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© 2018 John D. Brey.
The Hebrew word for "death"
is mot מת. ------The word for “kneading-trough” (where
leaven is added to the dough) is miseret
משארת. -------Israel is commanded to eat un-leavened bread (bread without
leaven “kneaded” into it) on the night when they're freed from
"death" (the angel of death): Passover.
The word “leaven” seor שאר is right in the middle of the word
for “kneading-trough” miseret משארת.
Leaven seor שאר is right in the
middle of the letters spelling “death” mot
מת. The combination of the two words forms the word for the “kneading-trough,” ( מ–שאר–ת)
---which is the place where death is added to what would otherwise be the bread
of life. ----Leaven שאר is in the belly of death (מ–שאר–ת).
In contrast to “leavened”
bread, Matzoh is the bread of life. ------So
the Hebrew word matzoh מצה (un-leavened
bread) is not mot מת, but מה, with a tsaddi צ in the middle מ–צ–ה matzoh. In Hebrew letter symbolism the tsaddi צ represents “Messiah,” the
Righteous One of God (the Tsaddik),
and the heh ה at the end of matzoh is a broken tav ת. -----The letter tav
ת ---that’s broken to become the heh ה
---is formed from a dalet ד and a nun נ (the letter tav is a ligature constructed from a nun נ tucked under a dalet
ד). As separate letters, the dalet ד and a nun נ spell the word “din”
דן.
Din
is the Hebrew word for “judgment” (the final kind being capital, i.e.,
"death"). Death is broken by the Tsaddik
(the Righteous One: Messiah) found in the belly where death formerly dwelt (Ex.
23:21). Matzoh is the word “death” mot מת
with a tsaddi צ hidden precisely where before there was leaven.
Since “leaven” שאר is not in the belly where the Tsaddik now resides, the final tav
ת, which symbolizes “finality,” or death, is broken down into a heh ה, which is a dalet ד and a yod י. The tsaddi (Tsaddik) in the middle of the angel of death מ–צ–ה breaks
the power of death מת, which is “judgment” din
דנ, thereby creating a heh ה where
before there was a tav ת.
The din דן found in the letter tav ת (a nun נ connected to a dalet ד) represents “judgment.” But in the original script the tav ת was a Latin cross. When the Tsaddik --- the uncontaminated dough – matzoh ----is broken on the cross (and at the Passover Seder), he breaks the power of death, i.e. the power of leaven in the kneading-trough.
The din דן found in the letter tav ת (a nun נ connected to a dalet ד) represents “judgment.” But in the original script the tav ת was a Latin cross. When the Tsaddik --- the uncontaminated dough – matzoh ----is broken on the cross (and at the Passover Seder), he breaks the power of death, i.e. the power of leaven in the kneading-trough.
The kneading-trough has
a biological equivalent in the Jewish bride. She’s the kneading-trough where
the leaven is not added to the dough. There’s an architectural equivalent in
the Jewish house, which, according to the Talmud (Yoma 2a) is also a symbol of the Jewish bride (who symbolizes the miseret).
The Hebrew letter dalet represents a "door" or “veil.” The nun connected to the dalet in the letter tav, is the symbol for reproduction (R. Ginsburgh). When the bridegroom of the Jewish home places blood on the doorpost (dalet) on Passover eve, the blood represents separating the nun from the dalet. -----He thereby breaks the nun down into a yod (the nun in the tav ת becomes the yod י in the heh ה).
This is significant since
the nun is the traditional emblem of
reproduction (the organ that opens the womb), while the yod is the mark of circumcision. The yod also represents a “hand” yad,
so that with his hand, yod, not his nun (his reproductive organ), the firstborn
of the house ראש symbolically breaks the veil of the doorway of the home
thereby transforming his nun into a yod turning mot מת into matzoh מצה. He
breaks the power of the tav, capital
punishment, death, by transforming the tav
into a heh, a nun into a yod, and a
home where leaven is traditionally added, into a sanctified place where the Tsaddik will reside (מ–צ–ה).
Rabbi
Yitzchak Ginsburgh states that, "The
word hei (הא, also written הי or הה) means `to be broken.'" -----In atbash, the heh ה is a tsaddi צ.
