Monday, July 21, 2008

The kabbalists were right?

"We realize now that the secret was almost revealed by the 13th-century Torah commentator Rabbeinu Bachya, who makes note of every four-word cluster in the Torah whose rashei teivot, or initial letters, spell out the Tetragrammaton in reverse."
There is an article floating around the Internet about a Reform Rabbi that thinks that the YHVH should be read backwards, at which point God's name would become an androgenous combinations of Hebrew pronouns "he" and "she".

Read the whole article for the details, but to me the most interesting paragraph in the article was:

"If this interpretation is correct, it says that the Torah is a mystical or esoteric text," he said. "The mystics have been saying all these years that the text conceals more than it reveals. It is structured with different levels of meaning and reveals itself over time. We're talking about one tradition that goes all the way back."

6 Comments:

Blogger Neil Harris said...

Maybe the Emes isn't so hard to find after all. Thanks for post this.

July 21, 2008 9:24 PM  
Blogger -suitepotato- said...

Er... People have been saying it is transcendental in its composition for many many years. Of course, reading p'shat and being as bloody literal as possible seems more pious so its no surprise that everything old sooner or later sounds new.

July 22, 2008 1:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have always thought it both mystical AND esoteric. And it spells out the divine in its entirety, like a very long name of god. So certainly, read backwards, it would do the same.

Unlike Rock and Roll records, which, if played backwards, apparently make one smoke pot.


---Grant Patel

July 22, 2008 3:57 PM  
Blogger e-kvetcher said...

---Grant,

What's your story? Indian, Jewish, both, neither, half&half, non-of-my-business?

July 22, 2008 9:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Non-observant Parsee. So, Indian by definition, Persian by several centuries ago. Bombay by heritage, US by birth. And Anglophilic by personal minhag (heh! A Jewish word of infinite usefullness!).
And, selbstferstendlich, inquisitive muchly.



---Grant Patel

July 23, 2008 10:34 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And regarding that other matter, I am still not comfortable with Maddona getting involved with Kabala. Does she not have her own faith-brand of mysterious madness? I am certain that Christianity has more than enough oddness to satisfy even a self-entranced bad songbird.


---Grant Patel

July 23, 2008 11:44 AM  

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