Notes to Sefer Yetzirah

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The Book of Creation

The Sefer Yetzirah "Book of Creation" describes how the universe was created by the "God of Israel" by the Ten Numbers and the Twenty-Two Letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The vowel symbolism seems to have been restricted to the three letters of the Tetragrammaton Yodh (), He (), Waw (). According to the Mothers of Reading the generated variants however may be varied in many ways: 1st letter: , or 2nd and 4th letter: or E1 3rd letter: or , , E, E, , , E, E, , , E, E and even (with a consonant J at the 1st position): J, J, JE, JE (with a consonant H at the 2nd position): H, H, H, H, H,H (with a consonant V/W at the 3 rd position): V, W, EV, EW, V, W, EV, EW, V, W, EV, EW

The results may be ranging from:

Analysis of the Permutations2

If we skip all divine names without a leading I or J the list is to be reduced to the following 6 letter permutations: , , E, E, H, H, in which only IHU has not been found in the relevant lists of names. Obviously (except for ) the first letter was not allowed to be permutated to or . The IOA-permutation seems te be an uncommon exception (used in the Septuagint). Additionally found is IOU, IU, JOV, YOH, YOW (for the Latinazed Jupiter-Jove region) and JEH (in which the H-letter probably escaped the permutations). The permutation of the second letter to O had been used in the Latinazed Jupiter-Jove region and has not been following the Hebrew Mothers of Reading.

Sefer Yetzirah's alphabet

The alphabet itself has been structured as follows (alternative vowels have been highlighted in yellow): Three "Mother" Letters (Aleph air, Mem water, Shin fire) Seven "Doubles" (Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaph, Pe, Resh, Taw) representing the seven days of the week and the planets. Twelve "Simples" (He, Waw, Zayin, Heth, Teth, Yodh, Lamedh, Nun, Samekh, Ayin3, Tsade, Qoph) corresponding to the twelve Hebrew months of the year.

1 The letter E probably should be as long ( ) as all other vowels 2 Permutations of the Trigrammaton YHW 3 In Hebrew a consonant, but developing to the vowels Greek , Latin O, and Cyrillic .

Vowels in the early Semitic Alphabet

From the early Semitic alphabet only the four consonants named Aleph, He, Waw, Yodh, managed to develop vowels: Aleph mostly , He mostly or e, Waw or , Yodh , or .

Notably all produced vowels generally are long vowels. Sometimes the letter H has not been interpreted as a vowel or e, but left as a vowel symbol h (probably interpreted as an eta or ). The Greeks created the long O (O-Mega) from the short O (O-micron). The two sounds "e" and "o" are not archaic, because the original vowels in Hebrew, as in the other Semitic tongues are only a, i, u, that is to say e and o always arise from an obscuring or contraction of these three pure sounds (A.E. Cowley - Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar,1988 Oxford Clarendon Press p. 35)4. The five initial Semitic vocals (A, E, U, I, O) do not correspond to seven planets. And originally probably only three a, i, u had been fundamental vowels at all. However the intermediate vocals may have been in use to represent 7 stages with the help of 3 or 5 symbolic parameters.

Matres Lectionis
Matres Lectionis allow four Hebrew consonants Aleph, He, Waw , Yodh to represent vowels (, , , , - , , , , - , respectively , , ). Generally the Mothers of Reading may generate 5 long vowels from the Hebrew consonants (A,I,H,V): , , , , . These five vocal elements may have existed from the earliest stage, but probably they have been updated later from the basic elements A, I, U. In Hebrew the vowel generator mechanisms are aleph, he, waw (or vav) and yod (or yud): the letters Aleph and the three letters of the Tetragrammaton. Considered as a consonant in Hebrew language the fifth letter [Ayin () or ] is missing in this scheme. The Phoenician letter Ayin however has been used to generate the letters O and (expanded in Greek) , which in Hebrew scripture had been covered by the existing consonants He, Waw and Yodh .

4 THE NAME OF GOD YeHoWaH. ITS STORY, by Grard Gertoux

The Tetragrammaton
The Tetragrammaton has been based on Yodh 5, He 6, Waw7. Many people believe that all the letters in Yahwehs Name are consonants, but that is not the case either. In fact, each letter in His Name is a vowel-consonant or semivowel8. The corresponding vowels may have been Yodh (I), He (E or A), Waw (U): IEU and IAU. IEU has been identified as an ego-pronoun in Provencal language and a vowel core in Dieu (God). IAU has been identified as an ego-pronoun in Jauer (a dialect of Romansh that is spoken in the Val Mstair), named after their ego-pronoun (jau).

