Kabbalah's Secret Circles

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"Kabbalah's Secret Circles" Contents

This is a sample of the Table of Contents and links to pages in the new book, "Kabbalah's Secret Circles" by author Robert E. Zucker.

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Table of Contents

Judaic Mysticism in Biblical Times 14

• Adam and the Book of Raziel’s Secrets 16
• Moses receives the Oral Tradition 28
• Abraham’s Book of Holy Letters 29
• Angelic beings– the Sons of God 31
• Cherubim– Guardians of the Tree of Life 33
• The Early Centuries of Judaic Mysticism 38

After the Common Era– CE 38

• 72 Mystical Names: Shem Ha Meforesh 41
• The ‘72 Sacred Names’ Formula 42
• The 72 Names of the Angels 47
• Merkabah– Riding the Chariot 50
• Ezekiel’s Vision of the Chariot 51
• The four rabbis who entered the Garden 54
• Rabbi Akiba’s secret alphabet 58
• The Mystical 22 Hebrew Letters 59
• The Hebrew Vowels 62
• Tetragrammaton: The Four Sacred Vowels 63
• The Tree of Life 64
• The 70 Languages 66
• The Book of Formation– SEFER YETZIRAH 67
• Hilkhot Yezirah vs. Sefer Yezirah 75
• The Creation of a Calf– "ha-Bore’m Agalim" 76
• The Creation of the Golem 80
• Jacob’s sons’ golem 83
• Jeremiah the Prophet’s golem 85
• Teraphim– the “nourishers” 87
• Egyptian Ushabti 90
• Combining the Hebrew Letters- Tzeruf 92
• Creation of the World by the Letters 96
• Harkavah– Grafting Letters 97
• Letter Permutation Methods 98
• ‘AL-BM’ Method 99
• ‘AYQ BeKer’ Method 100
• ‘AT-BASH’ Method 101
• The Four Worlds of Kabbalah 102
• Abracadabara! “I create as I speak” 103

6th-9th Century (500-899) 106

10th Century (900-999) 108

• Rise of the Golden Age of Jewish Mysticism 108
• Sa’adiah Gaon’s Commentary 110
• Shabbathai Donnolo’s Commentary 113
• Dunash Tamin’s Commentary 114
• More 10th Century Commentaries 115

11th Century (1000-1099) 116

• Gabirol and his maid servant 117
• Rashi and the SEFER YETZIRAH 119
• Rabbi Ezra’s golem and teraphim 120
• The 231 Gates 121

12th Century (1100-1199) 124

• Kabbalah movement takes form 124
• Maimonides– the Rambam 127
• Isaac the Blind’s Mystic Visions 128
• Hewing and engraving the Hebrew letters 131
• Gilgilim– revolving souls 134
• The Living Soul: Nefesh 134
• The Spiritual Soul: Ruach 136
• The Holy Soul: Neshamah 136
• Nachmanides– the Ramban 137
• Azriel, founder of speculative Kabbalah 137
• Rabbi Eleazar of Worms 139
• R. Eleazar’s Book of Secrets– SODEI RAZAYYA 140 R. Eleazar’s Commentary on SEFER YETZIRAH 142

13th Century (1200-1299) 148

• The Vowels– Souls of the Letters 149
• Circling Objects 150

13th Century Mysticism Manuscripts 151

• The Brilliance of the Zohar 154
• Abraham Abulafia– Prophetic Kabbalah 155
• Christian Cabala in the 13th Century 164

14th Century (1300-1399) 166

• Color and the Kabbalah 170

15th Century (1400-1499) 172

• Editions of Sefer Yetzirah 173
• Christians Further Introduced to the Cabala 174
• The Golem in Cabalah 175

16th Century (1500-1599) 177

• Rabbi Cordovero’s view of the golem 179
• Rabbi of Chelm’s golem 181
• Rabbi Galante’s instructions 184 Rabbi Loew’s golem 186
• Christian Cabalah takes hold 190
• Sefer Raziel– the Grimoire 193

17th Century (1600-1699) 195

• Christian Cabalists perpetuate the legends 197

18th Century (1700-1799) 201

• The Gra Commentary 202
• Numerous Sefer Yetzirah copies republished 203
• Goethe’s “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” 205

