Book · Jewish Mysticism · the 1280s
Ancient Voice, Castilian Hand
An Aramaic mystical commentary on the Torah, written in Castile in the 1280s.
SignificanceThe book's own rule of reading: the Torah has a garment, a body and a soul. Fools see only the garment of stories; the wise look to the soul.
The FindingScholem gave the Zohar to Moses de León, 1281–86, and defended the act: pseudepigraphy "is far removed from forgery". Liebes argued in 1993 for a circle of authors.
Book · Jewish Mysticism · 10th century
Ten Numbers, Twenty-Two Letters
A short early Hebrew treatise on creation by ten sefirot and the twenty-two letters of the alphabet.
SignificanceGod created by thirty-two paths of wisdom, ten sefirot and twenty-two letters; he carved and combined the letters, forming with them the soul of every formed being.
The FindingIts sefirot are not yet a Tree: at 1:14 they are breath, water, fire and the six directions. Chajes (2022) gives tree parchments seven hundred years.
Being · Jewish Mysticism · 6th century
Ancient Rite, Modern Legend
A man of clay brought alive by letters: mute, obedient, and dangerous the moment its maker forgets.
Who they wereIn the Polish telling Jacob Grimm printed in 1808, Aemaeth, truth, is written on its forehead. Rub out the first letter and Maeth, dead, remains: it falls back to clay.
The FindingThe Prague golem's earliest known printing is an 1834 footnote in a German novel, 225 years after Judah Loew died. Its best-known plot is Yudl Rosenberg's, 1909.
