# Sefer Raziel HaMalakh

Sefer Raziel HaMalakh (Hebrew: ספר רזיאל המלאך, "the book of Raziel the angel") is a grimoire of Practical Kabbalah from the Middle Ages written primarily in Hebrew and Aramaic. Liber Razielis Archangeli, its 13th-century Latin translation produced under Alfonso X of Castile, survives.

## Textual history

Like other obscure ancient texts such as the Bahir and Sefer Yetzirah, Sefer HaRaziel has been extant in a number of versions. The book cannot be shown to predate the 13th century, but may in parts date back to late antiquity insofar as its title is mentioned in another magical work of late antiquity: The Sword of Moses.
The book claims to have been revealed to Adam by the angel Raziel. Critical historians regard it as a medieval work, most probably originating among the Ashkenazi Hasidim, as citations reliant on the main body content of the work as we receive it begin to appear only in the 12th century. At least one section was available to Ibn Ezra before 1153, when he finished his commentary to Exodus. The likely compiler of the medieval version is Eleazar of Worms, as Sefer Galei Razia, which developed into what we have now as Sefer Raziel, including more writings written by people of various theological opinions. According to Jacob Emden, it was compiled by Abraham Abulafia.

## Contents

Part of a series on :
Kabbalah :
Concepts
Ein Sof
Tzimtzum
Ohr
Ayin and Yesh
Sefirot
Four Worlds
Seder hishtalshelut
Tree of Life
The path of the flaming sword
Merkavah
Jewish angelic hierarchy
Shekhinah
Partzufim
Qlippoth
Tohu and Tikun
Sparks of holiness
Messianic rectification
Gilgul
Kabbalistic astrology
Gematria
Notarikon
Temurah
Names of God in Judaism
Shemhamphorasch
Tzadik
Tzadikim Nistarim
Anthropomorphism in Kabbalah
Panentheism :
History
Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish mysticism
Tannaim
Heichalot
Sefer Yetzirah
Chassidei Ashkenaz
Medieval
Bahir
Toledano tradition
Prophetic Kabbalah
Zohar
Kabbalistic commentaries on the Bible
Mainstream displacement of rationalism with Kabbalah
Renaissance
Selective influence on Western thought
Hermetic Qabalah
Mysticism after Spanish expulsion
Mystics of 16th-century Safed
Cordoveran Kabbalah
Lurianic Kabbalah
Maharal's thought
Popular Kabbalistic Mussar
Early modern
Baal Shem-Nistarim
Sabbatean mystical heresies
Emden–Eybeschutz controversy
Immigration to the Land of Israel
Traditional Oriental Kabbalists
Beit El Synagogue
Eastern European Judaism
Hasidic Judaism / philosophy
Lithuanian Jews
Hasidic-Mitnagdic schism
Modern
Hasidic dynasties
Mysticism in religious Zionism
Academic interest in Jewish mysticism
Non-Orthodox interest in Jewish mysticism
English
James Lees' :
Practices
Torah study
Mystical exegesis
Mitzvot
Minhag
Customary immersion in mikveh
Meditation
Kavanot
Teshuvah
Deveikut
Prayer
Nusach
Tikkun Chatzot
Tikkun Leil Shavuot
Pilgrimage to Tzadik
Pilgrimage to holy grave
Lag BaOmer at Meron
Asceticism
Rosicrucianism
Practical Kabbalah :
People
100s
Four Who Entered the Pardes
Simeon bar Yochai
1100s
Isaac the Blind
Azriel
1200s
Nahmanides
Abraham Abulafia
Joseph ben Abraham Gikatilla
Moses de Leon
Menahem Recanati
1300s
Bahya ben Asher
1400s
1500s
Meir ibn Gabbai
Joseph Karo
Shlomo Alkabetz
Moshe Alshich
Moses ben Jacob Cordovero
Isaac Luria
Chaim Vital
Judah Loew ben Bezalel
1600s
Isaiah Horowitz
Abraham Azulai
1700s
Chaim ibn Attar
Baal Shem Tov
Dov Ber of Mezeritch
Moshe Chaim Luzzatto
Shalom Sharabi
Vilna Gaon
Chaim Joseph David Azulai
Nathan Adler
Schneur Zalman of Liadi
Chaim Volozhin
1800s
Nachman of Breslov
Ben Ish Chai
Shlomo Eliyashiv
1900s
Abraham Isaac Kook
Yehuda Ashlag
Baba Sali
Menachem Mendel Schneerson :
Role
History
Torah
Tanakh
Prophecy
Ruach HaKodesh
Pardes exegesis
Talmudical hermeneutics
Midrash
Jewish commentaries on the Bible
Oral Torah
Eras of Rabbinic Judaism
Generational descent in Halacha
Generational ascent in Kabbalah
Rabbinic literature
Talmudic theology
Halakha
Aggadah
Hakira
Classic Mussar literature
Ashkenazi Judaism
Sephardi Judaism
Modern Jewish philosophies
Jewish studies
Topics
God in Judaism
Divine transcendence
Divine immanence
Free will
Divine providence
Kabbalistic reasons for the 613 Mitzvot
Jewish principles of faith
Jewish eschatology
Primary texts :
vte :
It draws heavily on Sefer Yetzirah and Sefer HaRazim "Book of Secrets". There are multiple manuscript versions, containing up to seven tractates. The printed version of Sefer Raziel is divided into five books, some of it in the form of a mystical midrash on Creation. It features an elaborate angelology, magical uses of the zodiac, gematria, names of God, protective spells, and a method of writing magical healing amulets.
Book six of the Liber Razielis is based on Sefer haRazim, with various additions, including the "Prayer of Adam" of Sefer Adam.
The book became notorious in German Renaissance magic, named together with Picatrix as among the most abominable works of necromancy by Johannes Hartlieb. The prayer of Adam is paraphrased by Nicholas of Cusa in two sermons (Sermo I, 4, 16.25; Sermo XX, 8, 10-13) and further made use of by Johann Reuchlin in his De Arte Cabalistica. Konrad Bollstatter in the 15th century also shows awareness of the Latin version of the "Prayer of Adam" an interpolation in Cgm 252, although he replaces Raziel with Raphael and Seth with Sem.

