# Sefer ha-Bahir — library/bahir

Sefer ha-Bahir (ספר הבהיר, "The Book of Brightness"), attributed traditionally to
R. Nechunya ben HaKanah. One of the earliest works of Kabbalah, a short text of cryptic
midrashic/agadic paragraphs on the Hebrew letters, the sefirot, and cosmic symbols. This
is the **editio princeps** — the first printed edition of the Bahir.

## File

| File | Edition | Pages | Size | Format |
|------|---------|------:|-----:|--------|
| `sefer-ha-bahir-amsterdam-1651.pdf` | Sefer ha-Bahir, Amsterdam 1651 (first printed edition) | 23 | 1.4 MB | PDF (image scan) |

## Source URL

- Detail page: https://www.hebrewbooks.org/43161
- Download: https://download.hebrewbooks.org/downloadhandler.ashx?req=43161

## Edition / year

- *הבהיר סודות נפלאות של ר׳ נחוניה בן הקנה* ("The Bahir, Secrets and Wonders of R.
  Nechunja ben HaKana"), printed by Yehuda ben Mordecai and Samuel ben Moshe Ha-Levi,
  Amsterdam 1651 (Hebrew year תיא = 1651) — the FIRST PRINTED EDITION (editio princeps) of
  the Sefer ha-Bahir.
- Held by the Library of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; scanned and
  distributed by HebrewBooks.org. (Copy bears owner's name: Mordechai Shmuel Ghirondi;
  bound with *Sefer amudeha shivʻah*, Prague 1674.)

## License

Public domain. Printed in 1651, far pre-dating any copyright threshold; the scan is
provided by HebrewBooks.org for free download (direct PDF, not lending-only).

## Completeness note

- 23 pages (verified via mutool) — the full extent of the 1651 first edition. The Bahir
  is a short work; this is the complete 1651 printed book, not an excerpt or sample.
- The 1951/1989 Aryeh Kaplan editions are COPYRIGHTED and were deliberately NOT used.
- Note on the Bahir's textual history: the printed editions (including this 1651 editio
  princeps) preserve the ~140-paragraph printed recension; Gershom Scholem later showed
  the fuller manuscript tradition contains additional material reconstructed in modern
  critical editions (all copyrighted). This 1651 edition is the complete first printed
  edition and the best available free, PD, Hebrew source of the work.