Jeve (Ieue)
Written in vowels the Tetragrammaton reads IEU or IEUE, but the written form IEVE 9 might have been derived from an Egyptian root IAO (Yodh Aleph Ayin), which also belongs to the valid permutations: Prior to being labeled Yahweh, the Israelite god was called "Baal." signifying the sun in the Age of Taurus. When the sun passed into Aries, "the Lord's" name was changed to the Egyptian Iao, which became YHWH, IEUE, Yahweh, Jahweh, Jehovah and Jah. This ancient name "IAO/Iao" represents the totality of "God," as the "I" symbolizes unity, the "a" is the "alpha" or beginning, while the "o" is the "omega" or end. In parallel Jeve had been commemorated in: jeudi, the French word for Thursday - from latin dies Iovis ( jour de Jupiter , Ieu, the Provencal ego-pronoun Dieu

Jove (Ioue)
One of Ieve-variants is Jove, which seems to be related to Jupiter-Jove. The permutation of the second letter H to O has not been supported by the Matres Lectionis. The Jove-variants have been developed according to another rule. Jove had been commemorated in Gioved ( Jovedi), the Italian Thursday- from latin dies Iovis ( giorno di Giove).

5 6 7 8

[j] [h] [w], or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis) (Weingreen, J.A. Practical Grammar for Classical Hebrew, Clarendon Press, 1939, pp. 6-7; Harris, R. Laird. Introductory Hebrew Grammar, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Michigan, 4th Edition, 1955, p. 16; Marks, John H. and Rogers, Virgil M. A Beginners Handbook to Biblical Hebrew, Abingdon, Nashville, 1958, p. 7; and Horowitz, Edward. How the Hebrew Language Grew, Jewish Education Committee Press, 1960, pp. 333f.) from: Yahweh's Name: the Correct Pronunciation | SnyderTalk 9 Who are the Anunnaki?

I and Eve
As Walker states10 that IEVE also might have been derived from I and Eve: "Jewish mystical tradition viewed the original Jehovah as an androgyne, his/her name compounded as Jah (jod) and the pre-Hebraic name of Eve, Havah or Hawah, rendered he-vau-he- in Hebrew letters. The four letters together made the sacred tetragrammaton, YHWH, the secret name of God.... The Bible contains many plagiarized excerpts from earlier hymns and prayers to Ishtar and other Goddess figures, with the name of Yahweh substituted for that of the female deity." All of these constructs may have been based on five vowels A, E, I, O, U, but the mapping of 5 vowels to 7 planets seems to be a rather recent construction. The expansion of the vowel set from 5 to 7 seems to be a rather new phase, which has not be followed by all religions.

10 Who are the Anunnaki?

The seven Planets

In CHAPTER IV Sefer Yetzirah explains that the seven days of creation correspond to the seven planets.

Two Letters produce two houses; three form six; four form twenty-four; five form one hundred and twenty; six form seven hundred and twenty; (39) seven form five thousand and forty; and beyond this their numbers increase so that the mouth can hardly utter them, nor the ear hear the number of them. So now, behold the Stars of our World, the Planets which are Seven; the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars . The Seven are also the Seven Days of Creation; and the Seven Gateways of the Soul of Manthe two eyes, the two ears, the mouth and the two nostrils. So with the Seven are formed the seven heavens, (41) the seven earths, and the seven periods of time; and so has He preferred the number Seven above all things under His Heaven. (42) So now, behold the Stars of our World, the Planets which are Seven; the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. The Seven are also the Seven Days of Creation;

