Sefer ha-Malbush: The Book of the Garment
The Sefer ha-Malbush or ‘Book
of the Garment’ is a Jewish esoteric text, consisting of a ritual for evoking
angelic beings and performing various feats. This text can tentatively be
traced back to the Geonic period (6th-11th centuries), and may have originated
in Babylonia, where Jewish communities thrived
during this era. Another mystical work with the same title, but only distantly
related to it, is found in the Sefer Raziel.
The ritual embodied in the Book of
the Garment involves a practice referred to as lebishat ha-shêm, in Hebrew, literally ‘putting on the Name’.
Essentially, the practitioner seeks to impregnate their being with the Name or
Names of God, usually by immersing themselves in water and reciting the Names. Variations
on this procedure were commonplace in Jewish theurgic literature. In the Sword
of Moses, another magical text from the Geonic era, we find an impressive
ritual to evoke the Angel of the Presence, which begins with a procedure for
putting on a holy name, in order to protect the mystic from the fierce energy
of the Angel as well as the attacks of punishing angelic beings:
"In that hour
when I wish to attach him to me and to employ him, I sit and fast on that very
day ; but prior to it one must keep oneself free for seven days from any
nocturnal impurity, and must bathe in the fountain of water, and not speak at
all during those seven days, and at the end of this purification, on the day of
the fast, he must sit in the water up to his throat, and before he utters the
conjuration he must first say:
‘I
conjure you, angels of dread, fear, and shaking, who are appointed to hurt
those who are not pure and clean and desire the services of the servants of the
Most High-- I conjure you in the name of QTT YH HYH SNNQQRWTT HWYH
YH PPNNH YHWH YH ANQSYHWH,
who is mighty over all, and rules over all, and everything is in His hands,
that you do not hurt me, nor terrify me, nor frighten me; verily, in the name
of the powerful, the revealer of the mysteries. After this he may commence his
conjuration, for now he has fortified himself and has sealed himself with the
name of God of 42 letters, before which all who hear it
tremble and are frightened, and the heavenly hosts are terror-struck.
In the Sefer ha-Malbush, the procedure
is slightly more complex, and requires a special garment (the me‘il ha-tzedaqah or “mantle of righteousness”, whereon the divine names are written) to be made, but also involves the
practitioner immersing himself in water to put on the Holy Name. The Sefer
ha-Malbush may be plausibly classified as an initiation ritual, which will
grant the mystic various powers. Other variants of Putting on the Name may be
found among the rich literature of the Hasidê Ashkenaz, early medieval German mystics
who devoted themselves to the study of divine names and practical qabalah. Their
most celebrated teacher, Eleazar of Worms, developed a rite to be used by a
teacher and student for the transmission of divine names, which involves both
of them standing in water in white garments while uttering prayers.
The water element can possibly be traced back to the old Jewish ritual bath,
the miqweh.
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