linguistic theory of creation in which God creates the universe by combining the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, along with emanations represented by the ten numerals, or sefirot.
- By thirty-two mysterious paths of wisdom Yah has engraved all things, who is the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, the living God, the Almighty God, He that is uplifted and exalted, He that Dwells forever, and whose Name is holy; having created His world by three derivatives of the Hebrew root-word sefar : namely, sefer (a book), sefor (a count) and sippur (a story), along with ten calibrations of empty space, twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, of which three are principal letters (i.e. א מ ש), seven are double-sounding consonants (i.e. בג"ד כפר"ת) and twelve are ordinary letters (i.e. ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק).
These 32 divisions correspond to: the 22 Hebrew Letters, the 10 numbers, the 10 Divine Names of God, the Tetragrammaton, the Hebrew Calendar (7 days & 12 months), the Solar System (7 visible planets & 12 constellations of the zodiac), the 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Boundaries (EastUp/ENorth/ELow), Space (Above/Below, Up/Down, East/West, North/South, Left/Right), Time (Day-Night, Hours, & Past/Present/Future), the 4 Classical Greek Elements (Air, Earth, Fire, Water), the Human Body (Head/Arms/Legs/etc.), the various Human Body Functions, the Mental Foundations (Speech/Thought/Motion/etc), the Mystical Experience (negation of self outside of Time) riding the Teli/Dragon on the Merkava(Chariot), and the function Factorial (eg. 6! =1x2x3x4x5x6=720).
According to the Sefer Yetzirah, the first emanation from the spirit of God was the ruach (רוּחַ rúaħ "spirit", "air") that produced water, which, in its turn, formed the genesis of fire. In the beginning, however, these three substances had only a potential existence, and came into actual being only by means of the three letters Aleph, Mem, Shin; and as these are the principal parts of speech, so those three substances are the elements from which the cosmos has been formed.