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Dear Chaverim,
In the first part of this series I discussed the
background to the mystical and "practical" (i.e., magical) meaning of the
Shem HaMeforash (Ineffibale Name of God) and its secret transmission through
the Kabbalah since its loss at the time of the destruction of the Second
Temple, and its subsequent passing of the institution of the Kohain Gadol,
or High Priest, who was the only living person to know the true vocalization
of the consonants, YHVH. Here, after giving a brief background, I will
describe some of the possible Shem HaMeforashim proposed by Kabbalists.
The Kabbalists have been searching for the Ineffable Name through the transmissions they have inherited from their predecessors over nearly two and a half millennia. As a result, they are able to put forward several Names of God of increasing complexity. Some of these names have been known since at least the first century, although in some instances both the origin and the source of the actual names themselves have disappeared from knowledge. (See Hebrew Magic Amulets by T. Schrire, Berman House, 1982.)
Various methods have been adopted by Kabbalaists at different times
to enable them to reconstruct and/or remember these lost Names of God.
Some of these names, because of their great age, have aquired a certain
degree of sanctity to Kabbalists, but the Rabbinate has never been prepared
to accept them. Rashi, for example, the great commentator of the 11th century,
and no sympathizer of Kabbalah, flatly states about at least two such elaborate
names, "These they [the rabbis] did not explain to us!" (Kidushin 71a)
This is usually the single-letter "Heh" (H) of the Hebrew alphabet. It has the gematria of 5, which corresponds to the heirosgamos, or mystical wedding of God and Man. This is often found repeated five times, as HHHHH, which has the plus-one gematria of 26, or the sum of the Hebrew letters of the Tetragrammaton, YHVH. That is:
[Y=10] + [H=5] + [V=6] + [H=5] = 26
The other single-lettr name of God is the Hebrew letter "Daled" (D), which has the gematria of 4 the alchemical number of wholeness which is also equal to the Hebrew word, "Avoh," meaning "I will come," spelled:
[Aleph=1] + [Bait=2] + [Aleph=1] = 4
Notarikon. The initial letters of each word in a sentence, phase, paragraph etc. alone are used. This "compresses" the text and, thus, even adds to its mystical power.
Temurah There are basically three forms of Temurah: "Atbash," in which the first letter is substituted for the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second for the next-to-last, the third for the third-from-the-last, and so forth; "Albam" in which the first Hebrew letter is replaced by the 12th, the second by the 13th, etc.; and "Avgad" in which each letter in the Hebrew alphabet is replaced by the one succeeding it so that, in English for example, a=b, b=c, c=d, etc. There are other forms of Temurah, such "Aich B'Char," but these are too complicated to describe here.
Thus, by "Atbash" the Tetragrammaton, YHVH, becomes MEM-TZADI-PEH-TZADI;
by "Albam" it becomes SHIN-AYIN-PEH-AYIN; and by "Avgad" it becomes KUPH-CHET-VAUV.
The gematriot for these three Temurim are, respectively: 300, 250, and
34 -- which correspond to the Hebrew words Yetzir ("Formed," as in Sefer
Yetzirah"), Nair ("Lamp", as in Nathan of Gaza's
pseudonym, "The Holy Lamp") and B'Lev ("The Heart," as in Yakov Leib
Frank).
* * * * *
In the next post of this series, I'll describe the
8-, 12-, 14-, 42-, 45-, and 72-letter Names of God and their Kabbalistic
significance.
Raising up the Holy Sparks together,
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page uploaded 20 June 1999