In the portion of the Torah read this week, Moses addresses the Jewish people, exhorting them to follow G‑d's commandments. The following ten verses of this address are a section by themselves, and in them, the Name Havayah (here indicated by the word "G‑d" underlined) occurs fourteen times. The text of these verses seems to be redundant in places, but the Arizal will demonstrate that this is not so. G‑d's will to create and sustain creation in general and the Jewish people in particular…
And it will be, when all these things come upon you — the blessing and the curse which I have placed before you—and you return in your heart while amongst the peoples to whom G‑d your G‑d has exiled you, and you return to G‑d your G‑d and hearken to His voice in accordance with all that I have commanded you today — you and your children — with all your heart and soul, then G‑d your G‑d will return your exiles and have mercy upon you, and He will turn to gather you from amongst all these peoples whence G‑d your G‑d has scattered you.
[Even] if the scattered among you be at the ends of the heavens, G‑d your G‑d will gather you and take you from there. And G‑d your G‑d will bring you to the land that your fathers inherited, and you will inherit it, and He will do better to you and multiply you more than your fathers. And G‑d your G‑d will circumcise your heart and the heart of your children, so that you may love G‑d your G‑d with all your heart and soul, for the sake of your life.
And G‑d your G‑d will visit all these curses upon your enemies and those who hate you, who pursued you. But you will return and listen to the voice of G‑d, and do all His commandments, which I have commanded you today. And G‑d your G‑d will multiply the work of your hands, the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your animals, and the fruit of your land, for G‑d will again rejoice in you as He rejoiced in your fathers. If you will listen to the voice of G‑d your G‑d, to keep all His commandments and statutes written in this Book of Torah; if you return to G‑d your G‑d with all your heart and soul. (Deut. 30:1-10)
This section consists of ten verses, each of which contains the Name Havayah. Some verses contain this name twice, such that this Name occurs 14 times in all. The numerical value of this Name is 26; thus, the numerical value of all 14 Names is 364. We are thus lacking the number 6 if we wish to reach the sum 370.
370 is the number of "lights" that shine from the face of Arich Anpin, as discussed previously (in parashat Bamidbar-Naso). These verses discuss G‑d's forgiveness, which originates in the partzuf of Arich Anpin (G‑d's will to create and sustain creation in general and the Jewish people in particular), so it is to be expected that the number 370 be "encoded" in them.
The missing six are derived as follows:
In the phrase, "And the L-rd your G‑d will multiply the work of your hands: the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your animals, and the fruit of your land," the expression "the fruit of" occurs three times. There are three yuds in these expressions.
The word for "the fruit of" (in Hebrew, 'peri') is spelled pei-reish-yud. The letter yud is the sign of the construct form. The threefold expression of G‑d's blessing is taken as an emphatic statement of the forgiveness these verses describe.
These three yuds form one of the 72 Names [of G‑d]. The harmonious blending of these three emotiveattributes forms the basic paradigm of how G‑d relates to the world
In the story of the exodus from Egypt, three consecutive verses describe G‑d's power as manifest just before He split the Sea of Reeds, which the Jewish people passed through on dry land while the Egyptians were drowned:
And the angel of G‑d who had been going ahead of the camp of Israel now moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud went from in front of them and stood behind them. Thus [the pillar of cloud] came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel, making it cloud and darkness [to the Egyptians], but it gave light by night [to the Jews], so that the one came not near the other all the night. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and G‑d drove the sea back with a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land; thus the waters were divided.(Ex. 14:19-21)
In Hebrew, these three verses each contain 72 letters. In the Zohar (2:51b) it is stated that these three verses refer in sequence to the Divine attributes of loving-kindness (chesed), severity (gevura), and mercy (tiferet). The harmonious blending of these three principal emotive attributes forms the basic paradigm of how G‑d relates to the world. Thus, they together form a composite "Name" of G‑d, since a "name" is a means by which one is made known to others, i.e., manifests his attributes.
The fact that each verse contains 72 letters means that they can be aligned in parallel, forming 72 triplets of letters. In this configuration, the Zohar states, the first verse is to be written in its proper order, since it represents G‑d's loving-kindness, or a direct revelation of G‑d's goodness. The second verse is to be written in reverse order, from the last letter to the first, since it represents G‑d's severity, which is an indirect revelation of His goodness. Although tiferet is a blend of both chesed and gevura, the third verse is not to be written half in the proper order and half in reverse order, as one might expect. There are two reasons for this: (1) in tiferet, chesed dominates over gevura, and (2) as the ideal blend of chesed and gevura, tiferet is a direct revelation of G‑d's goodness and glory rather than an indirect one. [This array may be seen, inter alia, in the standard editions of the Zohar, volume 2, p. 270a.]
