What is Shiluv - שלוב? - What is Intertwining?

One of the strongest and oldest tools in the tool box of Kabbalah is Shiluv - שלוב

Of course this brings a question - What is Shiluv? What is Intertwining?

An Answer:

Shiluv שלוב means to take 2 Hebrew words and intertwine their letters. Each Hebrew word describes an idea or a thing or an action or a description. Each of these Hebrew words is both a word and a metaphor for the manifestation of the meaning of that word. Once one understands this metaphorical creation one begins to sense the power of this tool called Shiluv.

An Example

In the Sefardic Prayer book - Siddur for at least 2000 years we see 2 Shiluvs - Intertwinings of the Names HaShem - יהוה and Adonai - אדני. Here they are: יאהדונהי ־־־ אידהנויה.

Both these Names of God, which we call HaShem, expresses the unification of the spiritual world with the physical world. One Name expresses the concept of "Direct Light" which means the spiritual world has lowered itself to unite with the physical world. The other of these two Names expresses the concept of "Returning Light" which means the physical world raises itself up to unite with and be at the level of the spiritual world.

In the orthodox prayer ritual there are two locations in the early morning where it is traditional to utilize the tool of Shiluv. One where the Name HaShem יהוה is intertwined with your own Name. This is done only once per day. Below is an example of this with the Name Chanoch - חנוך

The other location is to intertwine the word "Soul" - Neshama - נשמה with your own Name. This is done with the kavenah to connect your own Neshama with the Neshama of Adam and Chava - The first Man and Woman.

What do we learn from these teachings?

There is a benefit to use this tool of Shiluv to intertwine our Names with Hebrew words that have specific energies. Chanoch of Yeshshem teaches that doing so actually brings the energies within the Shiluv Name into your soul.

Here is an example of my Name Chanoch - חנוך along with the Hebrew word Shalom - שלום which has the meaning of Peace as well as Completion.

Here is another example of using the Shiluv where one puts 2 different energies together. Yeshshem recommends that one does this with your Name not just to look at the Shiluv Name .

It is best to create the Shiluv Names by yourself. We can do so for you at Yeshshem for a small fee but that is not what Yeshshem does. Yeshshem teahes Kabbalah and Torah and does not charge for this. Putting the Shiluv - Intertwining together will be an inefficient use of our time here at Yeshshem.

There are students of Kabbalah studying with Yeshshem that do utilize art to provide for these ideas. These students will provide these for anyone interested in this. Here is a

  • Shiluv Intertwined Order Form
  • Here is a list of recommended words to ask these students of Kabbalah to intertwine your name with these spiritual energies.

    Shalom - Peace שלום

    Shalem - Completion שלים

    Vaday - Certainty ודאי

    Emet - Truthאמת

    Chesed - Loving Kindness חסד

    Netzach - Eternal Victory נצח

    Refuah - Healing רפא

    Balance - Oznaim אזנים

    For any other words it is recommended that one checks with Yeshshem in order to avoid some energies that may be clearly understood by the requesting student.