Comments from the Lubavitcher Rebbe on the Book of Formation

His Holiness, Grand Rabbi
Menachem M. Schneerson

// Companion Notes 

In the course of discussing humanity, the Divine image, and the world, the Rebbe writes that

The general order of creation is composed of triplets as we see from the verse in Scripture, "I [G-d] have created it, I have formed it, I have even made it" * (Isaiah 43:7) . . . which correspond to thought, speech, and action.  Each of these – creation, formation, and building – further corresponds to the three levels of mind, emotions, and activity.  These are themselves [in the universal sense] the beginning, the middle [interior], and the end.*

The form of the human body resembles this . . . by consisting of a head, a body, and the legs as well as interior organs – brain, heart, and liver.  Beyond these three, the body has a full distribution of bones, blood vessels, and flesh. . . .

(Note from the Rebbe:  The entire creation consists of world, year, soul * . . . "these three aspects being the foundation of the Book of Formation" as explained by the Tzemach Tzedek [the third Lubavitcher Rebbe].  And according to Lurianic Kabbala, "The author of the Book of Formation summarized creation into world, year, soul" as the Tzemach Tzedek quotes Rabbi Moses Cordovero's * book Pardes.)

These [the triads] are connected to how the universe is composed of three fundamental principles [called] fire, water, and vapor * as it says in the beginning of the Book of Formation: "In thirty-two paths . . . [G-d] created His universe."  These thirty-two paths are "ten sefirot without identity,* and twenty-two fundamental letters – three mothers (alef, mem, shin), and seven doublets, and twelve simple ones" (Chapter II, Mishnah 1).

(Note from the Rebbe:  These are three different types of letters [consonants].  Even the pronunciation of speech as expressed through these twenty-two letters also consists of three components – fire, water, and vapor [warmth, moisture, and air] as explained by the Tzemach Tzedek.)

Furthermore, "three mothers (alef, mem, shin) in the world are air, water, and fire" – the three fundamental principles of creation of the universe . . . (Chapter III, Mishnah 4).

(Note from the Rebbe:  The fourth component, earth, is not mentioned since it is included in the first three elementary [principles].  Rabbi Moses Cordovero writes in his book Pardes that earth is "a combined result of these three.")

— freely translated and adapted by Nathaniel Segal
from the Rebbe's book Sefer HaSichos, 5750, vol. 2, pages 466-7 and 448
a book of transcriptions from the Rebbe's discourses during the Jewish year 1989-1990 *
excerpted from the Rebbe's discourses on Shabbat, Parashat Emor, and on the next Shabbat, Parashat Behar-B'chukotai

* Lubavitch - refers to the school of Hasidism that was located in the townlet of that name in the northeast of today's Belarus.  As is customary, Hasidic refugees from Eastern Europe brought the name of the town of their origin with them to North America, Israel, and elsewhere.  Pronounced loo BAH vitch; loo BAH vitch er.

* Grand Rabbi Schneerson - born 1902 in Ukraine.  Became the seventh Rebbe of Lubavitch in 1951 after the passing of his father-in-law.  The Rebbe's father was a Kabbalist and also the Chief Rabbi of the Ukranian city Nikolaev (today's Dnipropetrovs'k).  The Rebbe and his wife Rebbetzin Chaya Mushka lived in Brooklyn from 1942 on.

* "I have even made it" - Not just a top level and a bottom level – "created it, formed it."  See the next note about G-d's desire for a more complex universe.

* beginning, middle, and end - Such is G-d's desire that the universe should contain complexity.  See Chapter I, Mishnah 4 for an explanation of how these three expand into ten.  We learn in this Mishnah, "Ten and not nine; ten and not eleven."

* world, year, soul - the three realms/dimensions of creation; Olam, Shana, Nefesh in Hebrew.

* Rabbi Moses Cordovero - was born to a family of exiles from the expulsion from Spain of 1492.  He was born around 1522, possibly in Salonika which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire.  Generally, the Ottoman Empire appreciated the influx of Jewish refugees from Spain and Portugal.  At the age of twenty, he moved to Safed, Galilee, Israel (also within the Ottoman Empire), the Kabbalistic center of the Jewish people in the sixteenth century.  Cordovero was both a master of Jewish Law as well as a systematizer of Kabbala.  He died in Safed in 1570 (Lawrence Fine, 2003).

Known as the Ramak, from the abbreviation of his title, name and family name, he is

[the] author of Pardes Rimmonim (Kabbala) and of a commentary on the Zohar, among other works – [and] was a disciple of R[abbi] Yosef Karo, and of his own brother-in-law, R[abbi] Shlomo HaLevi Alkabetz (author of the piyut "Lecha Dodi").  (Kantor, Codex Judaica, p. 224)

Cordovero's book Pardes Rimmonim is often referred to simply as the Pardes. Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575) is the author of the Shulchan Aruch - Code of Jewish Law (1563).  He also composed and instituted the reciting of Tikun Leil Shavuot.  The Book of Formation, beginning and end, is recited as part of the Tikun.  The Kabbalist Rabbi Isaac Luria (born 1534 in Jerusalem and died 1572 in Safed) learned Kabbala from Cordovero, his senior, from the time when he arrived in Safed for just the two years before Rabbi Cordovero died.

Rabbi Issac Luria is known as the Arizal – the G-dly Rabbi Isaac, of blessed memory – an abbreviation from the Hebrew letters of this expression.  He is the founder of what is called Lurianic Kabbala.  This is the source of the Kabbala that is studied in Hasidic Circles.

* vapor - also translated as 'gas' in contrast to solid and liquid.

* ten sefirot - The Rebbe has not publicly taught the Book of Formation.  He, and other Rebbe's before him, cite teachings from the Book of Formation, though.  However, you will not have heard from him that 'sefirot' in this context refers to the Hebrew word tsifirot – vowels.

* 1989-1990 - The Jewish year 5750 (from creation; Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish year, is in the autumn of one conventional year ending in the autumn of the next year.)