Ner Elohim · נר אלהים

A book in heads of chapters on "the hidden things of speech" and the rolling of the letters, written by its author for a reader he calls "my son"; its intent, in its own words, is "to hint the way proper to reading, for the knowledge of the rolling on which all our intent rests, and after it the secret of the commandments". It calls itself Ner Elohim, and the verse of its name — "the lamp of God is the soul of man" — stands at its head and returns in the second rolling of the vowels as the sign of נ"ר. From the secret of the priestly blessing it passes to the letters by their places in the mouth, to the vowels and to the melody, and from these to the rolling of the letters with the four-letter Name, which it calls "the root of all formation"; after them the secret of all the commandments and the secret of circumcision, "a foundation for all the commandments", and last the hints of Sefer Yetsirah — which it says at its close it did not mean to explain, but to make known how its author hinted in it the way a man is bound to walk when he wishes to follow after the attainment of God.