Kabbalistic Blessing Kavenot from The Zohar

We all know how to say Blessings. Yet most of us do not understand the Kavenot (intention) involved in this saying. This class is going to explain the mechanical mechanism between the flow of the Blessing and the route through the Sephirot and how our intentions impact this flow and actually cause the flow or block the flow.

Here are the normal words of the short Blessing.

ברוך אתה יהוה (אדני יאהדונהי) אלהינו מלך העולם

Transliteration

Baruch Atah Adonai (small letters Kavenah see below) Elohainu Melech HaOlam

Translation

Blessed are You HaShem (small letters Kavenah see below) Our God, King of the Universe

Kavenah for these six standard words.

There are six words that connect to the six Sefirot of the spiritual system called Zeir Anpin by the Kabbalists. These six are both dimensions unto themselves and a unity of all six Sefirot. This is the essence of the Name Zeir Anpin - Unity of these six Sefirot. These Sefirot are Chesed Gevurah Tiferet Netzach Hod and Yesod.

There are 25 letters in these six words. The 25 represents 5 squared and is a connection to the spiritual world of Zeir Anpin.

Another Kavenah

The Kabbalists teach that Head Movements are a major component of the connection to the Sephirot and in opening Gates as discussed in the writings of Abraham Abulafia a 13th Century Kabbalists who has only recently been published and translated.

Baruch - Blessing is Chesed - Turn Head to Right and Up

Atah - You is Gevurah - Move Head to Left and Up

HaShem - God is Tiferet - Move Head to the Center Balance Point for you.

Melech - King is Netzach - Move Head to the Right and Slightly Down

Elohainu - Our God is Hod - Move Head to the Left and Slightly Down

HaOlam - Universe is Yesod - Move Head to the Center Point and Slightly Down

The Malchut is whatever are the final words of the Blessing - Move Head Fully Down.

We should ask the question why Melech and Elohainu are out of order in the frame of Sefirot? Another question - do you relate to the reason why each word relates to which Sefirot?

The answer to the first question comes from what the Zohar says (which is described below). The answer to the second needs to come from within yourself!

Kavenah for Baruch

Baruch can be interpreted as Bar Vav Caf. Bar is Aramaic for son. Vav Caf is gematria 26 which is the gematria of the Tetragrammaton. So Baruch is "Son of HaShem."

Another interpretation of the word Bar is Bet Reish which we learned in the Hebrew Letters is House (Bet) Head (Reish). Therefore, Baruch can be interpreted as "God is Head of the House."

Baruch when permutated spells the word Becor which is "First Born." Kabbalah teaches that the First Born has additional energy that is too much for the baby's vessel. That is why First Born Boys are redeemed from the Cohenim. See the Mitzvah of Pidyon Haben.

Baruch has a gematria of 228 and it also has the Gematria of 232 when the Colel is added for each letter. The concept of Colel applies when a Letter in a word is connected to the Spiritual System. Each letter of Baruch is connected to the Spiritual System as we see by the earlier paragraphs.

232 is the gematria of the phrases or Names יהי אור - עד עדי עד - אמניציאל

Yehi Ohr - Let there be Light

Ad Adi Ad - A phrase from the Sefer Yetzirah that is translated as Forever and Ever. The literal translation is "Until My Witness Witnesses."

Amnitziel - the Name of an Angel that implies "reflected light."

The writings of the Kabbalists teach us that Baruch meaning Blessing is a connection to the flow of God's Beneficence from Keter/Chochma or the Yood of the Tetragrammaton. This is why the Kabbalists head movement is upward and to the Right after being in the Center.

When the gematria is 228 Baruch connects to the following words and phrases:

Etz Chaim - Tree of Life - עץ חיים

Cerub - Kerub - Name of one of the members of the race of Angels called Cherubim. Kerub is considered the "Ruler of Earth" - כרוב.

Benai Elyon - "Children of the Most High" - בני עליון

Kol Adonai Elohecha - Voice of The Lord Your God - קול יהוה אלהיך

Elohay Yacov - God of Jacob - Jacob received two Blessings - The Blessing from his Father Isaac and the Blessing of the Angel / Man that he wrestled with. אלהי יעקב

Kavenah for Atah

Atah is an additional word in the sequence of the Blessing. It is not necessary to "understand" the surface meaning of the sentence.

Atah is spelled Aleph Tav Hey. The Kabbalists teach from the Zohar that the reason that this word is added to the sentence is to bring all of the energy of the Alef Bet represented by Aleph to Tav injected into the physical world represented by the final letter Hey.

The gematria of Atah is 406 which is the full spelling of the letter Tav. The Tav represents a new beginning. The Kabbalists teach that Atah represents the flow starting into the Sefirah of Chesed. Chesed represents of new beginning from the mind into the body flowing through the narrow place of the Neck.

Other words that have a gematria of 406 are:

Daat (variant spelling) - Knowledge - דאאת

Am HaAretz - People of the Earth - This is an idiom in the Talmud indicating a regular human being without learning. An ignoramus. - עם הארץ

Shook - A Hebrew word meaning to join closely, to flow, to run. - שוק

Raya Tzon - Shepherd of Flocks - רעה צאן

Shenuyam - repetitions, changes, transformation - שנוי. ם

Kavenah for Tetragrammaton

We all know that the Tetragrammaton will have an infinite amount of Kavenot since God is infinite. We will not try to give you an infinite amount of Kavenot only some Kabbalistic ones.

In the Torah scroll there are no vowels. In the Masoretic Text there are vowels for each Tetragrammaton in the Scroll; Each Tetragrammaton has a unique set of vowels that relate to the Sefirot.

(The Masoretic Text will be explained below)

The Halacha teaches us to not say the Tetragrammaton with any set of vowels. We are taught to say the word Adonai whenever we see the Tetragrammaton. This has many reasons.

