Secrets of Creation

Secrets of CreationFive hundred years ago, Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabbais work Avodat HaKodesh brought the opening chapters of Genesis into conversation with the kabbalistic teachings reshaping Jewish thought. In The Secrets of Creation, Arthur Green, Howard Smith, and Debra Band translate and expand Ibn Gabbais vision into a richly illustrated conversation among Jewish mysticism, modern cosmology, and sacred imagination. Structured around Ibn Gabbais ten part interpretation of

Five hundred years ago, Rabbi Meir Ibn Gabbai’s work Avodat HaKodesh brought the opening chapters of Genesis into conversation with the kabbalistic teachings reshaping Jewish thought. In The Secrets of Creation, Arthur Green, Howard Smith, and Debra Band translate and expand Ibn Gabbai’s vision into a richly illustrated conversation among Jewish mysticism, modern cosmology, and sacred imagination.

Structured around Ibn Gabbai’s ten-part interpretation of the Creation story, the book offers a translation of the original text alongside theological commentary, scientific reflection, and illuminated artwork. Green, a historian of Jewish mysticism, explores Ibn Gabbai’s spiritual vision; Smith, an astrophysicist, considers its resonance with contemporary ideas such as the big bang, quantum mechanics, and the Anthropic Principle; and Band, a Hebrew manuscript artist, gives visual form to the text through Jewish iconography and scientific imagery.

Together, they invite readers into a layered encounter with Creation: ancient and modern, mystical and empirical, textual and visual. The result is both a work of scholarship and a meditation on humanity’s place within the unfolding story of the cosmos.

Advance Praise

“Secrets of Creation is mind-bending and spiritually illuminating in every sense! The symbolic vocabularies of Kabbalah, astrophysics, and art converge in most wondrous ways. What a gift!”
— Michael Fishbane, author, Fragile Finitude: A Jewish Hermeneutical Theology

“Secrets of Creation combines science, Kabbalah, and art, linking together old kabbalistic and new scientific accounts of origins with the imaginative insight of the artistic eye. Bringing them together is an act of contemporary Jewish creativity.”
— Melila Hellner-Eshed, author, A River Flows from Eden: The Language of Mystical Experience in the Zohar

“Mystics, scientists, and artists have always pondered the Secrets of Creation. Here, in this marvelous book, three brilliant contemporary seekers—a mystic, a scientist, and an artist—have collaborated to produce an updated guide to these secrets. Based on a sensitive reading of a traditional masterpiece of Kabbalah, these three modern masters demonstrate how ancient wisdom can stimulate and enlighten us today. Delve into this book and you will be amazed!”
— Daniel Matt, author of God and the Big Bang, and the multi-volume annotated translation, The Zohar: Pritzker Edition.