Assignment of the Seven Letters11

NOTE.--This is one of several modern illustrations of the allotment of the Seven Letters; it is not found in the ancient copies of the "Sepher Yetzirah." He produced Beth, and referred it to Wisdom ; He crowned it, combined and formed with it the Moon in the Universe, the first day of the week, and the right eye of man. He produced Gimel, and referred it to Health; He crowned it, combined and joined with it Mars in the Universe, the second day of the week, and the right ear of man. He produced Daleth, and referred it to Fertility; He crowned it, combined and formed with it the Sun in the Universe, the third day of the week, and the right nostril of man. He produced Kaph, and referred it to Life; He crowned it, combined and formed with it Venus in the Universe, the fourth day of the week, and the left eye of man. He produced Peh, and referred it to Power; He crowned it, combined and formed with it Mercury in the Universe, the fifth day of the week, and the left ear of man. He produced Resh, and referred it to Peace; He crowned it, combined and formed with it Saturn in the Universe, the sixth day of the week, and the left nostril of man. He produced Tau, and referred it to Beauty; He crowned it, combined and formed with it Jupiter in the Universe, the Seventh Day of the week, and the mouth of man.

By these Seven letters were also made seven worlds, seven heavens, seven earths, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven weeks from Passover to Pentecost, and every seventh year a Jubilee. The sequence of the letters list the planets as follows: Moon-MarsSunVenusMercury SaturnJupiter.

11 Sefer Yetzirah - Translated from the Hebrew by Wm. Wynn Westcott

Mayer Lambert's assignments

Mayer Lambert12 (born 1863) designed the following concept, which follows the Seven days of Creation, but applies an offset of 3 days in the days of the week. Basically the main text's concept titled Seven days of Creation starts with the sun at the first day and ends with Mars, whereas Mayer Lambert's system starts with the oldest and slowest planet Saturn and ends with the fastest planet Moon. In ancient mythology Mars had been the legitimate son of Zeus and Saturn's grandson. Beth to Saturn and the Hebrew Sabbath (Saturday); Gimel to Jupiter and Sunday; Daleth to Mars and Monday; Kaph to the Sun and Tuesday; Peh to Venus and Wednesday; Resh to Mercury and Thursday; and Tau to the Moon and Friday.

This concept starts with assigning the Sabbath to Saturn and the follow the traditional sequence of the astrological appearance: Saturn Jupiter - Mars Sun Venus Mercury Moon13: Letter Bet Gimel Dalet Kaph Pe Resh Taw Equivalent Main Text14 B C and G D K P R T (last) Sun Venus Mercury Moon Saturn (1. Gen.) Jupiter (2. Gen.) Mars (3. gen.) Days of the week15 Moon-first day Mars-second day Sun-third day Venus-fourth day Mercury-fifth day Saturn-sixth day Jupiter-seventh day Mayer Lambert Saturn-Saturday (1. Gen.) Jupiter-Sunday (2. Gen.) Mars-Monday (3. Gen.) Sun-Tuesday Venus-Wednesday Mercury-Thursday Moon-Friday

Table 1: Mayer Lambert's assignments In the alphabet the eleventh letter Kaph (of 22 letters) is a central position in which either (in the archaic system?) the Moon or (in the more modern phases) the Sun may be positioned.

12 13 14 15

Lambert, Mayer - Jewishencyclopedia Also found in Kabbala Papus (1903) In order of their references Seven days of Creation in the "Sepher Yetzirah." the allotment of the Seven Letters is not found in the ancient copies of the "Sepher Yetzirah."

Conclusion
Early philosophy generally had been based on vowel symbolism to design the divine names, eventually to be paralleled by other basic concepts for the ego-pronouns and followed by the design for the days of the weeks as illustrated in the appendix I. Sabian philosophy16, based on 7-fold Chaldean planetary system, is not consistent to Greek philosophy as described in Timaeus17 and the Hebrew concepts in the Sefer Yetzirah. The allotment of the Seven Letters is not found in the ancient copies of the "Sepher Yetzirah". The basic system seems to have been started as a trinity-based system (based on I, A, U or , , ), for generating the five long vocals , , , , , which gradually expanded to the 5-fold Latin system (based on the vowels A, E, I, O, U18) and culminated in the 7-fold Greek vowel system (based on A, E, H, I, O, Y, ). Sometimes the letter H has not been interpreted as a vowel or e, but left as a vowel symbol h (probably interpreted as an eta or ). See the appendix for these cases HA, IHE, etc... The basic trinity concepts may also be expressed by the leading trinity vowels in the 7-fold (Jehovah)19, suggesting some expansion phases in which the concepts had been evolving by adding vowels in a sequence, following a pattern I, IA, IAU or , IAUA, IEOUA IHEHOUA, ...

