Abstract
The first ever translation into English of Sefer Yetsirah was produced and published in the United States in 1877 by a Reform rabbi and scholar named Isidor Kalisch. This article explains who Kalisch was, why he translated Sefer Yetsirah, the relationship of his translation to the German translation by the Lutheran theologian, Johann Friedrich von Meyer, and the book’s subsequent adoption by the Ancient and Mystical Order of the Rosae Crucis (AMORC) which maintains it as a “Rosicrucian classic.” Linking mystics and scholars, Christians and Jews, the volume embodies central themes in the yet-to-be-written history of Kabbalah in America. Kabbalah in America; Ancient Lore in the New World. Edited by Brian Ogren. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2020 Studies in Jewish History and Culture. 64