----So the broken tav, which
transforms into a heh, also
represents the tsaddi, who, is broken
as the bread of life therein becoming the "bread of affliction"
symbolically broken at the Passover Seder.
Now
the heh is closed on all sides and
open underneath: that is an indication that all the dead descend into she'ol;
its upper hook is an indication that they are destined to ascend thence; the
opening at the side is a hint to penitents [That the way is open for a return
to God].
Midrash Rabbah, Bereshith,
XII, 10.
The
tav ת is closed on all sides with no
escape from she’ol beneath. The heh is a broken tav. A means of escape from
sheol has been purchased by breaking of the power of the tav by means of the tsaddi who in atbash is
the broken "bread of affliction" לחם דוי, the eating of which is
representative of eating from the Tree of Life.
By breaking the nun attached to the dalet (transforming it into a yod) the power of judgment, specifically capital judgment (death), is broken, such that the ancient serpent, whose poison always enters the miseret, the biological kneading-trough, is, for the first time in human history, forced to Passover the Jewish home, which is the Jewish bride, which is the biological kneading-trough, which is what the Passover is all about. . . And since the heh in matzoh is a broken tav, the nun that makes up the left-pillar of the letter tav (the one that must be broken to make heh out of the tav) would itself break down into a vav and a yod (since a nun is constructed of a yod י added to a vav ו). Breaking up all the letters that make up the tav turns the tav ת into three separate letters, a dalet ד, a vav ו , and a yod י.
By breaking the nun attached to the dalet (transforming it into a yod) the power of judgment, specifically capital judgment (death), is broken, such that the ancient serpent, whose poison always enters the miseret, the biological kneading-trough, is, for the first time in human history, forced to Passover the Jewish home, which is the Jewish bride, which is the biological kneading-trough, which is what the Passover is all about. . . And since the heh in matzoh is a broken tav, the nun that makes up the left-pillar of the letter tav (the one that must be broken to make heh out of the tav) would itself break down into a vav and a yod (since a nun is constructed of a yod י added to a vav ו). Breaking up all the letters that make up the tav turns the tav ת into three separate letters, a dalet ד, a vav ו , and a yod י.
The letters dalet-vav-yod דוי spell the word deway --- "affliction." ---- When you break the tav in the word “death” mot מת, you get the word
"affliction,” as in the "bread of affliction." ------The first
of only two places the word deway דוי
is used in the scripture is Job 6:7:
The things that my
soul refused to touch
Are as my sorrowful meat.
Are as my sorrowful meat.
A corrected
translation should read:
The things that my
soul refused even to touch
are now the daily bread [לחם] of affliction [דוי].
are now the daily bread [לחם] of affliction [דוי].
The context for the
verse says: "Can that which is unsavory
be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg"? ------The
verse is clearly speaking of the plainness of matzoh. ---- Job sees himself, his life, as matzoh, the bread of affliction. He longs to be broken -- like the matzoh on Passover, like the tav in mot.
Rabbi
Michael L. Munk explains that the tav,
" . . . denotes the mark of man's
final destination" (The Wisdom
in the Hebrew Alphabet). He points to the events of Ezekiel chapter 9 where
the tav is being used to
"mark" out certain people for salvation from the impending
"judgment" which is man’s final destination:
And
the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of
Jerusalem, and set a mark [tav] upon
the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that
be done in the midst thereof.
Ezekiel 9:4.
The
Lord tells his destroying angels to place a tav
(mark) on the foreheads of all those who sigh and cry because of the
abominations that take place in Jerusalem. The people marked with a tav on their foreheads are to be spared
the coming judgment. ---- At the time of these events the Hebrew script was ktav ivri, and not Ktav Ashuri. --- In the ktav
ivri script, the tav was a cross
and not a dalet and a nun.
This created a problem for Jewish exegetes since they we’re uncomfortable with the idea of a cross being placed on the head of persons being saved from judgment. So they came up with an interesting extra-biblical interpretation that not only fixes the problem of people being saved by the mark of a cross being placed on their person, but, since they weren't relying on the bible as a source, they found a way to actually demonize the cross while explaining away its salvific power.
