Sefer Yetzirah Essays

Walter Benjamin’s (1892-1940) philosophy of language and translation is haunted by a ghost and influenced by Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition. This can be seen in his magna opera: On Language as Such and on the Language of Man (1916) and The Task of the Translator (1923). The former essay introduces a distinctly theological understanding of the linguistic theory; the latter is concerned with the translation theory as a form of art. Benjamin’s inspiration comes from both the death of his childhood

The 29th Path: QOPH Malkuth to Netzach “He produced Qoph, predominant in Mirth, crowned it, combined and formed with it Pisces in the Universe, Adar in the Year, and the spleen of Man.” - Sepher Ietzirah trans. by W.W. Westcott The Letter The origin of Qoph is uncertain. The most ancient form of the letter Qoph was a picture of a large knot tied in a cord. According to another suggestion, it may have also been a picture of a monkey and its tail. Later, this latter was represented by a symbol