The Jewish Kabbalah and the significance of the number
The term Kabbalah comes from the Semitic root QBL / KBL, already attested in Akkadian, and is connected to the concept of "receive" something. It 'also saw another aspect, this "reception" would be in a meeting, as attested by the same form in Arabic, where the verb Qabala means "encounter." This was therefore something that is received during a meeting, as was to between man, symbolized in the Jewish tradition, from Moses and the divinity, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on Mount Sinai.
What is given to man is the law, in its dual form, written, represented by the Tablets of the Law, and the oral instruction given to Moses directly by God, presumably to better interpret the Law written, and that they will pass by people chosen at initiation. This teaching, which is the esoteric tradition (meaning intended for a few select people), is the Kabbalah (Reception).
Ever since the most ancient Jewish tradition it has always known a double tradition of the Pentateuch (in Hebrew, Torah): one, written and oral, as attested by numerous passages of ancient works. In the Babylonian Talmud, for example, shows that the response of Rabbi Shammai, when asked by a pagan Torote how many (plural of Torah) were Jews, he replied: "Two, the written and oral Torah."
In a later period the term was to take a number of different meanings, though always characterized by some fundamental points in common: the oral tradition, transmitted to a limited number followers of the spiritual and psycho-physical characteristics of individual followers, the object of meditation and study (the written text of the Torah and a few other books of the Old Testament).
importance of the esoteric
A good example on the issue comes to us from some Jewish groups, for example, the early Christians, as it attests to the New Testament (Gospel of Mark), from which we take the steps that emphasize ' importance of oral tradition and esoteric approach: Jesus teaches, like other rabbis, starting from the texts of Scripture, but said the texts using at least two levels orally: an illustration in the form of parables, addressed to all, and a clarification esoteric applied only to selected people: "With many such parables proclaimed the word to them, according to what they were capable of understanding it, and without parables he did not speak to them, but to his disciples in private and explained everything "(Mark 4.33 to 34). "When he was alone, the disciples with the twelve asked him about the parables, and he replied:" To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for those who are outside ( ekéinois de tois Éxo ), everything is in parables (...) "(Mark 4.10 to 12).
element esoteric therefore of fundamental importance: it is based on the fact that the Torah was originally written for the primordial Adam before the fall, and then when it would be in a condition is incomparably superior to that of modern man. This Torah of fire, after the fall (in the post-Eden) could not be communicated to man in its original form, otherwise it would have an imperfect being able to know the mysteries of the universe (assuming that these were not fully destroyed by its unbearable light) and had to be changed, adapted to the capacity of the new fallen creature. Only special people, choices among the most qualified in terms of age, moral rectitude, preparation, could, with an assiduous study, the help of the Oral Torah and the divine illumination of fire access this Torah, which is contained in the text of ' other Torah, and know well, the secrets of the world and the divine will.
The Torah, the genetic code of the Universe
Since the written Torah is the word of God, it is also something of the divine transcendence, flakes of divine light, which can be found by analyzing the text itself. If you also consider that the primordial Torah was seen, we would say today, as the genetic code of the universe, the matrix from which all things would arise, it is understandable that his study was felt to be the best way to penetrate the secrets of the world and at the same time, the most appropriate way to know God's will and the way forward of the divinity in creation. To better understand this concept we could imagine the creation of deities as a double movement: first, you have the creation of the Torah (the matrix of the Universe), and then, through the Torah, you create the entire Universe. Without fall into some form of emanationist, however, we see the Torah as a filter, matrix, through which pass the creative energies of the Godhead: as they are modulated according to the parameters of the Torah and take the shape of things known and unknown.
E 'evident from this simplification, because the world is nothing but the translation of spiritual divine material filtered from the Torah, will be fully justified in the dual approach to knowledge: that through the study of Torah, undoubtedly the main and the most fruitful, and that through the study of the world. In theory, it would conceivable, from the study of the world, going back to the matrix, the Torah, as well as, starting from the study of the Torah, it would be possible to know all of creation.
