The Book of Raziel the Great

(From [heat], moisture becomes fire, and when the heat becomes fire, light remains. This light is itself warm and good. This is the meaning of "You shall know this day and take it to your heart" Deuteronomy 4:39—for He performed all these things. God is the Actor; there is none like Him. He acted, He created everything, and He fills everything.) The spirit of man is in the heart, for all thoughts are in the heart. Without the heart, there is no wisdom, as it is said: "For the matter is very close to you, in your mouth and in your heart" Deuteronomy 30:14. Therefore, it is called Lev Heart; in Hebrew, LB—meaning one should think from the Beit the first letter of the Torah, in the word Bereshit to the Lamed the last letter of the Torah, in the word Yisrael, which together spell Lev. Therefore, the Sefer Yetzirah The Book of Formation; an ancient foundational text of Jewish mysticism begins with the thirty-two The numerical value of Lev is 32 paths of wisdom through which the world was created. The heart thinks: "The Holy One, Blessed be He, created me, and He is with me in all my states and bears witness to me."

From a drop from my father and mother, He created a form Golem; an unformed physical mass containing ten things. These are: skin, flesh, sinews, bones, marrow, blood, hair, nails, and the black and white parts of the eyes. Correspondingly, the Holy One, Blessed be He, gives him ten things of His own. These are: the soul (Neshamah), the features of the face, the hearing of the ear, the sight of the eye, the scent of the nose, the speech of the lips, the habits of the tongue, the use of the hands, the walking of the feet, and wisdom and understanding. The spirit of man immerses the whole body just as the wind/spirit Ruach; the Hebrew word means both "spirit" and "wind" surrounds the whole world. This is to say that man is a "small world" The concept of the Microcosm, and there is no air without spirit. Therefore, a person should think: "How fortunate am I to have been created in the image and likeness, and that He gave me speech to serve the King of Glory, and gave me a spirit that is deposited in His hand every time I sleep. If He wishes, He could take my breath away—so how could I sin?" I shall pass before Him in joy and gladness and nullify the pleasures of this world for the pleasures of the World to Come.

There are six vocal sounds: A, E, I, O, U The text lists five vowel sounds represented by Hebrew points: Kamatz, Tzere, Chirik, Cholam, Shuruk corresponding to the six constellations embedded in the celestial sphere. Six rise by day and night; however, they shine but are not seen during the day because of the power of the sun. Sometimes they sink and sometimes they rise. So too are the six "Kings" among the musical accents Cantillation marks used to chant the Bible that serve above: Zarka, Revi'i, Gerishim, etc.; and from below six: Atnach, Revi'a, etc.

He made the letter Aleph (א) king over the wind, bound a crown to it, permuted them one with another, and formed with them: Man in the world, and saturation in the year, and the body in the soul, male and female. The male with AMSh אמש - the three "Mother Letters" of the Hebrew alphabet according to the Sefer Yetzirah: Aleph (Air), Mem (Water), Shin (Fire) and the female with AShM אשם - a permutation of the same letters. The explanation is: He made Aleph king at the head of speech and permuted the letters with one another—all of them with Aleph—making them into two formations. He built the first as AMSh and the second as AShM. He formed a spirit from His spirit and formed with it the air in the world, saturation in the year, and the body in the soul. Every thing that is a mediator: for according to the three the mother letters they were created from the spirit from the chest and the heart, which is the body cast between the belly and the head. He birthed the soul of the spirit in every existing thing: male in AMSh and female in AShM. There is a quality in the air of the world that grows, births, and makes females fruitful among creatures, among plants, and among fruits. And there is saturation that births and grows females among creatures and plants in everything. For everything that has heat and a body, there is AMSh and AShM.

