Where to begin. My thoughts are muddled so who knows how much of it is good. But here goes anyway.
After having studied some chemistry and biochemisty it seems to me that the argument can be made for many kabbalistic allusions when associating elements with the sefirot.
It seems to me the following associations of elements are highly plausible
- Hydrogen - Chesed, water, the number 1, it's ubiquity in accomapnying all other elements - יומם יצוה ה' חסדו
- Carbon - element 6 - corresponding to either tiferet or yesod or both, the base of all saccharides and energy in carbohydrates
- Nitrogen - Malchut - element 7
- it's appearance in a number of harmful substances, רגליה יורדות מות, חנקן וחנק
- Oxygen - Bina - element 8
- Phosphurus - element 15 - possibly Chochma as to it's affinity to join with Oxygen (eg Phospates) and it's white color. albeit the danger of "white phosphorus" doesn't seem to jive with החכמה תחיה בעליה.... also problematic is phosphorus expressing in 4 as in tetraphosphorus when seemingly no connecting of Chochma to 4... צע"ע
- Sulfur - element 16 - just would point out that it is prone to creating disulfide bonds contributing to amino acid structure - 2 x 16 = 32 = לב... just a thought for now
Phenomenon
- Consider the ubiquitous joining of amino acids through polypeptide bonds which are essentially a linking/bonding/ייחוד of a carbon (in the carboxy group) with a nitrogen (in the amino group) - in parallel producing water H20.
- Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) - composed of a Adenine, a Ribose, and 3 phosphates have very curious numbers in their molecular structure as follows:
- Adenine - while true that it seems to be equal overall with C5H5N5 - in truth it's mainly 4 nitrogens (the 5th nitrogen isn't primary to the ring) - possibly relating to malchut and the number 4
- Ribose - a "male" molecule. although again seemingly equal in it's total number C5H10O5 - in truth in terms of the the primary ring - what you really have is primary oxygen atom with 4 Carbons underneath it... don't know exactly what to say about that but at the very least it's a "male component".
- Note the two things above creating - Adenosine - again representing a yichud of male/female
- But the kicker is the 3 phosphate groups when added to the Adenosine - phosphate (PO4) - מוחין - - it transforms the Adenosine to being a powerhouse of energy with ATP
- Also note the amazing numbers in ATP - C10 H16 N5 O13 P3 - all seemingly significant numbers
- I wonder if the 4 possibilies of numbers of phosphate - (AMP, ADP, ATP, and tetraphosphate) can be connected to the various מילואים of שם הויה where they contain varying numbers of the letter yud....
I had more thoughts regarding oxygen release and absorption in the blood via hemoglobin and myoglobin... רצוא ושוב.... also in that context possibly explaing the duality of O2 comprising בינה ותבונה together, whereas a single Oxygen by itself represents Bina alone. that then explaining that Carbon Monoxide is not really a "poisoning", but rather the affinity to Bina being so great that even when arriving at the much needed "dead" tissue of the body - the hemoglobin refused to releases and be יורד to the בשר. it prefers to cling to the Oxygen at the cost of death of the body. Only with the existence of a second Oxygen molecule (tevuna) is the body willing to "let go" of it's connectiong to הויה for the sake of the dead surrounding tissue...
