Jacob Semah, Semah Saddiq

Jewish Mysticism
When the sign of the covenant (’ot berit), the foundation and governance of the worlds, is garbed in the shells (qelippot), this instructs about governance firm in his judgment … but when he is garbed in the holy gradations, that is, the secret of the feminine (sod ha-neqevah), then is the rectification of the world (tiqqun ‘olam), and his opening overflows (petihato lehashpi‘a)… There are two shells that garb, the foreskin (‘orlah) and pulling back the membrane (peri‘ah) … and the two of them are Samael and Lilith, that is, the other gods (’elohim ’aherim), and the face of Shekhinah is the sign of the covenant, the yod of governance. With regard to this it says “You should have no other gods before me” (Exod. 20-3), that is, the shells that cover the covenant.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in “Circumcision, Secrecy, and the Veiling of the Veil- Phallomorphic Exposure and Kabbalistic Essotericism.” In The Covenant of Circumcision- New Perspectives on an Ancient Rite, pp. 58-70. Edited by Elizabeth W. Mark. Hanover and London- Brandeis University Press, 2003, from Jacob Semah, Semah Saddiq (Korets, 1785), 37b.