Thus it was appropriate to decree for us the covenant of circumcision (berit milah) whose secret is the four beasts (’arba‘ hayyot), for our essence is from them, and the covenant is decreed in the form of the warp and woof (sheti wa-‘erev). The law is to cut this physical penis (ha-berit ha-gufanit) and to cleave to the spiritual (ruhanit) from it, which is knowledge of the name (yedi‘at ha-shem), for it is not possible for the name to be revealed until they appropriate his ways in the warp and woof, and this is “they made the covenant” (berit ‘asu), that is, if a man does not know the act of God, he does not know him. How does one know him? Through the covenant of the sacred language.

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 Abraham Abulafia, ’Osar ‘Eden Ganuz (Jerusalem, 2000), p. 286.