Using Holy Names and Sefer Yetzira
על שימוש בשמות קדושים וספר יצירה
The Sages said that one who knows the secret of God’s names and of the letters in Sefer Yetzira can create things in the world through holy names and combinations of letters, and there is no prohibition for the righteous to do so (Sanhedrin 67b; SA 179:15). For such creation is in accordance with the rules by which the world was created, and it involves no turning to forces of impurity that would circumvent and disrupt the regular order of God’s governance of the world. “Rava said: If the righteous wished, they could create a world.” That is, if the righteous were free of sin, they could create a world. In practice, however, they cannot, as it is stated (Yeshayahu 59:2): “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Sanhedrin 65b). They can, however, create various creatures, as is related about Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya, who would sit every Friday and engage in the laws of creation (hilkhot yetzira), and a third-grown calf would be created for them, and they would eat it (Sanhedrin 67b). Rashi explains that they did not do so intentionally; rather, because they were engaged in Sefer Yetzira, it was created of its own accord. In any case, they did not do this for personal needs, for it is forbidden to make use of holy names and Sefer Yetzira for one’s livelihood or other personal needs. Similarly it is related (Sanhedrin 65b) about Rava that he created a golem in the likeness of a man, but his colleague R. Zeira was not pleased with this and returned it to its dust. Apparently, according to Rambam and those who agree with him (above 19:4), all these accounts of creating and forming things are only parables, and not events that actually happened.
In practice, the vast majority of the Sages of Israel did not try to create or change things with the help of holy names and Sefer Yetzira, for this is not the proper way to cleave to God and add goodness and blessing to the world. Rather, the straight path that God gave Israel to cleave to Him is through Torah study and the observance of the mitzvot. And the more Israel delves into the Torah and its secrets, the more they know how to observe the mitzvot and add life and blessing to themselves and to the world in the most stable, profound and excellent way.¹
Notes (1)
- Sanhedrin 67b: “Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya would engage in the laws of creation every Shabbat eve, and a third-grown calf would be created for them, and they would eat it.” Rashi explains that the calf was created from combinations of the letters of the Name, through which the world was created (on the names through which life flows from Him, blessed be He, see above 19:6-8). Similarly, the Sages said that Moshe killed the Egyptian with the Explicit Name (Shemot Rabba 1:30; Rashi, Shemot 2:14); the Urim Ve-Tumim too answered by means of the Explicit Name within them (Rashi, Shemot 28:30; above 17:2). And there is no prohibition in this, for this is the order of the world, as the Rid wrote there: “Whatever a person does with the holy names is permitted, for it is the greatness and glory of the Holy One, blessed be He; and only one who acts through demons is forbidden.” So too wrote Meiri (Sanhedrin 68a). And so wrote Maharal (Sanhedrin 67b): “And this is not something that departs from the order of the world… and He forbade only action that does not come from God, blessed be He, and that is sorcery, which contradicts the heavenly entourage.” According to Rashi (67b) and Yad Ramah (65b), Rav Ḥanina and Rav Oshaya intended to engage in the esoteric wisdom, and as a result a calf was created for them of its own accord, not that their aim was to make it. And from Piskei Rid (67b) the implication is that they intended to create it. One must say that all their needs for Shabbat were already prepared, and they did not do this because of their poverty but for the sake of Heaven. So too wrote Responsa Rashba 1:413. And so wrote Ben Yehoyada on Sanhedrin 65b, that they created a calf for the sake of Heaven, “to show the power of the holiness of the holy names,” but in truth such meat does not nourish, and therefore the prophet Eliyahu was nourished by what the ravens brought him, and there would have been no benefit in creating meat. The Rosh, Sanhedrin 7:8, brought an interpretation that they did not create a calf, but demons brought it from elsewhere, and this is according to the view that there is no prohibition against using demons (below 26:10). So too wrote Rabbeinu Yeruḥam 17:5. And Responsa Radbaz 3:405 wondered at this, saying it is impossible that they made use of demons. Creating a golem: According to Rashi, Yad Ramah and Maharal on Sanhedrin 65b, Rava created a golem in the likeness of a man through Sefer Yetzira. However, Rabbeinu Ḥananel wrote: “Rava created a man through holding the eyes (illusion).” Yad Ramah rejected his words, because “holding the eyes is effective only when the one holding and the one held are present together.” Some explain that the golem cannot speak or hear, and therefore its status is like that of an animal. Some discussed the question of whether such a golem counts toward a minyan (Ḥakham Tzvi 93; She’ilat Yaavetz 2:82), but others wondered at them, for since it has no soul it is like an animal, and it is clear that it does not count toward a minyan (Ḥida, Mar’it Ayin, and Maharsha on Sanhedrin 65b, and likewise Birkei Yosef, OḤ 55:4; Kli Ḥemda, Metzora 1. And see Divrei Ḥalomot 6 by R. Tzadok). There are traditions that certain rabbis, such as the Maharal of Prague, created a golem that could move like a man but not speak, since it had no soul. However, there is no testimony to this, and the biographies of the Maharal do not mention it, implying that it is not a true story (so wrote Rav Shir, who served as rabbi in Prague, Gal Ed, p. 51, and others). (See further the words of R. Ḥayim of Volozhin in his introduction to Sifra De-tzeni’uta.)