16 17 18 19

The Seven Temples of Harran - Explaining the vowel Symbols in IA Notes to Plato's Timaeus and Symposium (Therefore ?) AEIOU, or A.E.I.O.U., was a symbolic device utilized by the Habsburg emperors. In the Jewish-Egyptian magic-papyri it appears as . (source: NAMES OF GOD - JewishEncyclopedia)

Appendix I: Permutations of the Trigrammaton YHW20

The Sefer Yetzirah "Book of Creation" describes how the universe was created by the "God of Israel" by the Ten Numbers and the Twenty-Two Letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Y-H-W
Judah Halevi wrote in his book The Kuzari (1140), that the letters of the Tetragram are used as vowels for any other words (furthermore Judah Halevi in The Kurazi IV:3 related that Y is used for I, W for O, and H for A). In the first century, Flavius Josephus, a Jewish writer, had written that the Tetragram is written with four vowels (and not four consonants)21. Qumrn's writings showed that in the first century Y as vowel served only to indicate sounds I and E, W served only for sounds and U, and a H final served for the sound A. Furthermore, the H was use as vowel only at the end of words, and never inside of it (but between two vowels the H is heard as a slight E). So, to read the name YHWH as four vowels, it is to read IHA that is IEA22.

I-A-U
The two sounds "e" and "o" are not archaic, because the original vowels in Hebrew, as in the other Semitic tongues are only a, i, u, that is to say e and o always arise from an obscuring or contraction of these three pure sounds (A.E. Cowley - Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar,1988 Oxford Clarendon Press p. 35)23. The vowel symbolism seems to have been restricted to the three letters of the Tetragrammaton Yodh (), He (), Waw (). According to the Mothers of Reading the generated variants however may be varied in many ways: 1st letter: , or 2nd and 4th letter: or E24 3rd letter: or

The results may be ranging from: , , E, E, , , E, E, , , E, E and even (with a consonant J at the 1st position): J, J, JE, JE (with a consonant H at the 2nd position): H, H, H, H, H,H (with a consonant V/W at the 3rd position): V, W, EV, EW, V, W, EV, EW, V, W, EV, EW JAU is the ego-pronoun in Rumantsch, Grischun, JEU is the ego-pronoun in Sursilvan, JOU is the ego-pronoun in Sutsilvan, EAU is the ego-pronoun in Puter and also other abbreviated variants may be found in these categories of vowel combinations: (Surmiran) IA and (Vallader) EU. Even the southern German ego-pronoun IH may be represented in H and H more or less represents EGO itself. If we skip all words without a leading I or J this list is to be reduced to the following 12 letter permutations: , , E, E, H, H, J, J, JE, JE, JH, JH.
20 21 22 23 24 Permutations of the Trigrammaton YHW THE NAME OF GOD YeHoWaH. ITS STORY, by Grard Gertoux THE NAME OF GOD YeHoWaH. ITS STORY, by Grard Gertoux THE NAME OF GOD YeHoWaH. ITS STORY, by Grard Gertoux The letter E probably should be as long ( ) as all other vowels

Core

God (mostly from: Tetragrammaton Patristic writings) Ego-pronoun (Iao) - Diodorus Siculus (1st century BCE) (Iaoth) - Irenaeus (d. c. 202) - Clement of Alexandria (d. c. 215) (Iao) - Origen of Alexandria (d. c. 254) (Iao) - Theodoret (d. c. 457) Iao - Greece/Ionians, "Iao-ians," "Yah-o-ians" (Jehova) Dyaus Vedic/Indu JAHWE = IAUE JAHU = IAU IAUA - In the first century, one has the equivalence Y = I, W = U, and H = A at the end of words. (source: Name of God) YHWH -> IHA -> IEA (source: Qumrn's writings) IEOUA - Jehova (because the letter H is inaudible and the vowel U serves as a consonant V). IEOA, IHEHOUA (1455) - Nicholas of Cusa (Name of God) (Ieuo) - Porphyry (d. c. 305) according to Eusebius (died 339) Dieu (French & Provencal) Dievs - Vedic/Indu, Dyaus IEUE in Expositio in Apocalypsim (1195) Joachim of Flora "Adonay IEUE Tetragrammaton nomen" - Liber Figurarum IESUS had exactly the same vowels I, E and U as the divine name (~1200, pope Innocent III) (source: Name of God) i (Neapolitan) i (Welsh) I (English) Y (old English)

