Sefer HaBahir
ספר הבהיר
merged
https://www.sefaria.org/Sefer_HaBahir
This file contains merged sections from the following text versions:
-Sefaria Community Translation
-https://www.sefaria.org
-Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from "Kabbalah and Ecology"
-http://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Ecology-Image-More-Than-Human-World/dp/1107081335 

Sefer HaBahir





...  A parable, to what does the thing compare? To a king that wanted to build a palace . . . He cut [through] rock . . . and a great spring of water emerged for him, living water. The king said: Since I have flowing water, I will plant a garden, and I will delight in it, I and all the world.
















... I am the one that planted this tree/ilan, [for] all the world to delight in, and I hammered out all/kol with him (the tree), and I called his name “the Whole/All /hakol”, for all depends on him, and all comes out from him. And all are needing him, and through/to him they gaze and for him they wait. And from there bloom/grow the souls in joy. Alone was I when I made him . . . for in the time when I hammered out my earth, I planted and rooted this tree in her, and I rejoiced together [with him] and I rejoiced in them.
R’ R’chumai said: From your word we learn that the Holy One created the need of this world before the heavens. He said to him: Thus so. 
R’ Yanai said: The earth was created before the heavens, as it says, “[in the day of YHVH Elohim’s making] earth and heavens” [Gn 2:4]. They said to him: But isn’t it written, “[Elohim created] the heavens (first) and the earth”? He said to them: To what does the thing compare? To a king who took possession of a beautiful, precious thing, and it wasn’t complete . . . He said, “I will complete it and prepare its mounting and its setting, and then  I will call out its name over it . . . ”






R’ Amorai said: Gan Eden, where is it? He said to them: In the earth.




































Rabbi Ruchamai’s students asked him, “That which it is written (Habakkuk 3:1), ‘A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon <i>shigionot</i>’ - a prayer? It should be, ‘a praise.” Rather regarding anyone who frees his heart from matters of the world and looks at the Act of the Chariot (<i>Maaseh Merkavah</i>), it is received before the Holy One, blessed be He, as if prays the whole day; as it is stated, “A prayer.” What is “<i>Shigionot</i>?” It is as it is written (Proverbs 5:19), “in her love shall you always be infatuated (<i>tishgeh</i>.” But [towards] what is it? The Act of the Chariot, as it is written (Habakkuk 3:2), “O Lord, I have learned of Your renown; I am awed.”


























... “The advantage/profit/surplus/yitron of the land/arets over All /bakol is a king” [Ec 5:8] – And what is yitron? A place from which is carved out the earth/arets . . . And what is this “earth”? That from her was carved out the Whole /hakol, and from him (hakol) was carved out heavens, and he is the throne of the Holy One, and he is a precious stone, and he is the sea of wisdom. 
And corresponding to her (the earth) is the deep-blue/t’cheilet of the tsitsit (the corner fringes on a prayer shawl). For R’ Meir said: How is t’cheilet different from all kinds of colors? Because t’cheilet resembles the sea and the sea resembles the firmament and the firmament resembles the throne of glory, as it is said, “And they saw Israel’s God and under His feet [was something] like sapphire brick-work and like the essence of the heavens for purity” [Ex 24:10] and it says, “like the appearance/mar’eh of sapphire stone, a likeness of a throne / d’mut kisei’” [Ez 1:26]. 






















And what would the tree be that you spoke of? He said to him: [It is] the powers/kochot of the Holy One, this on back of this, and they resemble/domin a tree: just as this tree, by means of the waters, brings out fruit, even so the Holy One by means of the waters increases the powers of the tree. And what are these waters of the Holy One? They are wisdom, and they are the souls/n’shamot of the righteous that bloom/grow/fly/por’chin from the spring unto the great channel. And he goes up and joins with the tree, and by what means does [the tree] bloom/grow? By means of Israel, [for] when they are righteous and good, Shekhinah rests among them, and through their deeds she rests in the bosom of the Holy One, and makes them fruitful and increases them.