One reason is that the Rabbis are concerned that the general population, by saying the Name, will draw energy that is too strong for their vessel and bring a greater amount of chaos to that person's life. So they tell us we have forgotten how to say the Name HaShem and so please substitute Adonai instead. This statement is not true. We know from the laws of Hebrew Grammar that the Name HaShem means "Active Being" and we do know how to pronounce it in many different sounds and vowels. Please see before.

Another reason is that when we see the letters of the Tetragrammaton and speak the letters of the Name Adonai, we are unifying the two spiritual frames of Zeir Anpin and Malchut. We also are using the senses of sight, hearing and speech to create that unification of Mind, Body and Action at the same time

In the Hebrew Blessing above, there are small letters that spell the Name Adonai and an 8 letter Name of God that has a significant spiritual meaning. This spiritual meaning is related to the unification of the two Names HaShem and Adonai as the 8 letters are these Names intertwined. As an aside the Name Yood Yood that is in many Siddurs come from the attempt of printers in the 16th and 17th Century to save money so they shortened the 8 letters to the first and last letters which is a Kabbalistic technique.

There are many techniques and systems associated with the various Kavenah of the Tetragrammaton Name. Most Rabbis do not teach this technique which is to pronounce this 8 letter Name as follows: YaAhHayDaWawNuHayYa. You have permission to say this each time you see the Tetragrammaton by the Kabbalists as this is the root vowel for these 8 letters. Of course it makes the Prayers and Blessing longer. If you have the time it will make your prayer and blessing connections significantly stronger. If you do not have the time your concern about time will interfere in that stronger connection. The choice is yours!

Kavenah for Elohainu - אלהינו

The gematria of Elohainu is 102 which has some amazing relationships to other words.

אמינא Ameinah which means faithfulness, firmness, steadfastness, trust, faith, religion, or confidence

בעל Baal; Lord, Master, head (of the House), owner, possessor, proprietor, husband, and Baa,l a Canaanite God.

The first two Letters Aleph Lamed can be translated as "Teach Unity."

The three letters Lamed Hey Yood are the same letters as the Name No 6 and No 71 of Tzadikim Names and also the Name No 44 from the 72 Names of God.

Kavenah for Melech HaOlam

Melech HaOlam relate to returning light and also the Sefirah of Binah. This comes from our head movements and other writings of the Kabbalists.

Here are the normal words of the longer Blessing.

We will add to this section for another class

Here are the normal words of the longer Blessing.

ברוך אתה יהוה (אדני יאהדונהי) אלהינו מלך העולם אשר קדשנו במצותיו וצונו

Transliteration

Baruch Atah Adonai (small letters Kavenah see below) Elohainu Melech HaOlam Asher Kidshanu BeMitzvotav Vetzivanu (the last words change with each Blessing)

Translation

Blessed are You HaShem (small letters Kavenah see below) Our God, King of the Universe who sanctified us with his Mitzvot (connection to the spiritual worlds) and obliges us to:

Kavenah for longer Blessing

The Kabbalists teach that Head Movements are a major component of the connection to the Sephirot and in opening Gates as discussed in the writings of Abraham Abulafia a 13th Century Kabbalists who has only recently been published and translated.

Baruch - Blessing is Keter/Chochma - Turn Head to Center and Up

Atah - You is Chesed - Move Head to Right and Slightly Up

HaShem - God is Tiferet - Move Head to the Center Balance Point for you.

Elohainu - Our God is Gevurah - Move Head to the Left and Slightly Up

Melech - King - Move Head to the Right and Slightly Down

HaOlam - Universe is Yesod - Move Head Up and Slightly Left

Asher - Who - Move Head to the right and down to Netzach

Kideshanu - Sanctified - Move Head to the Left to Hod

BeMitzvotav - Mitzvot - Move Head to the center and slightly up to Tiferet

Vetzivanu - Obligates us - Move Head down to Yesod

The Malchut is whatever are the final words of the Blessing - Move Head Fully Down.

We should ask the question (another question) - do you relate and slightly left which Sefirot?

The answer to the question needs to come from within yourself!

There are 10 words which connect to the 10 Sefirot of Zeir Anpin. There are 45 letters which represent the gematria of spiritual Man - Zeir Anpin. When we say these Blessings we are unifying the spiritual with the physical (represented by the words that describe the action of the Mitzvah)

What is the Masoretic Text?

The Hebrew text of the Old Testament is called the Masoretic Text because in its present form it is based upon the Masora—the Hebrew, textual tradition of the Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes (or Masorites). The Masoretes were rabbis who made it their special work to correct the faults that had crept into the text of the Old Testament during the Babylonian captivity, and to prevent, for the future, its being corrupted by any alteration. They first separated the apocryphal from the canonical books, and divided the latter into twenty-two books, being the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Then they divided each book into sections and verses.

There is a great difference of opinion as to when the Masoretic Text was written, but it was probably accomplished in the 10th -11th century. Several editions existed, varying considerably, but the received and authoritative text is that of Jacob ben-chayim ibn Adonijah, who carefully sifted and arranged the previous works on the subject. It was published in 1524.

Although the existing copies of the Masoretic Text date back only to the tenth century, two other important textual evidences bolster the confidence of textual critics that it is accurate. The first is the successive discoveries of manuscripts at Qumran by the Dead Sea since 1947. These revealed portions of manuscripts several centuries older than any previously known. The second is the comparison of the Masoretic text to the Greek translation called the Septuagint (or LXX), which was written around 200-150 B.C. The oldest existing manuscripts date back to the fourth century A.D. Both the Septuagint and the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal an amazing consistency with the Masoretic Text, assuring us that God was indeed divinely and sovereignly protecting His Word through thousands of years of copying and translating.