On Victor Alexander's Translation of Genesis: The Book of Creation and the Meaning of YHVH

Mr. Alexander,

Thank you for your translation of Genesis. I was excited to discover on the first page of your translation that the Aramaic title for the book is Breetah -- Creation. For me, this is a both a relief and an insight.

I am sure you know that Christians are typically taught that the Hebrew title for the book of Genesis comes from its first word, beresheeth, "in the beginning," so it is "the Book of Beginnings." The idea of beginnings leads naturally to expectations of subsequent history, and the narrative stories in Genesis do not disappoint. But I think Moses had something else in mind.

The Pentateuch, of course, started with Moses at Exodus chapter 3, the burning bush episode. No burning bush -- no Bible. There Moses encountered the living God, and I think that experience is what all the rest of his writings are about. (Meet any one man of the many thousands who have encountered God and you will find that his life is polarized to that moment -- he does not eat, sleep, or think about anything without its gravity exerting its pull on his mind. The event doesn't just affect his worldview, it becomes his worldview, and his life is spent both trying to comprehend and to express it.)

So, when I read, "In the beginning, God . . .” my mind filters it through "'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh," because that, I believe, is what Moses is talking about. And that is why I am going to share these points from Aryeh Kaplan's Jewish Meditation (Kaplan, Aryeh, 1985: Jewish Meditation. New York: Schockton Books, chapter 7, Contemplation, p. 72-76, [emphases and parentheses mine]):

The meaning of the four letters of YHVH, God’s nature:

Each individual letter has special symbolic significance to be understood on the basis of ancient Kabbalistic teaching . . . that these four letters contain the mystery of charity.

Yod denotes a coin (think of the power and value of money, what it can do, a kind of force).

Heh denotes the hand that gives the coin (fifth letter of alphabet = five fingers = grace).

Vav denotes the arm reaching out to give (strength/a hook = connection, the power to effect).

Heh denotes the hand which accepts the coin.

Charity is the act whereby God gives us existence.The four letters represent the mystery of the creative link between God and man.

Yod, the coin, is existence itself (tenth letter of alphabet = the Ten Sayings = the entire act of Creation = Life given to us).

Heh is the hand by which God holds the existence he desires to give to us. Vav is his arm reaching out to give us his existence.

Heh is our hand (given to us, and this is still his nature - we are in his nature) which accepts this existence.

Yod = "coin" is the initial point of creation, the Ten Sayings that brought existence out of nothingness.

Heh = vessel holding power of creation and channel of that force to the arm.

Vav = effective connection, the desire reaching out, wanting to give the force of creation to us.

Heh = our ability to connect to and receive from the arm the creative forces of existence.

Yod, the Ten Sayings, is "seed" put into the

vessel or womb (heh) of creation so that it can be brought forth.

Vav is the power of divine providence which directs the world.

Heh is the vessel or womb which holds that power and expands to give it birth.

It is my own understanding that this increase is "Jethro" in the Bible. What the forces were behind this increase bothered (Zipporah - little chirping bird) Moses to find out.

The first three characters, Y-H-V, are masculine: the divine seed of the forces of creation, the seed in the womb, and the seed in providence. Only the last, the second heh, is feminine and can be separated from the others, as when God turns his face away from the world (which is when we are in rebellion; we make the disconnection).

We also make the reconnection of our hand to his arm, unification, by repentance. This opens us to the forces of providence, makes us aware of divine guidance and of the Divine Presence, because if it works, we have found Him. What the symbolism is about concretely is Jesus Christ.

Let me share also this from Jeff Roth (Roth, Jeff, 2009. Jewish Meditation Practices for Everyday Life: Awakening Your Heart, Connecting with God.  Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing, p. 113), who conveys from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi:

Yud = the world of the divine attribute of Being.

Hay = the world of the divine attribute of Knowing.

Vav = the world of the divine attribute of Feeling.

Hay = the world of the divine attribute of Acting.

When the two million Jews were at Mount Sinai to receive the Law, the Jewish mystics teach, and God said, "I am the Lord your God . . ." the people didn't hear words, but at “I . . .” all experienced the sense of I AM as one. That blew their minds and they fled (p. 128).

When Moses wanted to see the glory of God and was told no one can see God and live, he was hid in the cleft of the rocks and saw God's "backside." That is, Moses experienced seeing God's Goodness in the world through God's eyes – God’s perception becoming Moses’ (p. 130-133).

Okay, my turn. The concept of duality does not work. What Moses is saying in The Book of Creation is, "This is how we participate in creation. This is how we create our lives. It is by recognizing the unity of existence. Reconnect to God's strength by repenting from the rebellion -- the concept of separation and division – of independent self-lordship. Unify with the Seed of the Divine Life-force within your own 'womb,' your mind inside your skull."

Moses wanted to express "'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh," so he encapsulated the concept in Creation 1: 1, "Before the beginning, the Ineffable (yod) created e'had, "God" (heh) the Heavens (vav) and the Earth (heh)."

God (yod)

said (heh)

let us make man in our (vav)

image (heh).

Adam = yod

Rib = heh

Eve = vav

Cain and Abel = heh.

Noah (a perfect Ten), yod

Shem, heh

Kham/Canaan, vav

Japheth, heh

Japheth means expansion. Christians are this enlargement has to do with stretching out tent pegs. I think it is about childbirth -- our world stretches like a woman bearing a child. Jacob said, “I crossed this Jordan with but my staff, and now I am become two bands," because while he was with Laban he practiced yod, heh, vav, and heh.

Moses tells us how to create our lives, our worlds, according to God. "God in heaven" is the imagination (the spirit “breathed”) into our heads: 'ehyeh 'asher 'ehyeh.

Sorry for preaching.

I think that what the world needs is a movie about The Mind of Moses. Not another telling of Exodus historical narratives a la Cecil B. DeMille but the untold story of a mystic’s mindset, the molding experiences which led to his experiences of creation,  of oneness with YHWH. This would be a movie about what the Bible is about.

Central would be the development of Moses' concept of YHWH. His life, his times, his experience as an Egyptian priest, his knowledge of certain ancient Egyptian myths and contemplation of their meaning -- all the things contributing to his consideration of Jethro, which I take to be phenomena of increase rather than a person.

Jethro, as you know, means "his excellence." It is the idea of provision, expansion, increase. A man desires, has sex with a woman and, after time, "his excellence" expands the birth canal as increase comes forth. Seedtime and harvest – it is all imagic.

God = yod

so loved the world = heh

that whoever believes on him = vav

should not perish but have everlasting life - heh.

So YHWH is not a word but a picture, a pattern for the creation of life. It is what brings Jethro. We can create whatever lives we want -- AHYH! And so Moses began to write and teach the thing most important in his mind -- YHWH. The stories are simply illustrations of the YHWH pattern.