Sefer ha-Chokmah. Das zahlenmystische Vermächtnis des El'azar von Worms

The article deals with the role of numbers and isopsephy in the Commentary on the first words of the Book of Genesis by the Medieval Rabbi El'azar of Worms, one of the most famous members of the Chaside Ashkenaz, the German Pietists, who lived in the XIII century. His peculiar understanding of numerical combinations and gematriaot is interpreted as an aide-memoire, a sort of ars memorandi for the oral instruction of pupils and novices, leading them gradually to the comprehension of an esoterical body of knowledge coded, as it were, in the arithmetical equivalences of the very letters of the Bible. Part of the article is dedicated to the Latin translation of the Sefer ha-Chokmah, realized by Flavius Mithridates for Giovanni Pico della Mirandola in 1486. Thus the educational aspect of this tratise and its transcultural potential are brought together and analyzed, in selected instances, in an interdisciplinary perspective.