Sunday, July 29, 2018

נח , חן , והויה

Saw the following in a sefer called פי המדבר.

The word חן (and consequently נח as well) being related to הויה as follows:

ה, וה , הוה , י"הוה = 58

At first glance I thought it a little strange because it's the opposite of  the usual concept of אחוריים, where usually the first letter of the שם is the point of origin and then gradually expands out -- י , יה , יהו, יהו"ה.  and here it's the opposite -- the last letter of ה being the origin.

But then i thought it's beautiful. The idea of the conventional אחוריים I vaguely remember seeing in עץ חיים as being the idea that every upper ספירה is too "needy" to receive it's own sustenance from the sefira above it, and so every sefira is "looking up" to the sefira above it to receive it's sustenance, and so you have י standing alone, and then you have the ה tagging along and trying to cling to it, hence יה, and so on.

The beauty here then by חן and נח  is that the lowest sefira is standing on its own, not lifting it's eyes for any heavenly salvation or inspiration or special treatment. Just being with what is without expecting anything more. נח איש האדמה. ונח מצא חן.

The upper sefirot then choosing to turn their eyes downward,  so that now you have a new kind of אחוריים wherein every sefira is focusing downward to give, to deal with what is needed. the heavenly assistance that then comes is not as a result of any request or expectation -- וחנותי את אשר אחון.

Just a thought for now. Maybe has substance, maybe doesn't.

Monday, July 2, 2018

זמה היא

תוספתא קידושין פ"א: ומלאה הארץ זמה זמה היא. ר"א אומר זה פנוי [הבא] על הפנויה שלא לשם אישות. ר"א אומר מנין שענוש לפני [מקום כבא] על אשה ואמה? נאמר כאן זמה ונאמר להלן זמה שנאמר (ויקרא כ) ואיש אשר יקח את אשה ואת אמה זמה היא וגו'

I was thinking the logic is actually very straightforward. Why should someone marry a woman? because he wants to bring out more of her in the world. if so, why would you sleep with her mother or daughter who in essence embodies them? it can only be because you just want the physical pleasure, as is the case by a פנוי הבא על הפנויה; not interested in building up and building forth the woman you're with, just interested in the pleasure. 'nuff said.