Sefer Yetsirah: the nature of language in the world and its maintenance through the hebrew alphabet

• Grant number: 12/51776-6
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Books published in Brazil
• Duration: June 01, 2013 - May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Perine
• Grantee: Marcelo Perine
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Comunicação, Letras e Artes. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Instead of language been created by men, Jewish mysticism believes the world and everything that exists has been created and is maintained by god through language, specificity among the infinite combinations of the Hebrew alphabet (the twenty two letters and the ten first numbers). This way, the entire universe is a phenomenon of language. The present paper discusses the importance of language and a type of metaphysics of the Hebrew alphabet, comparing the different views between the philosophical tradition, represented here by the following texts: Cratylus, by Plato and De Magistro, by Augustine, and, representing the Jewish tradition, especially the Jewish mysticism, the Sêfer Yetsiráh, of unknown author. As part of this analysis the paper presents, over all, Gershom Scholem's Theory of Language and The metaphysics of the Hebrew alphabet by Elias Lipiner, as well as the approach to Philosophy of Language, through the Jewish mystic view, specifically from the Cabaláh. (AU)