The Sefer Yetsirah (the Book of Creation ) is a core text of the early kabbalah, yet scholars have struggled to establish even the most basic facts about the work. This project attempts to discover the ways in which diagrams accompanying the text and its commentaries show trends in the development of the kabbalistic tradition as a whole.

Word and Image in Medieval Kabbalah Situating the Text Genre as Argument in the Sefer Yetsirah : A New Look at its Literary Structure Thinking in Lines and Circles The Letter forms: How did He Combine Them, and Why? Golem Diagrams: Golem-making, Astrology, and Messianism Postscripts to the Golem: Word, Image, and Body

Marla Segol is the Fannie Kestenbaum Paull Professor of Jewish Studies The Institute of Jewish Thought and Heritage at SUNY University at Buffalo.