One of the primary purposes of the Sepher Yetzirah was to elucidate how God designed, that is, engraved, carved, weighed, permuted and transformed, the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet to form the foundation of his creation and how he combined these letters to generate the words by which "He depicted all that was formed and all that would be formed." The text states that God "placed them in a circle." In this regard, Rabbi Kaplan noted that:

The word for circle here is Galgal. This can also be translated as 'sphere' or 'cycle'. In a number of places in the Talmud, this word is also used to denote the cycle of events in the world. Later, the Galgal is depicted as king over time. [It] also denotes the mystical array of the 22 letters.

This Galgal, this mystical array of 22 letters that reigns as King over Time is none other than a primordial vision of God's Wheel "seen in a glass darkly." It is a prophetic glimpse of the final form of God's eternal Word by his ancient beloved people, the Jews. Its etymological relation to Golgotha is discussed in The Axis of the Wheel.

An Ancient Witness