When the three 72-letter verses are aligned in the described manner, the 22nd triplet, or "Name," is yud-yud-yud, three yuds in a row.
The verse also alludes to the "Name" yud-lamed-yud, inasmuch as these letters are the initials of the words for "G‑d will again rejoice" [yashuv y-k-v-k lasus].
This is the 2nd of the 72 triplets in this array.
These two "names" together possess six letters, bringing the total number associated with the Names of G‑d in this passage to 370, the number of lights a penitent individual merits to elicit upon himself from above. The Divine attribute of forgiveness and mercy is indicated in Kabbala by the beard
These lights are the 370 lights that shine from the face of Arich Anpin, in accordance with the mystical meaning of "He will again have mercy on us," (Micah 7:19) the two cheeks, as is stated in the Zohar.
The Thirteen Attributes of Divine Mercy appear in two forms in the Bible: the more prevalent form is that given fully in Ex. 34:6-7:
"Mighty, merciful, and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in kindness and truth, storing kindness to thousands, bearing iniquity, transgression, and sin, acquitting." This form is repeated in abbreviation several other times.
The second form is that given in Micah 7:18-20:
"Who is a G‑d like You, who pardons iniquity, and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He does not maintain His anger forever, because He delights in kindness. He will again have mercy upon us; He will suppress our iniquities. You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea; You will show truth to Jacob, kindness to Abraham, as You have sworn to our fathers from days of old."
As we explained previously, the Divine attribute of forgiveness and mercy is indicated in Kabbala by the beard. These thirteen attributes of mercy, then, correspond to the thirteen parts of the beard.
The correspondence between both versions and the beard is as follows:
Exodus 34 |
Micah 7 |
beard |
|
1 |
mighty |
Who is a G‑d like You |
sideburns |
2 |
merciful |
who pardons iniquity |
mustache |
3 |
and gracious |
and forgives the transgression |
the lack of hair in the middle of the mustache |
4 |
long- |
of the remnant of his heritage |
the hair under the lower lip |
5 |
suffering |
He does not maintain His anger forever |
the lack of hair in the middle of the hair under the lower lip |
6 |
abundant in kindness |
because He delights in kindness |
the hair of the jaw bone |
7 |
and truth |
He will again have mercy upon us |
the lack of hair on the cheeks |
8 |
storing kindness |
He will suppress our iniquities |
the upper layer of the beard |
9 |
to thousands |
You will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea |
the short hairs between the upper and lower layers of the beard |
10 |
bearing iniquity |
You will show truth to Jacob |
the small hairs near the throat |
11 |
and transgression |
kindness to Abraham |
the fact that these small hairs are all of equal size |
12 |
and sin |
as You have sworn to our fathers |
the lack of hair in the mouth |
13 |
and acquits |
from days of old |
the lower layer of the beard |
What concerns us here is the seventh attribute/part of the beard. At least in the Micah-version, this is the specific attribute of mercy. It is associated with the "part of the beard" that is actually not part of the beard, i.e., the lack of beard-hair on the cheeks.
As we have explained, the overall meaning of hair is a highly concentrated but contracted form of life-force, as evinced by the fact that hair is constantly growing yet can be cut without causing pain. The beard overall, thus, is a contraction of life-force flowing from the head or mind into the body, bypassing the usual channel of the throat, etc. It thus signifies G‑d's great mercy in bypassing the usual "rules" He has set up for creation and granting us mercy and forgiving us.
Within the general context of the beard, which basically covers the entire face, there are the two cheeks. If we consider them part of the beard as well, they signify the revelation within the obscuring, so to speak. The "light" or glow or expression shining from the face is obstructed by the beard, except for this part of the visage that is free of hair. In the cheeks, then, all the emotion expressed in the face but covered by the beard can be seen. As we said, the "light" shining from the face is the good will of forgiveness. This must be largely transmuted into the contracted form of hair in order to be able to reach the sinner in a form he can assimilate, but the exception is the cheek, the one part of the face that remains uncovered in order to express most fully G‑d's unmitigated good will.
Translated and adapted by Moshe-Yaakov Wisnefsky from Sefer HaLikutim; subsequently published in "Apples From the Orchard."
Reprinted with permission from Chabad of California. Copyright 2004 by Chabad of California, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work or portions thereof, in any form, without permission, in writing, from Chabad of California, Inc.
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