## Sefer Yetzirah Chapter 3

###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:1
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:1](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:1)

שלש אמות אמ"ש יסודן כף חובה וכף זכות ולשון חק מכריע בינתים:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—Their foundation is the palm of guilt and the palm of innocence, and the tongue of edict decides between them.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:2
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:2](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:2)

שלש אמות אמ"ש סוד גדול מופלא ומכוסה וחתום בשש טבעות וממנו יוצאים אש ומים מתחלקים זכר ונקבה: שלש אמות אמ"ש יסודן ומהן נולדו אבות שמהם נברא הכל:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—A great secret, concealed and covered and sealed in Six Rings. From them emerge Fire and Water, being divided male and female. Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin* is their foundation—from them are born Fathers from which all is created.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:3
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:3](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:3)

שלש אמות אמ"ש בעולם אויר מים אש שמים נבראו תחלה מאש וארץ נבראת ממים והאויר מכריע בין האש ובין המים:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—In the World are Air, Water, Fire. The heavens were created first from Fire, and the earth is created from Water, and the Air decides between the fire and the water.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:4
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:4](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:4)

שלש אמות אמ"ש בשנה אש ומים ורוח חום נברא מאש קור ממים ורויה מרוח מכריע בינתים. שלש אמות אמ"ש בנפש אש ומים ורוח ראש נברא מאש ובטן נברא ממים וגויה נברא מרוח מכריע בינתים:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—In the Year are Fire, Water, and Wind. Heat was created from Fire, and cold from Water, and satiation from Wind deciding between them. Three mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—In the Person¹, translated reluctantly as ‘person’. It derives from the root נפ״שׁ *NPSh*, having to do with breathing, refreshing, and resting; its etymological relationships with curiously similar roots like נשׁ״ם *NShM* ‘to breathe, pant’, נשׁ״ף *NShP* ‘to blow’, and נשׁ״ב *NShB* ‘to blow’ are unclear. On one level, it refers to the individual person or creature, i.e., ‘that which has breath’, similar to the term נְשָׁמָה *neshamah* (cf. [Psalm 150:6]), and might be translated ‘person, individual, being’. On another, it refers to something less tangible, approaching the kind of phantom essence implied by the English term ‘soul’. And on yet another level, it refers to the physical body, the primary metaphorical sense in which the term is encountered in the SY. *Nefesh* thus refers all at once to the material and immaterial essences of individual personhood, uniting ‘body’ and ‘soul’ in a single term for which English, inheritor of the philosophical duality between mind and body, lacks any true counterpart. are Fire, Water, and Wind; the head was created from Fire, the belly was created from Water, and the chest from Wind decides between them.

footnotes:
¹ There is no satisfactory English equivalent of Hebrew נֶפֶשׁ nefesh


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:5
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:5](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:5)

שלש אמות אמ"ש חקקן וחצבן וצרפן וחתם בהן שלש אמות בעולם ושלש אמות בשנה ושלש אמות בנפש זכר ונקבה:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
Three Mothers, *Alef-Mem-Shin*—He carved them, hewed them, combined them, and with them He sealed Three Mothers in the World, and Three Mothers in the Year, and Three Mothers in the Person, male and female.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:6
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:6](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:6)

המליך אות אל"ף ברוח וקשר לו כתר וצרפן זה עם זה וחתם בהן אויר בעולם ורויה בשנה וגויה בנפש זכר באמ"ש ונקבה באש"ם:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
He made the letter *Alef* reign over Wind, and He bound to it a crown. He combined them, this one with that one. With them He sealed the Wind in the world, and satiation in the Year, and the chest in the Person—male with *Alef-Mem-Shin* and female with *Alef-Shin-Mem*.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:7
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:7](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:7)

המליך אות מ"ם במים וקשר לו כתר וצרפן זה עם זה וחתם בהן ארץ בעולם וקור בשנה ובטן בנפש זכר ונקבה זכר במא"ש ונקבה במש"א:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
He made the letter *Mem* reign over Water, and He bound to it a crown. He combined them, this one with that one; He sealed with them the earth in the World, and cold in the Year, and the belly in the Person, male and female—male with *Mem-Alef-Shin* and female with *Mem-Shin-Alef*.


###### Sefer Yetzirah 3:8
[Sefer Yetzirah 3:8](https://torahapp.org/share/book/Sefer%20Yetzirah/r/3:8)

המליך אות שי"ן באש וקשר לו כתר וצרפן זה עם זה וחתם בהן שמים בעולם וחום בשנה וראש בנפש זכר ונקבה [זכר בשא"מ ונקבה בשמ"א, (כ"ה בנ"י)]:

**Sefaria Community Translation:**
He made the letter *Shin* reign over Fire, and He bound to it a crown. He combined them, this one with that one; He sealed with them the heavens in the World, and heat in the Year, and the head in the Person, male and female [male with *Shin-Alef-Mem* and female with *Shin-Mem-Alef*, written thus in the N.Y.].