### Tree of Knowledge

Adam, in his prayer to God, apologized for listening to his wife Eve, who was deceived by the snake into eating from the Tree of Knowledge. According to the Book of Raziel, God sent the highest of the angels, Raziel, to teach Adam the spiritual laws of nature and life on Earth, including the knowledge of the planets, stars and the spiritual laws of creation.
The angel Raziel also taught Adam the knowledge of the power of speech, the power of thoughts and the power of a person's soul within the confines of the physical body and this physical world, basically teaching the knowledge with which one can harmonize physical and spiritual existence in this physical world.
The angel Raziel teaches the power of speech, the energy contained within the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, their combinations and meanings of names.

### Adam and Abraham

According to Jewish traditions, the angel Raziel was sent to Earth to teach Adam, and due to the elevated soul of Abraham, Raziel returned to teach Abraham all the spiritual knowledge and spiritual laws. Raziel was sent to Earth to teach Adam and Abraham the ways of Nature. The Book of Raziel explains everything from astrology to how the creative life energy starts with a thought from the spiritual realms, prior to manifestation as speech and action in this physical world. The eternal divine creative life energy of this earth is love, the book explains the spiritual laws of birth, death, reincarnation of the soul, and many spiritual laws of "change".

## Heptameron

The Heptameron, ascribed to Petrus de Apono, is based on the Book of Raziel.

## Editions

* רזיאל המלאך. Amsterdam (1701) Chabad-Lubavitch Library. Full-text PDF version, in Hebrew, from HebrewBooks.org
* Steve Savedow (trans.), Sepher Rezial Hemelach: The Book of the Angel Rezial, Red Wheel/Weiser (2000), ISBN 978-1-57863-193-3.
* The Book of the Angel Raziel. Volume I / Transl. from Hebrew and Aramaic and comm. by E. V. Kuzmin; editorship and foreword by B. K. Dvinyaninov. — St. Petersburg: Academy Of Culture's Research, 2020. — 264 pp.: illustrated, — (Code Grimoire Series). ISBN 978-5-6045100-3-2 (на русском языке)
* The Book of the Angel Raziel. Volume II / Transl. from Hebrew and Aramaic, afterword and comm. by E. V. Kuzmin; editorship and foreword by B. K. Dvinyaninov. — St. Petersburg: Academy Of Culture’s Research, 2021. — 512 pp.: illustrated, — (Code Grimoire Series). ISBN 978-5-6045100-4-9 (на русском языке)