פרשנות ספר יצירה בדורותיו של חוג הגר"א

Amongst the various schools of modern Kabbalah, that paying allegiance to R.Elijah, the Gaon of Vilna, is exceptional in the degree of exegetical devotionto Sefer Yeṣirah. This is reflected both in the dense and rich commentarypenned by the Gaon, and by the numerous super-commentaries composedwithin the school, especially in recent years. The article commences with aclose reading of key locutions within the Gaon’s commentary (after coveringits complex print history and some critical comments on the sparse existingresearch), aimed at uncovering the layered cosmology presented there, andits relationship to earlier phases of kabbalistic thought (especially the fourworlds theory and theories of the Tetragrammaton). Then, it surveys thehistory of the super-commentaries, focusing on the manner in which theystrove to resolve some of the open questions raised by my own reading ofthe Gaon’s text. The latter section of the article compares Ronit Meroz’sapproach to that of R. Elijah, uncovering surprising similarities, that in myview are not always called for by the plain sense of Sefer Yeṣirah. It alsoshows that Meroz was concerned with some of the quandaries also addressedby the super-commentaries. Hence, I view this comparison as an illustrationof the need to compare traditional and academic commentaries on coretexts. The major themes uncovered here include perceptions of the Torah,messianism, linguistic views, and perceptions of wisdom.