19th Century (1800-1899) 206

• Editions of SEFER YETZIRAH 206
• The golem Inside the Soul 207
• The golem in the Christian world 208
• 19th century editions of SEFER YETZIRAH 218
• 19th century secular versions 224

20th Century (1900-1999) 226

21st Century (2000-on) 248

Appendix 252

Hebrew & English Letters 252

Letter Correspondences 254

Sefer Yetzirah Chapters 255

Chapter One: The 10 Sephiroth 257

• 1.1: The 32 Paths 257
• 1.2: The 10 Sephiroth & 22 Letters 258
• 1.3: Five Opposite Five 259
• 1.4: Examine and Probe Them 261
• 1.5: Depths of the 10 Sephiroth 262
• 1.6: Appearance of Lightning 263
• 1.7: Like a Flame to Coal 264
• 1.8: The Chayot “Running & Returning” 265
• 1.9: The Holy Breath 266
• 1.10: The 22, 3, 7 and 12 267
• 1.11: Water from Breath 268
• 1.12: Fire from Water 269
• 1.13: The 6 Directions in Space 270
• 1.14: Summary 272

Chapter 2 273

• 2.1: The 22 Letters- 3, 7 & 12 273
• 2.2: Engrave the 22 Letters 274
• 2.3: Set Them in 5 Places 275
• 2.4: The Wheel Rotates 276
• 2.5: Alef with all of Them 277
• 2.6: Creatio ex-nihilo 278

Create a Kabbalah Wheel 302

• Instructions to devise a Kabbalah Wheel 304
• Spinning the Kabbalah Wheel 315
• Rotating the Wheel 320

Major Editions of SEFER YEZIRAH 322

Editions of the BOOK OF RAZIEL 326

Author Biography 327

Digging deep into the mystical past 327

Index 330

Books by Robert Zucker

• Selection of my occult and Kabbalah library now available for sale!

Purchase Kabbalah items on Amazon: bracelet, posters, books, DVDs, CDs.

Kabbalah Manuscripts

"Hermetics"

"Living Inside Your Dreams"

Robert Zucker is an author, print and Internet publisher and former college instructor in journalism.

New books on Kabbalah

After studying the Kabalah and the occult for more than 40 years, I'm writing aseveral books on the ancient Qabalah, Sefer Yetzirah (The Book of Creation), Sefer Raziel (The Book of Secrets) and dream awareness (astral projection). If you are interested in copies, they will be available on Amazon.com. Email me if you want to be informed when the books are published at bob@emol.org.

Selling Part of My Occult & Kabbalah Library

To downside my collection of thousands of some hard-to-find, rare, out of print and great condition books, copies are for sale on Amazon.com. These books date from the 1980s and earlier- usually in hard cover or early editions. Browse a selection of my available library on Qabalah, parapsychology, Hermetics and other occult topics. New books constantly added. Visit and purchase on Amazon: Robert Zucker Collection on Amazon.

How to spell Qabalah or Kabbalah?

The word 'Qabalah' comes from the Hebrew word that means "tradition." The Hebrew letters Q, B and L spell Qa Ba Lah. The most common way to write the word in English today is: Kabbalah. It is often spelled as Qabalah to retain the more ancient influence. The word Kabbalah is also spelled several other ways, such as Kabalah, Kaballah, Cabala, etc.

Some Kabbalah groups only focus on the religious aspects of the Tree of Life. Other Kabbalistic groups practice with mystic meditations, magical techniques and chants. Either way, they depend on the original Jewish study of the Qabalah to achieve their goals. Both theoretical and practical magic uses the Qabalah as its source.

What are the best Kabbalah sources?

There is no one book on Kabbalah. Since the Kabbalah was mostly transmitted by word of mouth, there were various interpretations between groups of Kabbalists. Over the past 2,000 years, several handwritten Kabbalistic manuscripts began circulating. Eventually, they were printed and became available to the masses.

The "Sefer Yetzirah," The Bahir, The Zohar and "Sefer Raziel HaMalach" are some of the most popular handbooks of Kabbalah that exist today. The are freely available in bookstores, online and libraries.