# Sefer HaTemunah

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
Sholom Dovber Schneersohn
Yedidyah Raphael Chai Abulafiya
Chaim Yehuda Leib Auerbach
1900s
Abraham Isaac Kook
Yehuda Ashlag
Yitzhak Kaduri
Yechiel Fishel Eisenbach
Baba Sali
Menachem Froman
Chaim Kanievsky
Menachem Mendel Schneerson
Gamliel Rabinowitz
Monsieur Chouchani :
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 :
Sefer HaTemunah (Hebrew: ספר התמונה) (lit. "Book of the Figure", i.e. shape of the Hebrew letters) is a 13–14th century kabbalistic text. It is quoted in many sources on Halakha (Jewish religious law).

## Origins

Sefer HaTemunah was probably written anonymously in the 13th or 14th century, but it is pseudepigraphly attributed to Nehunya ben HaKanah and Rabbi Ishmael, tannaim of the 1st and 2nd centuries. According to Hebrew Manuscripts in the Vatican Library Catalog, the work was composed in the 1270s. The first extant edition was published in the city of Korzec in Poland in 1784. Aegidius of Viterbo, a 15th-century cardinal, was influenced by Sefer HaTemunah, as can be seen in his writings Shekhinah and On the Hebrew Letters.

## Concepts
### Sabbatical cycles

One of the main concepts in Sefer HaTemunah is that of the connection of the Sabbatical year (Hebrew: Shmita) with sephirot and the creation of more than one world. The author of Sefer HaTemunah believed that worlds are created and destroyed, supporting this theory with a quote from the Midrash, "God created universes and destroys them." The Talmud (Sanhedrin 97a) states that "Six thousand years shall the world exist, and one [thousand, the seventh], it shall be desolate". Sefer HaTemunah asserts that this 7000-year cycle is equivalent to one Sabbatical cycle. Because there are seven such cycles per Jubilee, the author concludes that the world will exist for 49,000 years.
The Alter Rebbe writes in Torah Ohr,that the author of Sefer HaTemunah believed that the world was currently in the second Sabbatical cycle, corresponding to Gevurah (Severity), which occurs between the cycles Chesed (Kindness) and Tiferet (Adornment).The Alter Rebbe goes so far to say that in the previous Sabbatical cycle there was a completely different world altogether, made up of its own unique purpose and even its own Torah, all in line with the Attribute of Chesed. Sefer HaTemunah offers a description of the final Shmita, Malkuth (Kingdom), as "distinctly utopian" in character. This may explain why the book was widely embraced by Kabbalists.

### Missing letter

Hebrew letters are invested with special meaning in Judaism in general, and in Kabbalah even more so. The creative power of letters is particularly evident in Sefer Yetzirah (Hebrew: book of creation), a mystical text that tells a story of the creation which is based on the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, a story which diverges greatly from that in the Book of Genesis. The creative power of letters is also explored in the Talmud and Zohar.
In Kabbalah, every Shmita corresponds to individual emotional sephirot (the lower seven sephirot from Chessed to Malchut, named middot). 13th-century scholar Nahmanides asserted that the Torah could be read differently through different pronunciation and word divisions. Building on this idea, the author of Sefer HaTemunah asserted that the Torah is read in a different way during each Shmita. The author further stated that one Hebrew letter is missing altogether from the Torah, and will be revealed only when the world moves to the next sephira.
According to Lawrence Kushner, author of The Book of Letters: A Mystical Alef-Bait, Sefer HaTemunah teaches that "every defect in our present universe is mysteriously connected with this unimaginable consonant", and that as soon as the missing letter is given to us, our Universe will be filled with undreamed of new words, the words that will turn repression into loving.
Kushner states that the letter Shin (ש) is of special interest. The letter shin that appears on the small leather cube that holds the tefillin has four prongs rather than the standard three. Some scholars say that this is the missing letter. According to these scholars, the coming revelation of the name and pronunciation of this letter will be what repairs the universe.

## Interpretation of Cosmic Shmitot in later Kabbalah
### View of Luria

From the Medieval flourishing of Kabbalah onwards, attempts were made to systemise its diverse teachings, especially commentaries on the elusive imagery of the Zohar. Sixteenth century Safed saw the realisation of this aim in the two normative, comprehensive versions of Kabbalistic theosophy: the quasi-rational linear scheme of Moshe Cordovero, followed by the supra-rational dynamic scheme of Isaac Luria that replaced it. Their view of the earlier doctrine from Sefer HaTemunah, of previous Cosmic Shmitah cycles before ours, was that previous cycles refer to spiritual processes, not actual creations; our universe being the first physical creation.