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Liber XX · Kabbalah

Liber XX · Kabbalah · Chapter VII: Practical Kabbalah

Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh: The Book of the Angel Raziel Explained

Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh, the Book of the Angel Raziel: the Adam legend, its sources, angels, seals and amulets of the 1701 print, and the Latin Liber Razielis.

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Sample page of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, a medieval work of Jewish mysticism. No copyright.
Sample page of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, a medieval work of Jewish mysticism. No copyright.Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh ("The Book of Raziel the Angel") is a Hebrew compilation of cosmology, angelology, divine names, magical seals and amulets, printed in Amsterdam in 1701 and presented as the secret book that the angel Raziel gave to Adam. Its contents are much older than the printed edition: scholars have traced large parts to the late antique Sefer ha-Razim and to the writings of the medieval German Pietists. It became the best-known book of practical Kabbalah, kept in Jewish homes as a protective object.

The Angel Raziel in Jewish Tradition§

The name Raziel means "secret of God" or "God is my secret." In rabbinic and related sources he is an angel who stands near the divine throne, behind the curtain (pargod) that separates God from the heavenly court, and hears the decrees of heaven before they are announced. The Aramaic Targum to Ecclesiastes describes Raziel proclaiming heavenly secrets from Mount Horeb. In the Hekhalot literature and medieval angelology he belongs to the class of angels of revelation, alongside figures such as Metatron (see 3 Enoch).

From this role grew the legend of the Book of Raziel. According to versions collected in medieval sources and later retold by Louis Ginzberg in The Legends of the Jews, Adam, after his expulsion from Eden, prayed in repentance, and Raziel brought him a book containing the secrets of creation, the courses of the stars and the names by which the world is governed. In one version jealous angels threw the book into the sea and it was recovered; it then passed to Enoch, to Noah, who learned from it how to build the ark, and down through the patriarchs to Solomon. The legend gave the book an antediluvian pedigree comparable to that claimed for the Book of Enoch and for Solomonic magic.

A Compilation from Older Sources§

The printed Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh is not a single composition. Gershom Scholem and later scholars identified several layers:

Hebrew manuscript with babylonian vocalization
Hebrew manuscript with babylonian vocalizationPaul Kahle · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
  • Material from Sefer ha-Razim, the late antique "Book of Mysteries," which describes seven firmaments, the angels who govern them, and rituals for enlisting those angels for practical ends. Michael Morgan's translation of the reconstructed Sefer ha-Razim (1983) makes the connection clear.
  • Esoteric theology of the German Pietists (Ḥasidei Ashkenaz), especially writings associated with Eleazar of Worms (c. 1165–c. 1230), on the divine glory, the names of God and the secrets of prayer.
  • Cosmological and astrological lore: the planets, the zodiac, the seasons and months, each with presiding angels, and calendrical calculations.
  • Measure-of-the-body speculation related to the Shiur Qomah tradition, describing the dimensions of the divine form.
  • Lists of names, seals and amulets, many drawn from manuscript notebooks of practical Kabbalah.

The editor of 1701 combined these under the name of Raziel, preceded by a narrative of Adam's prayer and the angel's gift. Because the book draws on so many sources, it is a valuable window on the long continuity of Jewish magical and esoteric literature, from late antiquity through medieval Germany to early modern Amsterdam.

Angels, Names and the Structure of the Heavens§

Much of the book is devoted to an elaborate angelology. It lists the angels who serve in each of the heavens, the angels of the months, days and hours, the rulers of the seasons and the guardians of the planets and zodiacal signs. The reader is shown a cosmos in which every period of time and every region of the sky is administered by named intermediaries, a picture shared with Sefer ha-Razim and with the Hekhalot texts (see Merkavah and Hekhalot mysticism).

Equally central are divine names. The book includes lists and permutations of names of God, among them names related to the seventy-two-letter name (see The 72 Names of God) and the forty-two-letter name, as well as names formed from verses of scripture. It also reproduces angelic alphabets, sometimes called "eye writing" because the letters are formed of lines ending in small circles. Similar scripts appear in Christian occult literature, for example in Agrippa's Three Books of Occult Philosophy, and they remain common on Jewish amulets.

