Sefer HaBahir

‫ספר הבהיר‬
Rabbi Dr. David Mevorach Seidenberg, from "Kabbalah and Ecology"
http://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Ecology-Image-More-Than-Human-World/dp/1107081335

Sefer HaBahir

... A parable, to what does the thing compare? To a king that wanted to build a
palace . . . He cut [through] rock . . . and a great spring of water emerged for
him, living water. The king said: Since I have flowing water, I will plant a
garden, and I will delight in it, I and all the world.

... I am the one that planted this tree/ilan, [for] all the world to delight in,
and I hammered out all/kol with him (the tree), and I called his name “the
Whole/All /hakol”, for all depends on him, and all comes out from him. And all are
needing him, and through/to him they gaze and for him they wait. And from there
bloom/grow the souls in joy. Alone was I when I made him . . . for in the time when
I hammered out my earth, I planted and rooted this tree in her, and I rejoiced
together [with him] and I rejoiced in them.
R’ R’chumai said: From your word we learn that the Holy One created the need of
this world before the heavens. He said to him: Thus so.
R’ Yanai said: The earth was created before the heavens, as it says, “[in the day
of YHVH Elohim’s making] earth and heavens” [Gn 2:4]. They said to him: But isn’t
it written, “[Elohim created] the heavens (first) and the earth”? He said to them:
To what does the thing compare? To a king who took possession of a beautiful,
precious thing, and it wasn’t complete . . . He said, “I will complete it and
prepare its mounting and its setting, and then I will call out its name over
it . . . ”

R’ Amorai said: Gan Eden, where is it? He said to them: In the earth.
... “The advantage/profit/surplus/yitron of the land/arets over All /bakol is a
king” [Ec 5:8] – And what is yitron? A place from which is carved out the
earth/arets . . . And what is this “earth”? That from her was carved out the
Whole /hakol, and from him (hakol) was carved out heavens, and he is the throne of
the Holy One, and he is a precious stone, and he is the sea of wisdom.
And corresponding to her (the earth) is the deep-blue/t’cheilet of the tsitsit (the
corner fringes on a prayer shawl). For R’ Meir said: How is t’cheilet different
from all kinds of colors? Because t’cheilet resembles the sea and the sea resembles
the firmament and the firmament resembles the throne of glory, as it is said, “And
they saw Israel’s God and under His feet [was something] like sapphire brick-work
and like the essence of the heavens for purity” [Ex 24:10] and it says, “like the
appearance/mar’eh of sapphire stone, a likeness of a throne / d’mut kisei’” [Ez
1:26].

And what would the tree be that you spoke of? He said to him: [It is] the
powers/kochot of the Holy One, this on back of this, and they resemble/domin a
tree: just as this tree, by means of the waters, brings out fruit, even so the Holy
One by means of the waters increases the powers of the tree. And what are these
waters of the Holy One? They are wisdom, and they are the souls/n’shamot of the
righteous that bloom/grow/fly/por’chin from the spring unto the great channel. And
he goes up and joins with the tree, and by what means does [the tree] bloom/grow?
By means of Israel, [for] when they are righteous and good, Shekhinah rests among
them, and through their deeds she rests in the bosom of the Holy One, and makes
them fruitful and increases them.