The spirit of God fills everything. He turned the air of the world to be a space so that the world might live by the breathing of the spirit. For without space and air, no creature could live; if it were blocked at its source, it would have no air, and where there is no air, there is no spirit, and death is immediate. Therefore, from His holy spirit, He fills every space in all four directions. This is the meaning of "And by the breath of His mouth, all their host" Psalm 33:6—the spirit is the breath of life. Therefore, it was created with Aleph, the Spirit: for a person cannot say "A" except by opening his mouth and letting out breath. The spirit comes from the heart in the middle of the belly, where the spirit serves. Likewise, the spirit comes from the nose, which is the mediator between the eyes. And the spirit comes from the heart, which is in the middle between the trachea and the lungs. For the Holy Spirit comes from the Throne, which is the mediator between the camps the angelic hosts; this is the Spirit of God. Likewise, the Ark is the mediator between the camps, from which the spirit goes out to the prophet. Beneath the Throne of Glory, there is a space like a hollowed-out pit Original: agur, and there are the spirits, as it is said: "The soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord your God" 1 Samuel 25:29. It is prepared in the space of the mouth—the palate and the tongue—for there is a height in the palate like a ship, and in it is the spirit. There is a spring under the tongue like the rivers around the Throne. As for the space like a pit under the Throne of Glory, this is "I went down to the garden of nuts" Song of Songs 6:11; a play on the word Egoz (nut) and Agur (pit/hollow). A marginal gloss here notes: This refers to the depths of the Chariot/Merkavah. Therefore: "He was seen upon the wings of the wind," for they are light. For the spirit is the head of all creatures, and the spirit only rules in a place of spirit—therefore it is called Ruach Spirit/Wind.

The letter Resh (ר) is at the beginning of the word Ruach because the spirit of man is in his head, and from there it exits where it was breathed in, as it is said: "And He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life" Genesis 2:7. It is also written: "The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters" Genesis 1:2—this is the spirit of man, for he lived 930 years. Like the word Ruach (ר-ו-ח) spelled out: Reish, Vav, Chet—the numerical value Gematria is 930. The text calculates the full spelling of the letters of Ruach to equal the years of Adam's life. Wherever it is written "Spirit of God," it refers to a strong spirit that the prophet feels the Holy One, Blessed be He, walking within. Ruach spelled backward is Chur meaning a hole or opening (this is His messenger from the "hole"). Ruach in the Atbash A cipher where the first letter is replaced by the last, second by second-to-last, etc. system is SPG (ספ"ג), for there are tablets with small holes like a sponge (Sfog). When the wind blows through the spirit, rain descends little by little to the earth; this is the meaning of "He causes His wind to blow, and the waters flow" Psalm 147:18.

Concerning the Spirit and its Power

The word Ruach (Spirit) has three letters. Three times the spirit went out without measure in the days of Job, Elijah, and Jonah. The spirit performs three actions: it breaks rocks, shatters mountains, and brings forth fire. As it is written of Elijah: "A great and strong wind (Ruach) rent the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord" 1 Kings 19:11. And it is written in Ezekiel: "And behold, a stormy wind... and a fire infolding itself" Ezekiel 1:4. The letter Reish is at the head of Ruach, and Reish in small gematria is 2, for the spirit orbits for two hundred years, as it says: "The wind goes toward the south... and the wind returns on its circuits" Ecclesiastes 1:6. The letter Yod (י) Perhaps referring to the 10 aspects of spirit is in the spirit, for ten matters of spirits were said regarding the Messiah: 1. Spirit of wisdom, 2. Spirit of understanding, 3. Counsel, 4. Might, 5. Knowledge, 6. Fear of the Lord... 8. Regarding the spirit, there are eight types of spirits: 1. A spirit of vengeance ("My spirit shall not judge"), 2. The spirit that blows in the world ("The spirit of God hovered"), 3. A spirit of angels, as it is written "not in the wind was the Lord," and the Targum Yonatan translates "as the angels of the spirit, the Presence of the Lord," for He "makes His angels spirits," 4. The spirit of human beings, as it says "The God of the spirits [of all flesh]," 5. A broad spirit to execute judgment—this is the "spirit of judgment," 6. A spirit that sees visions and is terrified—this is "the spirit of God terrified him," 7. A spirit of tyranny/boldness that fears nothing, even if he is weak, he has a spirit of tyranny, and this is...