Massekhet Azilut is an anonymous kabalistic work from the early 14th century, the earliest literary product of the speculative Kabbala which contains the doctrine of the four graduated worlds (a doctrine not contained in the Zohar

Zohar

The Zohar is the foundational work in the literature of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah. It is a group of books including commentary on the mystical aspects of the Torah and scriptural interpretations as well as material on Mysticism, mythical cosmogony, and mystical psychology...

) as well as that of the concentration of the Divine Being. The Messekhet Atzilut opens with the following passage:

Dating

The form in which the rudiments of the Kabala are presented here, as well as the emphasis laid on keeping the doctrine secret and on the compulsory piety of the learners, is evidence of the early date of the work. At the time when Masseket Aẓilut was written the Kabala had not yet become a subject of general study, but was still confined to a few of the elect. The treatment is on the whole the same as that found in the mystical writings of the time of the Geonim

Geonim

Geonim were the presidents of the two great Babylonian, Talmudic Academies of Sura and Pumbedita, in the Abbasid Caliphate, and were the generally accepted spiritual leaders of the Jewish community world wide in the early medieval era, in contrast to the Resh Galuta who wielded secular authority...

, with which the work has much in common; hence, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia

Jewish Encyclopedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia is an encyclopedia originally published in New York between 1901 and 1906 by Funk and Wagnalls. It contained over 15,000 articles in 12 volumes on the history and then-current state of Judaism and the Jews as of 1901...

(1901) there is no reason for not regarding it as a product of that time. In contrast, Gershom Scholem

Gershom Scholem

Gerhard Scholem who, after his immigration from Germany to Palestine, changed his name to Gershom Scholem , was a German-born Israeli Jewish philosopher and historian, born and raised in Germany...

 considered it a 14th century work.

The doctrines of Meṭaṭron

Metatron

Metatron or Mattatron is the name of an angel in Judaism and some branches of Christian mythology. There are no references to him in the Jewish Tanakh or Christian Scriptures...

, and of angelology especially, are identical with those of the Geonim, and the idea of the Sefirot is presented so simply and unphilosophically that one is hardly justified in assuming that it was influenced directly by any philosophical system.

The book places the Archangel Metatron and the angels centered around him in the world of "Yetzirah

Yetzirah

Yetzirah is the third of four worlds in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, following Atziluth and Briah...

" rather than "Beriahas," as later became the case [Scholem, Kabbalah, pp.118-9]. Beginning with Isaac of Acre and the Massekhet Atzilut, the Hebrew letter Yod (י) has been associated with the World of Atzilut, Heh (ה) with Beriah, Vau (ו) with Yetzirah, and the final Heh with Assiah

Assiah

Assiah is the last of the four spiritual worlds of the Kabbalah—Atziluth, Beri'ah, Yetzirah, 'Asiyah—based on the passage in . According to the Maseket Aẓilut, it is the region where the Ofanim rule and where they promote the hearing of prayers, support human endeavor, and combat evil...

 , thus spelling out the name of God (YHVH) in terms of the four worlds.

External links

• Jewish Encyclopedia article for Kabbalah, by Kaufmann Kohler
  Kaufmann Kohler
  Kaufmann Kohler was a German-born U.S. reform rabbi and theologian.-Life and work:Kaufmann Kohler was born into a family of rabbis...
  
   and Louis Ginzberg
  Louis Ginzberg
  Rabbi Louis Ginzberg was a Talmudist and leading figure in the Conservative Movement of Judaism of the twentieth century. He was born on November 28, 1873, in Kovno, Lithuania; he died on November 11, 1953, in New York City.-Biographical background:...
  
  .