5 Quotes by Gershom Scholem

Why, if all the creatures in the world gathered together to make a single gnat and put a soul into it, they would not succeed!' No more than man can make a gnat can demons, according to another tradition, make anything smaller than a grain of barley. But those who favored the thaumaturgic interpretation of the Book of Yetsirah, and believed that a man or golem could be created with its help,...." Idea of the Golem p. 171

A similar tradition on the creative power of letters forms the basis of the following midrash on Job 28:11.... This brings us to the text that played so important a part in the development of the golem concept: the Book of Yetsirah or the Book of Creation.... We do not know the exact date of this enigmatic text,.... We can only be sure that it was written by a Jewish Neo-Pythagorean some time between the third and sixth century.

We live in our language like blind men walking on the edge of an abyss. This language is laden with future catastrophes. The day will come when it will turn against those who speak it.

The great Name of God in His creative unfolding is Adam.

A similar tradition on the creative power of letters forms the basis of the following midrash on Job 28:11... This brings us to the text that played so important a part in the development of the golem concept: the Book of Yetsirah or the Book of Creation... We do not know the exact date of this enigmatic text,... We can only be sure that it was written by a Jewish Neo-Pythagorean some time between the third and sixth century.