[German Version]

(“the Book of Brilliance”), also known as the Midrash of Rabbi Nechunia ben ha-Kanah (after the 2nd-cent. sage to whom the first paragraph in the book is attributed). It is the first work of the Kabbalah, and was written anonymously around 1185, probably in the Provence or in northern Spain. It contains around 200 paragraphs, which are attributed to various talmudic sages, and is written in imitation of the classical midrashic norms. It is the first work to present the divine powers as a system of superimposed laye…