The rabbinic interpretation interpolated an ink mark in the place of a bloody cross. The ink mark marked the righteous, while the bloody cross marked those who were to be subject to the judgment (annihilation). This interpolation was extremely powerful in the Jewish mind since it nicely demonized the Christians who were wont to wear bloody crosses dangling from their necks.
This created a problem for Jewish exegetes since they we’re uncomfortable with the idea of a cross being placed on the head of persons being saved from judgment. So they came up with an interesting extra-biblical interpretation that not only fixes the problem of people being saved by the mark of a cross being placed on their person, but, since they weren't relying on the bible as a source, they found a way to actually demonize the cross while explaining away its salvific power.
The rabbinic interpretation interpolated an ink mark in the place of a bloody cross. The ink mark marked the righteous, while the bloody cross marked those who were to be subject to the judgment (annihilation). This interpolation was extremely powerful in the Jewish mind since it nicely demonized the Christians who were wont to wear bloody crosses dangling from their necks.
As pointed out by
Saul Lieberman (through Elliott R. Wolfson, Alef,
Mem, Tau, p. 161), in ancient times the Greeks marked criminals convicted
of a capital crime with a "black-mark-of-death" (nigrum theta), a large Greek theta.
Professor Wolfson points out that the Greek theta
has an affinity to the Hebrew tav
(particularly in ktav ivri where they
look nearly identical, i.e. a cross). The Greeks placed the black theta on criminals convicted of a
capital crime. The Greek theta symbolized
"thanatos" (death) --- such
that the Greeks marked those about to be executed with a black theta.
In Ezekiel those being marked for salvation are, by the interpretation of the rabbis, to be marked with a black tav, which would be opposite the symbolism employed by the Greeks (where the black theta symbolized a death sentence).
In Ezekiel those being marked for salvation are, by the interpretation of the rabbis, to be marked with a black tav, which would be opposite the symbolism employed by the Greeks (where the black theta symbolized a death sentence).
To correct this
problem the rabbinic interpretations adds a bloody-cross to symbolize the
marking of a capital crime (and thus impending judgment). Wolfson says that,
"Apparently responding to [the
Christian interpretation of the cross as the mark of salvation] . . . rabbinic
exegetes emphasized that the mark of blood signals destruction rather than
deliverance."
As is the case in many examples of the wrath of God annihilating whole swaths of people, Passover language is employed here (as it is when the angels come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah). The angel in linen, who will do the marking, is said to have a writer's case by his "loins." The word translated "side" in the KJV is used almost everywhere else in the scripture for "loins." The text includes that the angel stands by the brazen altar where blood was drawn from the sacrifice. The glory (kabod) of the Lord leaves the cherubs on the Ark of the Covenant, and lands where . . . but on the threshold (or mezuzah) of the door to the house of the Lord.
Nowhere in the bible is "ink" used to mark the righteous. But in the temple rituals blood is used to sanctify all the appurtenances associated with temple rituals. Blood from the brazen altar is sprinkled on the threshold of the temple, and placed on the high priest to sanctify him so that he will not die when he enters the Presence of God. On Passover it’s placed on the doorpost, the mezuzah. Here too, the angel in linen stands at the brazen altar filling up his writer's case with the salvific blood that will mark those who will not die in the Presence of the Lord's wrath.
In his commentary, Redak comments that the idea in Ezekiel is similar to the idea of the sign of blood on the doorposts in Egypt which protected the Israelites from the judgment that befell Egypt. Rabbi Abulafia actually claims the blood on the doorposts formed an ancient tav. While other Jewish sages claim it was placed on the doorway as a chet.
Later in Ezekiel (16:6), blood is used in a salvific manner, "And I passed by you downtrodden with your blood, and I said to you, `With your blood, live,’ and I said to you, `With your blood live.’" -----Pirke d' Rabbi Eliezer interprets Ezekiel 16:6, "`With your blood live.' He repeats this a second time because they were redeemed with the blood of the Passover sacrifice and the blood of circumcision" (chapter 29).
