The Treatise on the Left Emanation (Hebrew: מאמר על האצילות השמאלית, romanized: Ma'amar al ha-Atzilut haSimalit) is a Kabbalistic text by Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, who with his brother Jacob traveled in Spain and Provence in the period of 1260–1280.[1]
Scholars credit this text with being the first to present a "comprehensive concept of evil", bearing a striking resemblance to that found in Gnosticism. It is also the first to treat Samael and Lilith as a couple, likely inspiring later such depictions in the Zohar.[2]
Isaac may be the pseudepigraphic author of other texts including the Pseudo-R. Eleazar Responsum, and the Pseudo-R. Yehushiel Responsa.[3]
Translation
- Professor Ronald C. Kiener, published an incomplete translation in The Early Kabbalah, New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
- A complete translation from Hebrew to English has been published in 2023.[4]