Sefer ha-Razim - Grimoire Magic

Judeo-Arabic Manuscripts of one of the most important works of ancient Jewish magic, late 3rd – early 4th C.

Gross Family Collection – YM.011.014 | MS Heb 190

The “Book of Mysteries” (Sefer ha-Razim) was a supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel (Zaryayil in the Arabic version) and passed down throughout Biblical history until it ended up in the possession of King Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom and purported magical powers.

Margalioth places the date of the original text to the late 3rd – early 4th century. Most scholars agree on a date in the 3rd or 4th century for the text, with the notable exception of Ithamar Gruenwald, who proposes a 6th – 7th century origin. Nevertheless, its early provenance stands out in relation to later Kabbalistic writings, such as the Zohar and the Bahir (both from the 13th century), and potentially even the proto-Kabbalistic Sefer Yetzirah (4th century). Certain textual details support this earlier timeframe—particularly the mention of “the Roman indictions in 1:27–28,” which indicates a terminus a quo of 297 CE.

The text is arranged into seven distinct parts, in addition to an introductory note discussing its background and transmission. Each of the first six parts is tied to a specific firmament and provides a catalog of angels, as well as instructions for conducting magical rites. By contrast, the seventh heaven houses only God’s throne and the four ḥayyot. Although the book’s cosmological framework appears largely orthodox, its practical instructions for magical operations do not align neatly with rabbinic norms, creating a palpable tension. While an editor from the rabbinical tradition evidently revised the work, the underlying vernacular religion it presents survives largely intact. The rituals described cover aims such as healing, forecasting the future, harming one’s enemies, and securing good fortune.

While considered a work of Jewish magic, Sefer Ha-Razim selectively incorporated “foreign” religious and magical motifs—especially from Greek and Hellenistic traditions—into its distinctly Jewish framework. This blending of traditions in Late Antiquity was common across the Levantine world, giving rise to a fascinatingly syncretic magical culture. Notably, the text exhibits extensive interweaving of Jewish, Greek, and Gnostic influences including loanwords from the Greco-Egyptian magical papyri (PGM), invocations to Helios, the Greek god of the Sun and inclusion of the Mandaean angel, Ptahil, who stands on the ninth step of the second firmament. Scholars also point out possible adaptations from Egyptian or Babylonian magical lore. In particular, the prominence of angels or demons assigned to each day/hour partly reflects ancient Mesopotamian star-lore and ritual calendars. The detailed angelic regimens for each heaven, often associated with celestial bodies and planetary intelligences, clearly overlaps significantly with Babylonian astrological traditions, rather than purely biblical or rabbinic systems.

It goes without saying, Sefer ha-Razim influenced numerous grimoires from both the Arabo-Islamic and Latin Christian spheres during the medieval period.

There are also direct Arabic recensions of the text known as Sifr Adam however the content has been reorganized into a new structure. While the introduction gives the title, Sifr Adam, the colophon of each main part aligns with the original title, Sifr al-asrār (“Book of Secrets”) or Sifr al-hafayā (“Book of the Unseen”). Below are pages from MS 2014:

Left: Colophon of MS 2014, p. 263 (the handwritten page numbers on the top are incoherent and erroneous).

Right: The beginning of the Sword in MS 2014, p. 154 (the handwritten pagination is erroneous).

Below is Gross’ explanation of the attached mid-19th century recension written in Judeo-Arabic in Yemen, 1851:

“The writing of amulets was not uncommon in Yemen. This writing was done by persons considered holy, and they usually had their own manuscripts containing the formulae for such amulets and Segulot. These manuscripts were handed done through the generations and are often in more than one hand. This is a particularly finely written example, with both Hebrew and Arabic in Hebrew letters used in the text. The manuscript is divided into two sections. The first part of Kabbalah is written in Arabic in Hebrew letters from Moslem sources. On page 1 reverse is a graphic image for an amulet to create love between two people, very similar to two amulets by Yitzhak Cadoor that are in the Gross Family Collection. There are many other Kabbalistic illustrations in this section as well as the second part, which is entirely in Hebrew and identified as “”Sefer Raziel ha-Malach””, even though it is not the traditional text known today. It is the text from “”Sefer ha-Razim””, the earliest book know dealing with practical Kabbalah. It is clear that Salem was an accomplished scribe, both in Hebrew and Arabic. The manuscript is bound in a Koran type binding of tooled leather. Sefer HaRazim (Hebrew: ×¡×¤×¨ ×”×¨×–×™×â€Ž, “”Book of Secrets””) is a Jewish magical text supposedly given to Noah by the angel Raziel, and passed down throughout Biblical history to Solomon, for whom it was a great source of his wisdom, and purported magical powers. Note that this is a different book than the Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, which was given to Adam by the same angel, but they stem from the same tradition, and large parts of Sefer HaRazim were incorporated into the Sefer Raziel under its original title. This is an unorthodox text; while traditional Jewish laws of purity are part of the cosmogony, there are “”praxeis which demand we eat cakes made from blood and flour”” (Morgan 9). It is thought to be a sourcebook for Jewish magic, calling upon angels rather than God to perform supernatural feats. The text itself was once considered to be part of “”orthodox”” Judaism under the influence of Hellenism, but this text, along with some other works, are considered to be unorthodox or heretical in modern Judaism.”