Seals, Amulets and the Book as a Protective Object§

The most famous pages of the book are its amulets (see Practical Kabbalah). Best known is the amulet for the protection of a mother and newborn child, which names the three angels Sanoi, Sansanoi and Semangelof and invokes them against Lilith, the demon believed to threaten women in childbirth and infants. The printed version includes stylised figures of the angels and the formula that Lilith, according to legend, swore when she encountered them. On the background to this tradition see Lilith in Jewish folklore and angelic amulets.

Etching illustrating the uncleanliness of the mother after giving birth, according to Jewish law. The Bible, Leviticus, XII, 2-5: the text states that a mother should be considered unclean for 40 days after…
Etching illustrating the uncleanliness of the mother after giving birth, according to Jewish law. The Bible, Leviticus, XII, 2-5: the text states that a mother should be considered unclean for 40 days after…CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The book also contains seals and signs for other purposes, often in the form of letter combinations, magic squares and geometric designs comparable to those discussed in magic squares and planetary seals. As with other works of practical Kabbalah, its uses were understood within a religious framework of prayer, purity and the power of divine names.

Over time the printed book itself became an amulet. It was widely believed that a house in which a copy of Sefer Raziel was kept would be protected from fire and other harm, and the book was sometimes placed near a woman in labour. Ethnographers and historians of Jewish folk religion, such as Joshua Trachtenberg, recorded these customs, which continued in some communities into the twentieth century and survive among some traditional Jews today, especially in Israel, where small editions are sold for this purpose.

The Latin Liber Razielis and Christian Magic§

The Hebrew printed book should be distinguished from a Latin work of similar name. In the thirteenth century, at the court of King Alfonso X of Castile, a Liber Razielis was translated or compiled, around 1259, as part of the king's programme of scientific and astrological translation. The Latin work, organised in seven treatises dealing with astrology, stones, herbs, suffumigations, times, purity and the names of the heavens and angels, shares some material and the angel's name with the Hebrew tradition but is a different book.

The Liber Razielis circulated widely in Latin manuscripts and influenced the learned magic of the later Middle Ages, as Sophie Page has shown in her study of magical books at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury. An English version, the Sepher Raziel or Liber Salomonis, survives in a sixteenth-century manuscript. Through such works the angel Raziel became familiar to Christian magicians and, later, to Renaissance occultists interested in Christian and Hermetic Qabalah.

Rabbinic Attitudes and Modern Study§

Rabbinic authorities were divided about books like Sefer Raziel. Many accepted amulets written by experts and saw the angelic names as part of a legitimate tradition; others warned that practical Kabbalah was dangerous or improper in an age without ritual purity. The book's printing in 1701 made formerly restricted material widely available, a fact some critics lamented.

Modern scholarship treats the book as an important document of Jewish religious history. Scholars such as Joshua Trachtenberg, Gideon Bohak and Yuval Harari have placed it within the long history of Jewish magic, while Steve Savedow's English translation (2000) introduced the text to a wider readership. For a related compendium of names see The Sword of Moses, and for the magical use of scripture see Shimmush Tehillim.

Frequently asked questions§

Who is the angel Raziel?§

Raziel, whose name means "secret of God," is an angel of revelation in Jewish tradition who stands behind the heavenly curtain and hears divine decrees. Legend says he gave Adam a book of heavenly secrets.

When was Sefer Raziel ha-Malakh written?§

The printed book appeared in Amsterdam in 1701, but it compiles much older material, including late antique Sefer ha-Razim and medieval writings of the German Pietists. It has no single author.

Why do people keep Sefer Raziel at home?§

It was traditionally believed that a copy of the book protects a house from fire and other harm, and it was sometimes kept near women in childbirth. The custom continues in some traditional communities.

Is Sefer Raziel the same as the Latin Liber Razielis?§

No. The Latin Liber Razielis, compiled at the court of Alfonso X around 1259, is a different work in seven treatises, though it shares the angel's name and some themes.

Sources and further reading§