Source books · Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah

Sefer Yetzirah

ספר יצירה

probably 3rd–6th centuries CE

How this book fits

Traditions
Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah
Role in the tradition
Primary source Written from inside the tradition: scripture, revelation, a grimoire, a manifesto or a practical treatise.
Public attention
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From Wikipedia

Sefer Yetzirah is a work of Jewish mysticism. Early commentaries, such as the Kuzari, treated it as a treatise on mathematical and linguistic theory, as opposed to one about Kabbalah. The word Yetzirah is more literally translated as "Formation", the word B'riah being used for "Creation". The book is traditionally ascribed to the patriarch Abraham, although others attribute its writing to Rabbi Akiva or Adam. Modern scholars have not reached consensus on the question of its origins. According to Saadia Gaon, the objective of the book's author was to convey in writing how the things of our universe came into existence. Conversely, Judah Halevi asserts that the main objective of the book, with its various examples, is to give humans the means to understand the unity and omnipotence of God, which appear multiform on the one hand, and yet, are uniform.

From the Wikipedia article Sefer Yetzirah, revision 1358909564, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikidata Q1147199: “Kabbalistic book about the creation of the universe”.

In this study

In the chronology, among the works with no securely known author.

Ten sefirot, twenty-two letters, thirty-two paths. Its division of the letters into three Mothers, seven Doubles and twelve Simples is the structural rule every later tree is measured against.

Cited for 92 sourced claims here, among them correspondences of 22, 12, Simple, 10, Double, Mother, Aleph and Mem.