The kabbalistic doctrine of cosmic cycles (shemittot and yovel) or worlds periodically created and returning into the state of chaos has been fully developed in the treatise entitled Sefer ha-Temunah, composed by an anonymous author probably in the mid-fourteenth century within the areas of the Byzantine Empire. The allusive style of the text is balanced by its clear structure, which constitutes the framework for the doctrine of cosmic cycles. This paper investigates the cluster of motifs exposed in the introduction to Sefer ha-Temunah and further developed in the treatise: (a) sefirah Binah and its symbolism, (b) ascension of the vital soul (nefesh) to Binah as a place of its origin, and (c) the concept of primordial Torah (Torah elionah) as a tool by which Binah affects each of the following worlds. The article reveals the relation between these motifs as organized around the notion of sefirah Binah, which is the crucial concept in the process of creation and destruction of worlds presented by the anonymous author of Sefer ha-Temunah.

The kabbalistic doctrine of cosmic cycles (shemittot and yovel) or worlds periodically created and returning into the state of chaos has been fully developed in the treatise entitled Sefer ha-Temunah, composed by an anonymous author probably in the mid-fourteenth century within the areas of the Byzantine Empire. The allusive style of the text is balanced by its clear structure, which constitutes the framework for the doctrine of cosmic cycles. This paper investigates the cluster of motifs exposed in the introduction to Sefer ha-Temunah and further developed in the treatise: (a) sefirah Binah and its symbolism, (b) ascension of the vital soul (nefesh) to Binah as a place of its origin, and (c) the concept of primordial Torah (Torah elionah) as a tool by which Binah affects each of the following worlds. The article reveals the relation between these motifs as organized around the notion of sefirah Binah, which is the crucial concept in the process of creation and destruction of worlds presented by the anonymous author of Sefer ha-Temunah.