if they did not, scholars in subsequent generations believed that they did (as did many in the Middle Ages). If these scholars in the fourth century not only knew the Sefer Yezira but studied it and made practical use of it, reflecting a positive attitude toward this work and making this attitude known and even famous by the they presumably created, which undoubtedly is an unusual and attention-demanding talmudic episode, why did all the editors and redactors of the Talmud, the midrashim, and the piyyut ignore this work? It would be regarded as an important work, sanctioned by

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