Creation Stories in Mystical Jewish Texts

(1) In thirty-two most occult and wonderful paths of wisdom did Yah the Lord of Hosts engrave his name: God of the armies of Israel (Tzevaot Elohai Yisrael), ever-living God (Elohim Hayim), merciful and gracious (v’Melekh Olam), sublime, dwelling on high (El Shaddai), who inhabiteth eternity. He created this universe by the three derivatives: Writing (SePHeR) Numbers (SePHoR), and Speech (SiPuR).

(2) Ten are the numbers, as are the Sefirot, and twenty-two the letters [of the Hebrew alphabet], these are the Foundation of all things. Of these letters, three are 'mothers', seven are 'double', and twelve are 'simple'.

(3) The ten numbers [the numerals represented by the letters Aleph through Teth] formed from nothing are the Decad: these are seen in the fingers of the hands, five on one, five on the other, and over them is the Covenant by voice spiritual, and the rite of Circumcision; corporeal.

(1) The foundations are the twenty-two letters, three 'mothers', seven 'double', and twelve 'single letters'. Three 'mothers', namely Aleph, Mem, Shin, represent Air, Water, and Fire: Aleph mute as Water, Shin hissing as Fire, and Mem as air of a spiritual type, is as balance, standing erect between them and pointing out the equilibrium which exists, speaking.

(2) He hath formed, weighed, transmuted, composed, and created with these twenty-two letters every living being, and every soul yet uncreated.

(3) Twenty-two letters are formed by the voice, impressed on the air, and audibly uttered in five situations: in the throat as guttural sounds; in the palate as palatals; by the tongue as linguals; through the teeth as dentals; and by the lips as labial sounds.

(4) These twenty-two letters, the foundations, He arranged as on a sphere, with two hundred and thirty-one modes. If the sphere be rotated forward, good is implied, if in a retrograde manner evil is intended.

(5) For He indeed showed the mode of combination of the letters, each with each, Aleph with all, and all with Aleph. Thus in combining all together in pairs are produced these two hundred and thirty-one gates of knowledge. And from Nothingness did He make something, and all forms of speech and every created thing, and from the empty void He made the solid earth, and from the non-existent He brought forth Life.

(6) He hewed, as it were, immense columns or colossal pillars, out of the intangible air, and from the empty space. And this is the impress of the whole, twenty-one letters, all from one the Aleph.

(1) The three mother [letters] Aleph, Mem, and Shin, their foundation is a pan (of a scale) of culpability and a pan of merit, and the tongue of decree decides between them.

(2) The three mothers - Aleph, Mem, Shin - a mighty mystery, most occult and most marvelous, sealed as with six rings, and from them proceed Fire, Water, [and Air]; these are subsequently differentiated into male and female. Three mothers - Aleph, Mem, Shin, their foundation. And from them were born fathers and all was created from them.

(3) The three mother letters - Aleph, Mem, and Shin - are air, water, and fire in the world. Heaven is created from Fire [the shin in shamayim]; the Earth from Water [the mem in mayim]; and the Air [the aleph in ’avir] which decides between the fire and the water.

(4) During the year, or in regards to time in general, these three mothers represent Hot, Cold, and Warm. The hot from the fire, the cold from the water, and the warm from the spiritual air, which again is an equalizer between them. These three mothers again represent in the Microcosm human form, male and female; the Head, the Belly, and the Chest. The head from the hot fire, the belly from cold water, and the chest from the warm air that lieth between them.

(5) These three mothers did He create, form, and design, and with the three mothers combine in the world, and in the year, and in Man, both male and female.

(6) He caused Aleph to reign in the air, and crowned it, and combined one with the other, and with these He sealed the Air in the world, the warmth of the year, and the chest (the lungs) in man; the male with Aleph-Mem-Shin, the female with Aleph-Shin-Mem.

(7) He caused Mem to predominate in Water, and crowned it, and combined it with others, and formed Earth in the world, cold in the year, and the belly in the soul, male and female, male with Mem-Aleph-Shin and female with Mem-Shin-Aleph.

(8) He caused Shin to reign in Fire and crowned it, and He combined one with the other, and sealed them, as heaven in the universe, as heat in the year, and as the head of Man and Woman. [Male with Shin-Aleph-Mem and female with Shin-Mem-Aleph.]

(2) Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba said: “In the first four words of the Torah, IN THE BEGINNING THE CREATOR CREATED Et – Beresheet Barah Elohim Et, the first two words begin with the letter Bet, and the following two begin with Aleph". It is said that, “When the Creator thought to create the world, all of the letters were still concealed, and even 2,000 years before the creation of the world, the Creator gazed into the letters and played with them.

(3) When the Creator thought to create the world, all the letters of the alphabet came to Him in reverse order from last to first. The letter Tav entered first and said, “Master of the world! It is good, and also seemly of You, to create the world with me, with my properties. For I am the seal on Your ring, called EmeT, that ends with the letter Tav. And that is why You are called truth, and why it would befit the King to begin the universe with the letter Tav, and to create the world by her, by her properties. The Creator answered: “You are beautiful and sincere, but do not merit the world that I conceived to be created by your properties, since you are destined to be marked on the foreheads of the truly faithful who fulfill all of Torah from Aleph to Tav, and perished because of you”