Tuesday/Thursday25 Diriaou (Breton ) Yaou (Breton)

jau (Rumantsch)

dydd Iau (Welsh) dijaus (Aranese)

eo (Sardianian) eo (Vulgar Latin)

jeu (Sursilvan) ieu (Occitan ) ieu (old Provenal) i, ie (Saxon) je (French) eu (Romanian) eu (Portuguese) eu (Galician) eu (Vallader)

jeudi (French) ziestac (Tuesday in Mid High German) jeudi (nouormand) jhedi (Poitevin)

HA YHWH -> IHA -> IEA (source: Qumrn's writings) IHAH (Genesis, Fabre d'Olivet) (source: Name of God) Ihah/ Ihah/ Jhah (1823) Antoine Fabre d'Olivet AE.. AIA EY IABE (Iabe) - Epiphanius (died 404) JABE or (both pronounced at that time /ja'v/) JB (Samaritans) - Theodoret (d. c. 457) JEB (Aia) (Jewish) - Theodoret (d. c. 457) eau ( Puter) , , (Greek) i, eij, eg, iag, ik (Gothic)26 dej (Franco-Provenal | arpitan) gjbia (Lombard) gibia (Piedmontese) zioba (Venetian) gibia (Sardinian) jbia (Val de Badia) jebia (Valle di Fassa) ia (Surmiran) (Norwegian dialect - Trndelag)

IAH

Iaho - (Pseudo-)Jerome (4th/5th century) IAH (Egyptian) - God yah moon god IHEVHE (1509) - Jacques Lefvres d'Etaples

IHE..

25 Source: Names of the days of the week 26 Notes to Etymons of English Words (1826)

IOA Now, one notices that all the theophoric names beginning io (Italian) IOOA in YHW-() in the Hebrew Bible were vocalized I-(a) (or IOOA) in the Septuagint and ever in Ia-. (Name of God) IOU JOU IOUA (1555) - Sbastien Chateillon (Name of God) Iouis (Jupiter) - (source: Name of God) Ioue (Jupiter)IouaIehoua (16th Cent.) (Name of God) iou (Aromanian)

ziostag (Tuesday in Old High German) hmra Dis (Ancient Greek) dijous (Catalan) dijus (Occitan) dies Iouis/Jovis ptiou Coptic 1 (Sahidic) pitiou Coptic 2 (Bohairic) jueves (Spanish) djueves (Ladino) djudi (Walloon) juebia (Ladin, Gardena)

IU JUE

Jupiter

Ju (Dalmatian) iu (Sicilian)

JEH

Jehjeh - James of Edessa (died 708) Iehoua Pietro Galatino (1500-1600) gievgia (Romansh) jo (Catalan) jo (Friulian) joi (Romanian) joi (Moldovan) joibe (Friulian) gioia (Aromanian) dies Jovis (Latin) joves (Old Portuguese) Gioved (Jovedi) (Italian) ghjovi (Corsican) giover (Neapolitan) jovi; jovida (Sicilian) jdzej (Venedic) yo (Aragonese) yo (Spanish) Dy' Yow (Cornish)

JEVE As Walker states27 that IEVE also might have been derived from I and Eve JOI

JOV

Jove (archaic Roman name for the sky god Jupiter) Jovis Sanskrit Djovis, "sky god Giove (Italian: from the sky god Jove - Jupiter)

YOH

YOHOUA (1278) - Raymond Martini (Name of God) YOHOUAH (1303) - Porchetus de Salvaticis

YOW Yow Jove/Jupiter (Cornish)

Analysis
If we skip all divine names without a leading I or J the list is to be reduced to the following 6 letter permutations: , , E, E, H, H, in which only IHU has not been found in the relevant lists of names. Obviously (except for ) the first letter was not allowed to be permutated to or . The IOA-permutation seems te be an uncommon exception (used in the Septuagint).28 Additionally found is IOU, IU, JOV, YOH, YOW (for the Latinized Jupiter-Jove region) and JEH (in which the H-letter probably escaped the permutations). The permutation of the second letter to O had been used in the Latinazed Jupiter-Jove region and has not been following the Hebrew Mothers of Reading.

27 Who are the Anunnaki? 28 Permutations of the Trigrammaton YHW