‘Al ‘asarah sifre Shelomoh ha- melekh (On the Ten [Hidden] Books of King Solomon)

From the “Maggid” of R. Joseph Taitatsak

If I have come to relate and tell, divulging the entire mystery of the Garden of Eden and the matters residing within it, of the species of trees, a book could not contain them, for the entire mystery of the higher world is concealed there. But of this you would have to make one entire book, namely the book of Solomon’s wisdom that is hidden, which is the book of the Garden of Eden and its wisdom. There resides the whole mystery of the higher world, and the Book of Healings is comprised in this book. The holy sages suppressed and concealed the books which King Solomon wrought, along with many other books, when they saw the length of the exile. There is no number to Solomon’s books that he wrought in the many esoteric sciences. Ten of these books, together with the three books that we have,¹ come to thirteen books in all, and in them he hid all manner of secret matters of the higher realm. For the sages did not want them to be made public, because if they had been made public, it would have brought destruction to the world. For in them resides the whole secret of what derives from them, from beginning to end, and the whole secret of all the sciences.

The first of these deals with the virtues of the perfect ones and the deficient ones; the virtues of the kings, the ministers, and their assistants; the virtues of the greater and lesser women; the conduct of the houses and the provinces; the conduct of war and peace; and the conduct of this world and the world to come after death. All these things are collectively called “perfection of the virtues.” In this book of virtues are included many sciences, to no end. Here are counted the virtues of life and death, in all their variety, after their kinds. A book cannot contain them all; it is a noble science.

When the wisdom and splendor of these ten books is expounded, you will know the whole secret of divine science, natural science, and political science. All these sciences are included in Solomon’s books and were hidden away in order that the gentiles should not learn them during our exile. But when the Lord’s Messiah will come, the books of these sciences shall go forth. This is the secret of the trees of the Lord shall be satiated (Psalms 104:16)—the trees of the Lord are the secret of these books.

The second book deals with the secret of the Garden of Eden from beginning to end. The third deals with the secret of Gehenna and its compartments from beginning to end. The book of the Garden of Eden tells of the compartments of the Garden of Eden and its rooms, its woods and stones, the origin and source of the gold, the origin and source of the silver, as well as the secret of its trees, its rooms, its ornaments, their appearance, and all the hues there. It also speaks of the question of the lofts and houses of the Garden of Eden, as well as how these very books of these sciences are written there, and the books of the holy names, and how many they are. This is the secret of the Garden of Eden.

There it expounds the secret of the verse, And [the Lord] placed east of the Garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24). For if these things were placed at the entrance, the dwellers of earth could enter the Garden of Eden alive, or by way of the rivers by way of boats. Indeed, some have attempted to enter but were not able to enter, or even to see it. This is the secret of the third book, and in it are expounded all the secret of the natures of the woods and the stones, the herbs and medicines and the healing names.

The fourth book deals with the secret of the science of the heavens, the secret of the science of the stars and planets.

The fifth book speaks of the secret of the seven spheres and the entities that inhabit each sphere, and those things that emanate from them.

The sixth book speaks of how, with what, and from what were created these seven spheres that are called the planets. It speaks there of the secret of the sciences of the sun and the moon on high, how their power is concealed, and how influence and connection may be drawn from the secrets of the spheres of the sun and the moon.

The seventh book speaks of the secret of all the beings of this world, of the seventy nations, how they came to be, and what will become of them in the end, and why they came to be, inasmuch as God will in the future uproot the idols and all foreign worship from the world, in His glory, and His Name will be one. And in this book is explained at length, as should be, how this matter is to be included.

The eighth book deals with the secret of the eighth world that will be and will succeed the seventh—how it will be, and of what, and how things will be reconciled at that time, and what is a nation, and what are the sciences that will be in the world at that time.

The ninth world deals with the secret of the nine spheres, how they will be connected when the Messiah of the Lord comes, when the supernal Jerusalem will descend to the earth, how the heavens will be connected afterwards, for the sun, moon, and stars to give light after this city Jerusalem descends from on high, and who and what will descend in it.

The tenth book deals with how God will dwell down on earth, and how the inhabitants of earth will see Him, inasmuch as the eye has not been given permission to see this power, and what is the thing that they shall see, and what is the thing that will be concealed on high. These matters are a great science, to expound what will dwell on high and what will be down below.

These are the ten books in their entirety. Solomon learned them and taught them to Israel but concealed them so that gentiles should not see them. This is the secret of the trees of the Lord shall be satiated. It is the wisdom of these ten books, which are called the trees of the Lord because the whole secret of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil are contained in the wisdom of these ten books. That is the secret of the trees of the Lord shall be satiated. And the secret of the cedars of Lebanon which He planted (Psalms 104:16) is the secret of the trees of the Garden of Eden and the trees that dwell there; what is the benefit of them inasmuch as there is no one who will eat of them. Why were these cedars planted? They were planted so that when the world is overturned, the Garden of Eden and the cedars in it will not be overturned. By the secret of these cedars, houses will be built for the people of Israel, for there will be no other trees or stones remaining, for all will be overturned in an hour. This is the secret of I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me (Ecclesiastes 7:23). In other words, [Solomon] learned all this wisdom but it eluded him when he saw the length of time, from all the ordered matters, in accord with all that I have explained. This is the mystery of the Song of Songs, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.