B”H

Names of הספירות in the Dead Sea Scrolls

There are two fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls entitled SONGS OF THE SAGE. The first, 4Q510, is a document intended “to frighten and to terrify” Evil Spirits. This is the way the fragment was understood by Y.M. Ta-Shma, and this is the way it was represented in an article written on the fragment that appeared in Tarbiz 55 (1985-86) 19-46 [Hebrew]. Unfortunately the author of that article did not read past the surface text into the substrate, into the structuring of every sentence and assumed that the author of the fragment believed in the objective existence of evil spirits. We will, be’ezrat HaShem, demonstrate that the document was written by someone in God-consciousness in order to return those who were deluded and thought that evil spirits can exist independently to God-consciousness.

Upon close examination, we see the names of a number of the “ספירות” that are known to us today in the following order and forms:

הודות, הוד, דעות, גבורות, גבורתו, הוד, תפארתו

If one reads the scroll deeply it will become apparent that the following terms are praises of HaShem and the reminding of the absolute strength of HaShem to those whose thinking is mistaken and think that there are “demons”.

We can see clearly that the author of this piece was well aware that ספירה = מחשבה and was using the names of the sphirot in order to return the thinking of someone deluded to awareness of the fact that it is HaShem who rules everything.

The second fragment entitled Songs of the Sage (4Q511) is concerned with all types of evil spirits that people perceive in the world, human as well as supernatural. The fragment discussed above is evidently an excerpt from this longer fragment.

In this fragment the names of what we know as ספירות appear in the following order and forms:

תפארת, דעות, נצח, בדעת, ועדת (חילוף של ודעת), גבורות, הגבורות, ותעודות (כולל המילה דעת), חסד, מוסדי (כולל המילה יסוד), במוסדי, גבורתו, בינתי, עבודת (כולל המילה דעת), דעת, בינה, דעת, תעודתי, חוכמת, בינתו, הודות, יסוד,
גבר (השורש של גבורה), ידע (השורש של דעת), החסד, יסוד, מלך (השורש של מלכות), בסודי (כולל חילוף של יסוד), תעודתי, הודות, דעת, עבודת, עבודת

The words מחשבתכה, מחשבת and אספרהappear in this fragment. The presence of the words מחשבתכה and מחשבת prove that the author of this fragment was aware that ספירה = מחשבה.

The presence of the word אספרה shows that the author of the fragment understood ספירות in the sense of telling and declaring of HaShem’s greatness (thus the word אספרה, the root of which ס-פ-ר is that of the word ספירות), not in terms of “emanations” as they are thought of by medieval mystics. In so doing, one dispels illusions of all types of evil and rids oneself, and others, of the delusional fears of “evil spirits” because it becomes clear that there is nothing but HaShem guiding all worlds.

It is highly recommend to read the texts of the above two fragments to see how the names of הספירות are woven into the text, how the author uses these words to declare HaShem’s glory and absolute power, and to restore the thinking of those deluded to the reality of God-consciousness.

Doreen Ellen Bell-Dotan, Tzfat