Séfer ha-temuná

Little known to the general public, despite its enormous importance in the history of Kabbalistic thought, the Sefer ha-temunah, the Book of the figure, is one of the most passionate texts of Jewish mysticism. The tradition places its origin between the 1st and 2nd centuries, and has usually been attributed to the Talmudic rabbis Isamel and Nehuniá ben Hakaná; however, more recent researchers such as Gershom Scholem place it in the 13th century. Most likely, this manuscript was conceived and distributed for the first time in Gerona, around the year 1250. The text is written entirely in Hebrew, and the few Romance words that appear in it can be both Catalan and Provencal. The book, a Kabbalistic study of the Hebrew alphabet and its relationship with the Sephirotic tree, exerted a great influence on the so-called Kabbalistic circle of Gerona and among numerous Sephardic wise men, as well as non-Jewish mystical authors such as Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo . This edition of the Sefer ha-temuná has been made from the Hebrew original by the scholar Hazán Neil Manel Frau-Cortés, a graduate in Hebrew Philology, a master's degree in Jewish Song and Musical Studies and a doctorate in Medieval Hebrew Literature, who has performed numerous related tasks with Hebrew manuscripts for institutions such as the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College or the University of Maryland.