The Kabbalist (27 page)

Luria raised an
eyebrow.

"Now, let us look
at the Zohar’s interpretation of the first verse of Genesis – ‘
In the
beginning God created the heaven and the earth
.’ The Hebrew verse starts
with the words: ’In the beginning…’ –
. Hebrew is a
much more concise language than English and the three-word phrase ‘
In the
beginning’
is just one word in Hebrew –
. The first
two letters of this word spell out,
, meaning
‘son’. The next two letters spell out
, meaning
‘fire’, which can be easily interpreted as ‘Holy Spirit’. The third and first
letters make up
,
meaning ‘father’,
and here we have the Holy Trinity, present already in the first four letters of
Genesis!” Bennet paused. “Did Yeshayahu explain to you the
Sefirot
and
their place in Kabbalah?” he asked. “Did he show you the
‘Tree of Life’
diagram?”

“Yes,” said Luria,
vaguely recalling something.

Bennet pointed at a big
representation of the diagram, which hung on a nearby wall. “OK. Now look up
there and follow me for a little exercise in Kabbalistic interpretation:
– father is traditionally
identified in Kabbalah with Sefirah number two, which is ‘Chokmah’ – Wisdom. The
word
, pronounced ‘Binah’
(Understanding), represents Sefirah number three. It is considered in the Zohar
to be close to the word
– son, similarly pronounced ‘
Ben
’.

“The word
 
can also be divided into two words. The first three
letters make up
, meaning ‘created’, and last
three letters spell out the word
, which is
‘six’ in Aramaic.

“Now, let us do some simple arithmetic. In the Kabbalistic
‘Tree
of Life’
, the third Sefirah - ‘Binah’ or Understanding, is separated by
exactly
six
Sefirot from the tenth and last Sefirah called ‘Malkuth’ –
Kingdom. ‘Malkuth' is identified in the Kabbalah with the
 - the divine presence, which
is the Hebrew equivalent of ‘Holy Spirit’.”