This array of fundamental importance for the understanding of numbers, the main topic of our article. Since the Torah is written in Hebrew letters, which also have a numeric value, the Torah can be seen as a set of numbers combined with each other: there are no differences between letter and number, the individual words (such as individual components of words) may be seen as sequences of numbers combined. Since Finally, in the words of Torah are the matrix of what exists, things will be represented by words or number sequences, you can even analyze things according to their numerical description, since it is not by chance but a consequence of the divine choice, should have a value that goes beyond description.
From this reasoning follows a tradition of numerical studies on the relationship of the verses, words, individual letters of a word, using methods of different combinations of them: Gematria, and the Notarikon Temurah
Gematria
The gematria (from the greek geometry) is a technique known since the Babylonians. It is based on the alphanumeric value of the letters, characteristic of many ancient languages, because each letter has a value both alphabetical and numeric values, you can switch from one to another to find similarities between words. It may be of different types: gematria of rank, and classical gematria gematria square. The gematria of the rank refers to the place occupied by the letters / numbers in the alphabet, 'alef 1, Bet 2, 3 and so on Ghimel. The classical gematria, to comply with this order number 10, then assigns the letters following decimal values: 20, 30, etc. .. The gematria square respects the basic values of classical gematria, but raised to: Bet (value 2) is 4; Ghimel (value 3), is 9. The system used is that of numerical identity: two different words, but with the same numerical value, can be considered similar and equivalent (if the direction straps). The gematria was probably introduced in Israel at the time of the Second Temple stood, and appears for the first time in the works of Tannaim the first centuries of our era. Of little importance in the halakhah (at least until the Hasidei Ashkenaz), it finds wide use in the Midrash, and is used by major authors such as Moses Ha-Darshan, Joseph Bekhor Shor, Isaac ben Judah ha-Levi.
deserve a special place the works of R. Eleazar of Worms, which use the method extensively, particularly for the use of ghematriot (plural of gematria) meditation on the words of the prayers (taking almost a mantra function ). Other users of gematria are authors as well HaKohen Jacon and Abraham Abulafia.
The Notarikon
The Notarikon is another method of reading the Bible is based on the transformation of entire Bible verses (or parts thereof) in acronyms, for example consisting in the initial letter of each word: the name of the Book of Zohar (in Hebrew typical transcription purely consonantal, ZHR can also be read as Ha-Zeh Reshit (This is the beginning ...) The
Temurah
The
Temurah is based on the permutation of individual letters, which lets you switch from one term to another, considered related to the first. The system used is that the so-called atbash For example, the first letter 'alef, you pay the least, Taw, the second, Bet, you pay the penultimate (Shin) and so below. The process can also be followed on the contrary: last in first and so on.
Interesting examples are also attested in the records, a fact which indicates that we are dealing with very old techniques of permutation: in Jeremiah 25.26: "The King of Sheshakh drink after them" (w-melek sheshak yishteh akhare'hem), "and in Jeremiah 51.41" How was taken Sheshakh (Ekh nilkdah Sheshak "the term Sheshak (SHSHK) is a permutation of BBL (Bavel, Babel), where Sh, penultimate letter of the alphabet is Beth, repeated twice, and Kapha (eleventh from 'alef) is Lamed (eleventh from Taw).
Conclusions
Kabbalistic insights on the value of the number are not isolated in ancient thought: indeed, we could say that, certainly, they may have been influenced by other traditions, as well as philosophers and scientists may have influenced other civilizations ;. And 'Just read the Timaeus to Plato's idea of how the universe conceived by him at the base there is a mathematical structure - Geometric, which precedes and constitutes the material world, or the The King, by Prince of ancient Chinese literature , which emphasizes that what is (not in an absolute sense, because this deals with the ancient Chinese thought, but at a given time), is nothing but the translation into the material world of geometric relationships in the spiritual dimension.
The Kabbalah has had the merit to saturate the operational value of this vision: it operates on the numbers and letters not only to manipulate reality, but above all to understand, to know better the will and the divine commandments, and then apply them in the world: the goal is the sanctification of the latter, to speed, so the redemption.
Bibliography
R. Tress, The Kabbalah, DVE, Milan 2004
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