In the same book, Ezekiel, describing the angels annihilating those not marked with a tav, blood is used to sanctify from death rather mark out those subject to it. Numerous Jewish interpretations claim that it's the blood of the Passover lamb, and the circumcision blood, which possess saving properties (and both are said to be placed on the doorposts on Passover).
As is the case in many examples of the wrath of God annihilating whole swaths of people, Passover language is employed here (as it is when the angels come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah). The angel in linen, who will do the marking, is said to have a writer's case by his "loins." The word translated "side" in the KJV is used almost everywhere else in the scripture for "loins." The text includes that the angel stands by the brazen altar where blood was drawn from the sacrifice. The glory (kabod) of the Lord leaves the cherubs on the Ark of the Covenant, and lands where . . . but on the threshold (or mezuzah) of the door to the house of the Lord.
Nowhere in the bible is "ink" used to mark the righteous. But in the temple rituals blood is used to sanctify all the appurtenances associated with temple rituals. Blood from the brazen altar is sprinkled on the threshold of the temple, and placed on the high priest to sanctify him so that he will not die when he enters the Presence of God. On Passover it’s placed on the doorpost, the mezuzah. Here too, the angel in linen stands at the brazen altar filling up his writer's case with the salvific blood that will mark those who will not die in the Presence of the Lord's wrath.
In his commentary, Redak comments that the idea in Ezekiel is similar to the idea of the sign of blood on the doorposts in Egypt which protected the Israelites from the judgment that befell Egypt. Rabbi Abulafia actually claims the blood on the doorposts formed an ancient tav. While other Jewish sages claim it was placed on the doorway as a chet.
Later in Ezekiel (16:6), blood is used in a salvific manner, "And I passed by you downtrodden with your blood, and I said to you, `With your blood, live,’ and I said to you, `With your blood live.’" -----Pirke d' Rabbi Eliezer interprets Ezekiel 16:6, "`With your blood live.' He repeats this a second time because they were redeemed with the blood of the Passover sacrifice and the blood of circumcision" (chapter 29).
In the same book, Ezekiel, describing the angels annihilating those not marked with a tav, blood is used to sanctify from death rather mark out those subject to it. Numerous Jewish interpretations claim that it's the blood of the Passover lamb, and the circumcision blood, which possess saving properties (and both are said to be placed on the doorposts on Passover).
The angel in white
linen stands by the brazen altar with his writer's case by his loins and the
altar of sacrifice. He's going to fill his writer's case with the same blood
(circumcision, and the blood of the animal sacrifice) that the Talmud says was
placed on the doorposts at Passover. He's getting this blood just prior to the
angel of death passing through Israel, as he once passed through Egypt (and
Sodom and Gomorrah), to strike dead anyone where circumcision blood and lamb’s blood
is not marking out a safe-zone.
And,
behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which lieth toward the
north, and every man a slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man among them was
clothed with linen, with a writer’s inkhorn by his loins [מתן motan]: and they went in, and stood
beside the brasen altar.
Ezek. 9:2.
Ezek. 9:2.
A
significant theological difference between Judaism and Christianity revolves
around the signs and symbols used in this narrative. Christianity reads Ezekiel
9 to suggest that the destroying angel places a bloody cross on the foreheads
of those to be spared destruction (at the time the Hebrew script was ktav ivri such that the "sign"
or "tav" ---placed on the
forehead ---would have been the shape of a cross). But Judaism suggests that a
bloody cross ("mark") was placed on the heads of those to be
destroyed (although no such thing is stated in the text) while an ink cross
("mark") was placed on the heads of those to be spared.
