Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews April 7, 2023 March 31, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
The Sefer Yetzirah, which means “Book of Formation,” is a short book about the theories of ma’aseh bereshit, the mystical account of the creation of the universe. The Sefer Yetzirah is the earliest Hebrew text of speculative mystical Jewish thought, appearing sometime between the third and sixth centuries C.E. Like the theories of ma’aseh bereshit, the Sefer Yetzirah addresses the creation of the universe, drawing heavily on images from the very beginning of Genesis, the first book of the Bible’s Old Testament. Basing its speculations on theories that had long been discussed by kabbalists, the book argues that God created the world with thirty-two secret paths of wisdom. These paths of wisdom are composed of the ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
The first chapter of the Sefer Yetzirah explains the sefirot—the first time the sefirot appear in Jewish literature. The sefirot of the Sefer Yetzirah differ from the ten “aspects of God” that appear later in kabbalistic thought. Here they take the form of numbers with mystical qualities, each one representing the stages of creation. Beginning with the first sefirah, Keter, the sefirot emanate from one another as one number follows another. The first sefirah is the spirit of God. Next come air, water, and fire. From the air come the twenty-two letters of the alphabet. From water comes chaos and from fire come the angels and God’s throne, as described in the ma’seh merkavah. The next six sefirot represent the various dimensions of space. The final sefirah, Shekhinah, represents God’s presence in the world of material reality.
The Torah tends to personify God as a humanlike being who can talk and interact with people on earth—the familiar image of an old bearded man in the sky. The Sefer Yetzirah presents God as an unknowable, genderless force entirely devoid of form or emotion. In the Torah, God creates simply by using the power of his word, his command. But in the Sefer Yetzirah, God creates through emanations, or offshoots, of himself. God becomes a part of the universe, everywhere and nowhere at once, a spirit with infinite power. This initial mystical theory—that the world was created through the emanations of the sefirot—forms the foundation of kabbalistic thought and is the single most powerful source of controversy surrounding Kabbalah. Everything about the sefirot, from where they came from to what they mean, has been disputed by followers of Kabbalah for many hundreds of years.
Please wait while we process your payment