This sefirotic tree, a precisely symmetrical visualization of the “Thirty-Two Paths of Wisdom,” is one of many beautifully crafted diagrammatic illustrations found in a luxury kabbalistic manuscript crafted in central Europe in 1774. The manuscript is one of a family of luxury copies of the canonical Lurianic treatise, Etz Hayyim (Tree of Life/Hayyim) originally designed in the mid-eighteenth century by Israel Ben Asher Buchbinder; this Oxford volume was copied by Israel Sofer, who tellingly referred to himself as “the scribe and artist" (in Hebrew "hasofer ve-ha metzayer Israel"). Buchbinder’s volumes are found today in Prague (MS 69), Copenhagen (MS 43), and Uppsala (O Hebr. 27), to name but three. 
 
Buchbinder’s ornate volumes  are notable not only for their artistry but also for their interpretive visualizations of complex kabbalistic ideas. This tree diagram stands out in part for its integration of malkhut — the tenth and lowest sefirah — within the full constellation of sefirot, rather than as an isolated protrusion beneath the sefirotic array as seen in the iconic kabbalistic tree.
 
This unique kabbalistic tree gives balanced form to the “32 pathways” axiomatically declared at the opening of Sefer Yetzirah: ten sefirot and twenty-two Hebrew letters. The latter were typically associated by kabbalists with the channels that network the sefirotic hubs of the kabbalistic tree. With exceptional dedication to the division of the Hebrew alphabet into three groups (“three mother letters, seven doubled letters, and twelve simple letters”), this tree features precisely three horizontal, seven vertical, and twelve diagonal channels.The result is an image of precise structure and spiritual resonance, embodying the intricate relationship between divine emanation and sacred language.
 
Courtesy of The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, MSOpp. Add. Fol. 32.