Throughout Judaism, the blood of the animal sacrifice is synonymous with the blood of circumcision; so much so that at the Passover, the blood of circumcision is said to be mingled with the blood of the animal sacrifice placed on the doorposts of the Jewish house. The sages of the Jewish tradition attempt to impart the particulars of the relationship between sacrificial animal blood, and the blood of the covenant, which is the blood of circumcision: brit milah:
The
Zohar understands the Altar of earth as the Altar of the elements of the earth,
an allusion to the sacrifice of flesh and blood offered through circumcision,
for as the Zohar explains, the human body is the product of the dust of the
earth. Every father who offers his son as a sacrifice through the mitzvah of
circumcision is considered as though he had offered to God all the [animal]
sacrifices in the world, and has built Him the most perfect Altar. This Altar
is dearer to Hashem than all the others. And the promised blessing which refers
to every place where God causes His name to be mentioned is first of all
intended for the place of circumcision, for it is the Divine seal engraved into
our flesh. The man who bears this seal on his body receives, as it were, Divine
consecration, and he himself becomes an Altar to Hashem.
Rabbi Elie Munk, The Call of the Torah, Shemos, p. 288, 289.
Rabbi Elie Munk, The Call of the Torah, Shemos, p. 288, 289.
Exodus
chapter 13 speaks of the father pointing out the circumcision scar to his son
at his Bar Mitzvah (Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan says that that's when the tefillin are
first donned). In the context of the Exodus passage, it notes that the son is
to make the image of the circumcision-scar a "memorial" between his
eyes, idiomatically in his mind, so that the two areas of seminal production,
the phallus and the brain, are both to be marked with the sign of signs, the ktav ivri tav (a cross).
Since the removal of the prepuce "uncovers" a ktav ivri tav --- a "cross" ----on the organ of biological reproduction (where the corona crosses the frenulum at the frenular-delta, see essay, Brit Milah Di Da) and since this cross-roads of all signs is initially seen tainted with blood, it makes perfect sense that this "memorial" between the eyes, if it's in fact memorializing the sign down below, as Exodus chapter 13 makes clear, should be a tav marked on the forehead (symbolizing the memory, a “memorial”) in blood. A ktav ivri tav, a cross, marked in blood, would perfectly mark those members of Israel who were circumcised in the heart, mind, and not just in the flesh down below. It would mark those members of Israel who had removed both veils hiding the revelation of the Presence of God in the world: the foreskin of the flesh and the foreskin of the mind.
Since the removal of the prepuce "uncovers" a ktav ivri tav --- a "cross" ----on the organ of biological reproduction (where the corona crosses the frenulum at the frenular-delta, see essay, Brit Milah Di Da) and since this cross-roads of all signs is initially seen tainted with blood, it makes perfect sense that this "memorial" between the eyes, if it's in fact memorializing the sign down below, as Exodus chapter 13 makes clear, should be a tav marked on the forehead (symbolizing the memory, a “memorial”) in blood. A ktav ivri tav, a cross, marked in blood, would perfectly mark those members of Israel who were circumcised in the heart, mind, and not just in the flesh down below. It would mark those members of Israel who had removed both veils hiding the revelation of the Presence of God in the world: the foreskin of the flesh and the foreskin of the mind.
As stated earlier,
the word for "loins," motan
מתן is the word for "manna" מן with the addition of the letter
representing "judgment" or "man's final destination" (R.
Munk). But the letters tell an even more interesting story when it's noted that
the first two letters of motan מתן
spell the word "death" mot מת,
while the last two letters of motan, תן tan, spell the word for
"serpent." Without hardly any elaboration it's perfectly clear that
the "motan" (a man's
"loins") represent the "serpent of death." Since the word
mot מת
also spells “man” we know that the nun in motan מתן symbolizes the man’s manhood.
Justifying this claim
is the fact that if you remove the middle letter in the word "motan," the tav (which represents “judgment” and “death”) you have the word for
"manna," which was shown elsewhere, to be heavenly matzoh, the bread of true life, rather than
life leavened with judgment. . . Again, as pointed out elsewhere, the
"house" beit בית represents
a man's bride, or wife (Yoma 2a),
such that the entryway represents a woman's "loins." A woman's loins
are her entryway, the “threshold” welcoming her groom.
Domestic and cult
houses symbolize cosmic motherhood. On the facade is depicted a woman's face,
complete with nose ornaments, breasts below the mouth, and earrings at the
lower eaves. . . The interior of the house is a belly (iai) or womb
(Mead 1949, 211), which conjures not simply a female body but specifically a
mother. . . men control the doorways, or mouths (kundia) and vaginas (kitnya),
of house mothers. As a representation of the cosmos, the house is a maternal
body whose orifices and internal spaces are carefully guarded by men.
