The Charlotte Jewish News- October 2026- Page 36
The Fiery Wheels of God: New Czech Translation for Jewish Mysticism
By Hagay Hacohen
During a hot Prague summer afternoon, Czech readers queued to say their thanks to Helena Beinish, who translated a new Czech publication of“ Sefer Yetzira”( Book of Creation), allowing today’ s Bohemian readers to come along for the ride – and get a signed copy – of this spiritual road map.
The sparingly written book describes much. Its unknown author takes the reader by hand on a remarkable journey. Together, they reimagine how the world was created as if the Holy One, Blessed be He“ chiseled large pillars from air.”
The cosmos, in this vision, is made from pulsing Hebrew letters. The building blocks of language are tied to the heavenly bodies above the Earth, Zodiac signs, and the human body itself. Each letter was created, crowned, given a star to rule, and a portion of the human body to impact.
Samech, for example, rules Sagittarius, the month of Kislev, and the stomach. Rabbi Saadia Gaon thought these ideas were written down during the second century. Modern scholarship is still not sure when, exactly, this happened. Regardless,“ Sefer Yetzira,” is an important piece of evidence to a Jewish mystical tradition that runs alongside conventional, Torah-focused, Jewish community life. In some traditions, the mystic relates to the secret teachings via his or her own body, with its left and right sides, 10 fingers, and tongue.
With a staunch nod to Prague, the city was linked by writer Gustav Meyrink to a clay-made protector powered by Hebrew letters – Emet( Truth) written on its forehead, Beinish made an erudite joke.“ One doesn’ t study Lurianic Kabbalah to make a golem,” she said.
The joke is based on the different things grouped into the huge body of work we call Jewish Mysticism. Isaac Luria( Ha’ ari), who taught in 16th-century Safed, described such a complex, elaborate system that studying it with the purpose of building a golem can be likened to earning a doctorate in oceanography to paddle a kayak.
In her first book,“ Maase Merkava,” Beinish explored earlier traditions of Jewish mystics who wished to ascend into heavens and gain a vision of the Holy One on his Throne( a merkava or
a chariot) surrounded by angels.“ Another goal might be to summon the angel called Sar haTora, who would enable him( the mystic) to memorize the whole Torah,” she pointed out. The process to summon this divine being is a long and arduous one, involving fasting and other ascetic practices, as well as using secret names and invocations. Crudely put, the desire to bring a divine being down is not the same as a desire to go up and visit the divine halls.
The brevity and structure of“ Sefer Yetzira” made it appealing to non-Jewish readers too.
Many agreed with Saadia Gaon that“ Sefer Yetzira” was secret knowledge given to Abraham. Yet, to them, this Jewish text contained invisible keys that might open mystery locks left by the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, as well as astrology and alternative healing.
In this view, secret Jewish teachings were not so much“ Jewish” as a bridge built by Jewish hands from the deep past of ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Greece to the here and now.
Czech occultists of note include pilot, and highly controversial figure, Pierre de Lasenic
Handwritten notes prepared by astrologer Otakar Griese.
( Petr Pavel Kohout) and the spiritual teacher Franz Bardon, who allegedly refused to join occult Nazi efforts when his native land was occupied. Astrologer Otakar Griese translated“ Sefer Yetzira” into Czech in 1921. His pioneering work can be read in the Gershom Scholem collection at the
National Library in Jerusalem.
“ People say‘ Sefer Yetzira’ is mystical,” said Beinish at the end of her book signing.“ But actually, it’ s about cosmology, what the universe consists of, and cosmogony or how these things were formed.” charlottejewishfoundation. org
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