The Books of Jacob

by Olga Tokarczuk

And I reminded them that in the old language, do not the words light (or) and infinity (Ein Sof) have the same numerical values? Or is after all written: alef-vav-resh: which is: 1+6+200=207. While Ein Sof—alef-yod-nun-samekh-vav-pe: which is: 1+10+50+60+6+80=207. But the word raz, or mystery, is also 207. Just look, I told them: all the books we have studied have been about light: the Sefer ha-Bahir is the Book of Brightness, Sha’are Ora are the Gates of Light, Meor Einayim the Light of the Eyes, the Orot ha-Kodesh is the Light of Holiness, and finally, the Sefer haZohar is the Book of Splendor. We have done nothing other than waking up at midnight, at the time of the greatest darkness, in our low, dark cubbyholes, in the cold, to study light.