What are the deeper meanings behind the various names of God, such as YHWH, El, and Elohim? Where do we find God’s fingerprints across the cosmos, and what is His blueprint for Creation? What might recent findings in science and archaeology reveal? And what are God’s 32 Paths of Wisdom? Find out in this eye-opening class as we being a journey into understanding the mysterious names of God.
Tag Archives: Sefer Yetzirah
Constellations and the Jewish Calendar
Yesterday marked the start of the new month of Nisan, first of the Jewish calendar. According to our ancient mystical texts, like Sefer Yetzirah, each of the twelve months of the Jewish year corresponds to one of the twelve Zodiac constellations (mazalot). The month of Nisan corresponds to Aries, or tal’e in Hebrew. Aries is depicted as a sheep or ram and, of course, the highlight of Nisan is the holiday of Pesach, referring to the korban pesach, the “paschal lamb”—a sheep!
The Ram-headed idol Ra
Our Sages pointed out that God specifically commanded this species to be sacrificed because it was what the Egyptians worshipped at the time. This is likely referring to the ram-headed deity Ra. Amazingly, Ra is actually mentioned in the Torah when Pharaoh tells Moses that Ra neged pneichem (Exodus 10:10), typically translated as “evil [ra] will be before you”. Rashi comments here that Ra is an Egyptian idol and Pharaoh was warning the Israelites that they would perish under the wrath of his god Ra. Of course, the entire Exodus narrative was about showing God’s mastery over all aspects of Creation, and His destruction of Egypt’s false idols, Ra chief among them.
In astrology, Aries is a “fire” sign, which is quite appropriate for the Exodus connection. The fire alludes to the fire of the sacrificial altar for the korban pesach, as well as the pillar of fire that led the Israelites out of Egypt and through the Wilderness. Furthermore, at the Pesach seder, the Haggadah reminds us to say “blood, and fire, and columns of smoke”, dam v’esh v’timrot ashan, in memory of the Ten Plagues and the Exodus. (Actually, this phrase originally comes from Joel 3:3, straight from the prophet’s vision of the End of Days!) Continue reading
Secrets of the Jewish Calendar
Today we welcome the new month of Kislev. It is well-known that the months of the Hebrew year parallel the Tribes of Israel and the zodiacal constellations. According to Sefer Yetzirah, each month also embodies one of twelve fundamental aspects of humanity and life: sight, sound, smell, speech, taste, touch, action, motion, temper, joy, thought, and sleep (ראיה, שמיעה, ריחה, שיחה, לעיטה, תשמיש, מעשה, הלוך, רוגז, שחוק, הרהור, שינה). Each of these further corresponds to twelve main parts and organs of the human body, and actually emerges at their core from the twelve “elemental” letters of the Hebrew alphabet, as well as the twelve permutations of God’s Ineffable Name. Recall that Sefer Yetzirah divides up the alphabet into three categories: “mother” letters, “doubled” letters, and “elemental” or “simple” letters (for more on these, see here). Continue reading