The Jewish people are sometimes known as the People of the Book, a nation that loves learning. But what was the first book to be written down and who wrote it down?

Adam HaRishon (the first man, Adam) was the first author in the history of the world. He composed  a book called the Sefer HaYetzira, based on some of the world’s secrets that Hashem told him. Haven’t heard of it? Well, neither did I and that is normal. You see, Sefer HaYitzira is part of what we call ‘Kabbalah’. Kabbalah is not meant to be learned by ordinary mortal man like you and me. In fact, its potentially dangerous for humans to learn it that only a man over forty can learn it if he is learned in Torah, although it isn’t recommended even for him. People have lost their minds in the past, gone insane from the sheer magnitude of holiness, because they were not prepared for it.* Hashem wants it to be part of the hidden Torah for a reason. (In fact, there is always a valid reason why He put restrictions on learning certain parts of the Torah. After all, He made us with all our traits, He knows what learning is suitable for our age and gender).

Why am I telling you this? Because I want to share with you a thought from the Sefer Yetzira, shared with me by someone who quoted it.

The Torah contains the blue print of the world, in fact our Aleph Bais (Jewish alphabet) contains the three elements and the calendar in it. Take a look at this chart

From here we can see just a spark of the Hashem’s great Wisdom. After all, no human can calculate a calendar, and define a week that will be so perfect in its calculations for centuries. Only Hashem, with His power, Wisdom and omnipotence can do it.

Next topic: How many commandments are there in the Aseres Hadibros (ten commandments)?

*There are people these days that claim to learn Kabbalah. My rule of thumb is that most people who proclaim they are learning Kabbalah are not actually learning it. They may be learning a highly diluted form, if anything it all. People that really learn Kabbalah, like our Tzaddikim (righteous people) are going to be reticent about admitting they learn it.

My teacher once said that the reason why so many people want to learn Kabbalah, no matter their religious observance, is because Kabbalah does not demand change or growth in you (particularly if you learn it in the watered down form given to those not learned in Torah). If they really wanted to learn and be better people, they would learn Mussar, which is hard to learn but much more worthwhile in the long run.