Contemplating Sefer HaBahir

Journey Into Redemptive Consciousness

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

The Issue Of Karet

ומנלן דהתורה נקראת ברכה
Sefer HaBahir, verse 3 excerpt

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

The letter nun נ of נקראת as an abbreviation refers to neqevah נקבה, meaning female or feminine. Neqevah is similar to the word used to describe the partzuf Nukvah - the consonants are the same, but the nekudot (vowels) differ. Nukvah refers to the "fallen female" and is pronounced like נוקבה, where the consonants נוקב mean to "be pierced".

However, in the verb construct נקראת, the nun has not "fallen" into the qof ק. It has remained "above" it. The existence of the nun in an "unfallen state" is significant to the concept of karet. Remember, we are and have been dealing with keter Torah.

The first 3 letters of the word נקראת are נקר. As a root standing on its own, נקר means to "cut out". In other words, here is where the feminine nefesh elokit would be "cut off" (through the position of the letter nun) if it was in a "fallen" impure state, through assimilation of the nun prefix into the qof. The spiritual fire would die.

Taken together, we can see that in this case, malchut is truly expressing the Divine Will as it is expressed in keter. With the nun unassimilated, the gematria of the entire word נקראת is 751, with a digit sum of 13, echad. Had the nun been absorbed by the qof, the total gematria would have been 701, with a digit sum of 8, symbolizing ח cheit (transgression).