Professor Eric Kline
Silverman, Masculinity Motherhood and Mockery, p. 66.
In Ezekiel, 9:3,
after noting that the angel has his ink-horn near his "loins," while
standing at the brazen altar (which Rabbi Munk suggests represents
circumcision) the glory of God lifts from the ark of the covenant inside the
womb of the house of God and lights (so to say) on the threshold of the house
of Lord. The word for the "threshold" where the glory of the Lord is
found is the word "motan"
with the addition of one letter, the peh
פ. The word for the "threshold" of the house of the Lord is motan with a peh מפתן moptan.
Since the "house
of the Lord" represents the Lord's bride, we know that the moptan מפתן represents the
"loins" of the virgin bride of God (represented by the temple in
Jerusalem). In this bizarre relationship between the letters, it turns out that
in the sense that the male "loins" are the word "manna" מן
with the letter representing "judgment" and "death" in the
middle ן–ת–מ, the word for the female "loins" moptan מפתן, is the word for "manna" with the word for a
woman's "secret parts" פת (Isaiah3:17) in the middle ן–פת–מ.
. . . Take
"manna" מן. Add "judgment.". . And you have the
"serpent of death." ----You have the male loins. Take the same
"manna" מן, add the letters for a female's secret place (פת rather
than merely ת) and you have the word moptan
מפתן, the word for the "threshold," where the blood of the
"serpent of death" motan מתן,
is used to birth matzoh, which is the
prototype "manna" ---- which is the bread of life –––which comes
through "affliction" of the baking process (emasculation) ---- and
preseeds the arrival of the heavenly matzoh,
the manna.
Manna is מן. ----- In
other words manna is the word for "phallus" מתן without the letter of
judgment, "din” ---- the tav ת. ----Manna is the heavenly bread
that comes without leaven, without judgment, and without death. Manna removes
the letter of judgment ת that makes the phallus the organ of death. If you
remove "judgment" from "phallus" you end up with the word
for manna.
If you remove the
letter that means "judgment" and the letter that seals the word
"death" (the tav ת in mot מת).........the tav connected to the womb (mem
מ) in the word "death" . . . remove that letter from the word for
"phallus" motan מתן and you
have the word for "manna." ------
Since manna is heavenly matzoh,
the lack of leaven in the matzoh
represents the lack of leaven in manna. Remove the “judgment” aspect of the motan, the phallus (a man’s “loins”),
the tav, and you end up with the bread
of life instead of the natural product of the organ of death.
Manna and matzoh are bread, and thus represent
reproductive offspring without leaven, without the poison that gives the angel
of death the green light to put on the red light and execute capital punishment
at his discretion.
“And the darkness he
called night" (Gen. 1:5) is the name of Satan. Also night is his name,
because he is the angel who rules over pregnancy.
Rabbi Abraham
Abulafia.
The
phallus contains the chametz, or leaven,
associated with the previous dough. The male passes his name on to the child
(signifying that he represents the continual line, the last batch . . . while
the female takes on the new name of the male . . . the line is continued
through the male). Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan notes (consistent with Jewish tradition)
that the "evil inclination" (associated with
"leaven"
or "chametz") is
concentrated in the male reproductive organ. The place where slag, leaven, and
sin is most concentrated.
Evil was not part of
man, but an outside force he could easily avoid. This was represented by the
Serpent in the Garden, which was not part of man's makeup, but something
outside of him. Man could debate with this evil or ignore it, like any other
outside force. . . Man was given one commandment, not to eat of the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil. In this Tree, good and evil were intermingled, in
such a manner that they could not be separated. Once man partook of this tree,
the same became true of him. At that moment, evil became and intrinsic part of
his being. He now had a Yetzer HaRa,
-- an Evil Urge -- that was part of his psyche, and no matter what he would do,
he could not escape it.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Waters of Eden (emphasis mine).
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Waters of Eden (emphasis mine).
