Contemplating Sefer HaBahir

Journey Into Redemptive Consciousness

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Authority To Explicate The Torah

ומנלן דהתורה נקראת ברכה
Sefer HaBahir, verse 3 excerpt

Traditional interpretation: "How do we know that Torah is called a blessing?"

As written in the previous entry, Evolution Of Da'at Torah:

Whereas in the root מנה the final letter is hei ה, in the word ומנלן the hei of the root has been replaced with the letters lamed-nun לן. Lamed-nun has a gematria of 80, and a digit sum of 8 ח.

With a gematria of 80, לן becomes pei פ. The quality, gift or sense of pei is "authority"; associated both with "specific innate or acquired expressions of lived experience" [1], and the explicit power of da'at.

Thus, with the לן suffix, through the word ומנלן, it is revealed that one is granted the authority to explicate the Torah one is blessed to receive (as described in Evolution Of Da'at Torah). Importantly, the nun-sofit ן "denotes uninterrupted, eternal ... continuity of action and quality." [2] Consequently, the granted authority is eternal and everlasting.

Footnotes:

[1] R' Yitzchak Ginsburgh on introduction to the alef-beit correspondences

[2] R' Michael Munk, The Wisdom In The Hebrew Alphabet (p. 154-155)