The Sefer Raziel is a Kabbalistic book of jewish magic that is alleged to date from the thirteenth century and to be the product of a Kabbalistic master. (1) The most recent translator of the work, Giovanni Grippo, cites the work of Bill Rebiger at the Freie Universität Berlin in support of the claim of a thirteenth century origin. (2) This is however a mistake since all that Rebiger actually pointed out was that elements of the Sefer Raziel are far older than the work itself and on which point Bohak agrees. (3)
It is almost certain that the Sefer Raziel was written just before it was published in Amsterdam in 1701 and that the reason that parts of the text show a concordance with older Kabbalistic writings is because the work is a patchwork of older ideas and concepts stitched onto a new canvass with somewhat different interpretations/recommendations more in-tune with 1701 than the year 1301. (4) Thus it can be reasonably said to be the product of more recent jewish hands and not those of some objectified half-mythical jewish 'sage', such as Eliezer of Worms (whom Grippo speculates wrote it). (5)
Our interest in the Sefer Raziel here is limited to its attitude in regard to gentiles/non-jews and as it is one of several well-known books of jewish magic. Its opinions have a certain weight to them within the more esoteric of Judaism and will further contribute to our understanding of jewish ideas concerning the concept of the 'other' (i.e., non-jews).
In the Sefer Raziel we are told that if any one of Cain's descendants kills and eats an ox, lamb or goat having failed to sacrifice it to Yahweh instead. Then they are guilty of bloodshed/murder. (6)
This is because Cain has been rejected by God for killing Abel and as such has been cursed by being unable to till the land. (7) Cain is further set to be extirpated for murdering Abel by the Archangel Raziel (who veritably gloats about it to Adam) (8) unless Adam offers Cain up as a burnt offering (i.e., a human sacrifice) to Yahweh. (9)
This demand that Cain's unholy legacy be exterminated by either a vengeful Archangel or his use as a real human sacrifice (as opposed to God's testing of Abraham by requiring him to make a burnt offering of his son Isaac in an almost identical manner) is not limited to Cain alone. We are further told in the Sefer Raziel that the children of Cain (i.e., unrepentant humanity) have done great evil in spite of being warned not to by God and his angelic soldiers (10) and the evil ones need to be exterminated post haste. (11)
As Adam is made to phrase it:
'No person devoted to destruction may be ransomed; he must be put to death. That is the second law of God.' (12)
However this does not include all humanity since there are some who (necessarily) are righteous and have listened to the warnings of God and his angelic soldiers. These are styled in Judaism to be the second 'corrected' version of humanity and are identified as being of Knesses Yisrael (the jewish nation) as Rabbi Binyomin Forst has explained. (13)
The first (uncorrected) version of humanity (i.e., non-jews) are those who have not followed the dictates of Yahweh and have turned their back on him as a result of giving in to the 'evil urge' (i.e., what animates all evil in the world according to Judaism).
Now, as Katz and Schwartz have pointed out, (14) in Judaism; Cain is believed to have been animated to murder Abel by the evil urge. Much as gentiles do all the evil they do according to Judaism, because they are animated by that same urge. (15) The result of which, as explicitly detailed by Rabbi Emanuel Feldman, is the manifest superiority of the jews as a people over non-jews. (16)
In other words when the Sefer Raziel talks about need to put those 'devoted to destruction' (i.e., devoted to/enslaved by the evil urge by their very nature [hence the 'suspect'/inferior nature of non-jews according to Judaism]) (17) and the fact that the children of Cain (i.e., uncorrected humanity = non-jews) do much evil requires that they be exterminated in accordance with the God-given laws of the jews.
The Sefer Raziel further clarifies the extraordinary hatred for non-jews that it oozes when it quotes the song (named the 'Qastinu') which was taught to (corrected) humanity (i.e., the jews) by the Angel Qastiel on the orders of Archangel Raziel, which begins as follows:
'The glorious warriors of God lie slain on the heights. How the mighty have fallen! Tell it not to the winegrowers, proclaim it not in the streets to the merchants, lest the daughters of the invaders be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.' (18)
This song laments the fact that large amounts of angels lie dead on the heights of the world after a celestial battle between the angelic forces of the Archangel Michael and those of Archangel Azazel. (19) The battle has depleted the ranks of celestial armies of heaven and as such the song cautions (corrected) humanity (i.e., the jews) not to let on to the 'invaders'/'uncircumcised' (i.e., non-jews) that this is so. Lest the non-jews act on the evil urge to slay the jews, because heaven no longer has the angelic resources to stop them.
Essentially the Sefer Raziel is cautioning jews to bide their time and not inform the evil non-jews that forces of heaven are weak in order to gain time for them to be rebuilt by God. Then once this military build-up has been successfully effected the celestial armies can drop onto the earth and fight with (corrected) humanity (i.e., the jews) to exterminate those 'devoted to destruction' (i.e., uncorrected humanity = non-jews) in order to 'repair the world'.
Thus we can see that the Sefer Raziel far from being the usual magical mumbo-jumbo is actually a text, like the Sefer Yezirah (20) (from which it takes some of its ideas), (21) that preaches the hatred of non-jews and further actually advocates their extermination.
References
(1) Giovanni Grippo (Trans.), 2010, 'Book of Raziel', 1st Edition, Giovanni Grippo Verlag: Steinbach, p. 7
(2) Ibid., p. 8
(3) Gideon Bohak, 2008, 'Ancient Jewish Magic: A History', 1st Edition, Cambridge University Press: New York, p. 222
(4) Implied in Ibid.
(5) Grippo, Op. Cit., p. 7
(6) Sefer Raziel, 1:9
(7) Ibid., 4:1
(8) Ibid., 7:3
(9) Ibid., 7:2
(10) Ibid., 4:4-4:9
(11) Ibid., 7:5-7:16
(12) Ibid., 7:3
(13) Binyomin Forst, 1994, 'The Laws of Kashrus: A Comprehensive Exposition of their Underlying Concepts and Applications', 2nd Edition, Mesorah: New York, p. 25; also see Jacob Neusner, 2004, 'Making God's Word Work: A Guide to the Mishnah', 1st Edition, Continuum: New York, pp. 64-65
(14) Michael Katz, Gershon Schwartz, 2002, 'Searching for Meaning in the Midrash', 1st Edition, The Jewish Publication Society: Philadelphia, p. 126
(15) Neusner, Op. Cit., pp. 76-77
(16) Emanuel Feldman, 1998, 'On Judaism: Conversations on being Jewish in Today's World', 2nd Edition, Shaar Press: New York, pp. 269-270
(17) Ibid.
(18) Sefer Raziel, 6:2
(19) Ibid., 2:5-2:7
(20) See my article:https://karlradl14.substack.com/p/the-hatred-of-non-jews-in-the-sefer
(21) Grippo, Op. Cit., p. 9