ודאי ושמא בחקר ספר יצירה

Sefer Yetṣirah is an enigmatic text that has drawn significant scholarlyattention due to its immense influence on medieval Jewish literature onthe one hand and the lack of scholarly consensus regarding its period ofcomposition, content, and textual versions on the other. In this article, Iargue that the range of possibilities regarding the dating of Sefer Yeṣirahand the differences between its versions are not as vast as suggested in thescholarly literature. The aim of this article is to demonstrate that, whilequestions about the cultural context, time of composition, and versions ofSefer Yeṣirah remain open, these questions fall within a clear framework.Sefer Yeṣirah was composed in the versions familiar to us between the 7thand 9th centuries CE, and its versions are relatively close to one another,with the main differences between them stemming from their editorialprocesses rather than their phrasing