Rabbi Kaplan explains
that the Yetzer HaRa --- Evil Urge
--- (which is synonymous with chametz/leaven)
was not originally a part of the human body or the human mind. It (chametz/leaven) was represented by the
"serpent":
It is a well known
fact that in almost every culture the serpent represents some sort of phallic
symbol. To a large degree then, the serpent represents sexual temptation [and
fulfillment]. Our sages teach us that the main temptation the serpent used to
lure Eve was that of sex.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Tzitzith: A Thread of Light.
Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan, Tzitzith: A Thread of Light.
In Elliot K.
Ginsburg's commentary on Rabbi Meir ibn Gabbai's
Sod Ha-Shabbat, he says:
Although one Rabbinic
tradition (recorded in L. Ginzberg, Legends 1:96) states that the snake
injected his zohama' into the fruit,
other Rabbinic sources speak of his sexual coupling with Eve. This motif is
first found in Hellenistic Jewish sources (see Legends 5:123-24 for a list) and is preserved in TB Shab. 146a, Yev. 103b, AZ 22b, et al. In one famous medieval reading, RaSHI (ad
Shab. 146a) interprets Eve's plea,
`The snake hishi'ani---duped me' [Gen
3:13] as `The snake hissi'ani---married
me'! The Edenic sin, in short, was sexual in nature!"
There's no such thing
as "death" until Eve sins with the serpent. To the extent that that's
when the serpent injects Eve with chametz,
it can legitimately be assumed that "death" resides in the chametz injected into Eve's womb in
order to birth Cain, the man of sin, the first murder, the bringer and
harbinger of "death."
Leaven is associated
with the serpent, the serpent puts the chametz
into Eve through a sexual act (leading to the birth of Cain). The event is
treated both as a simple sexual act between the serpent and Eve, but is clothed
in the metaphor of "eating”. ---- Eating is a metaphor for sex. Eve eats
from the Tree of Knowledge.
Eating matzoh is a metaphor for abnormal
(non-phallic) sex. It’s a metaphor for a sanctified form of sex. Eve eats from
the Tree of Knowledge (has phallic-sex with the serpent) and is therein
contaminated with chametz (leaven).
Israel eats from the Tree of Life --- matzoh
(the Bread of Life) and experiences a union with God that's free of the
serpent. The serpent isn't allowed to enter the Jewish bride as he entered Eve.
The Jewish bride becomes pregnant not through the serpent, and not with Cain,
but without the serpent:
There shall no
strange god be in thee; Neither shalt thou worship any strange god. I am the
Lord thy God, Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide,
and I will fill it [with manna, matzoh].
Psalm 81:10-11.
Psalm 81:10-11.
Hashem says: Don't eat
of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (bread seasoned with leaven) and I
will fill your mouth with matzoh, the
Bread of Life.
Through the Pesach
offering, the Jewish people, assembled in family groups, stands before God like
a flock, and in eating the Pesach offering the Jewish people recovers its
personality, is redeemed from physical and civic death. . . To take part in the
קרבן פסח [korban pesach], however,
there is a basic condition: One must participate in the covenant between God
and Israel. Such participation [requires that] . . . one must have inscribed
the sign of this participation --- the מילה [milah]--- on oneself and on one's people (i.e., sons and servants).
The Hirsch Chumash, Shemos, 12:43 [bracketed words added].
The Hirsch Chumash, Shemos, 12:43 [bracketed words added].
According to Rabbi
Hirsch, eating the matzoh (at
Passover) redeems the Jew from death. Eating bread missing one key element,
redeems from death. And what’s the key element, the elimination of which,
eliminates death? Chametz. If you eat
chametz you die. If you eliminate chametz on Passover you’re freed from
death, and you live. ------Chametz
causes death.
But there’s a second
part to the ordinance of the Passover. That to eat this death-defying bread of
life you must be circumcised. There's a direct and unequivocal relationship
between circumcision and eating the Bread of Life: matzoh. ------ You must be circumcised to eat the matzoh, the eating of which frees you
from slavery to death (represented by Egypt). Therefore two things are directly
related to freedom from death: circumcision and eating the bread of life.
Making bread is a
metaphor for making love throughout the Tanakh. Circumcision removes the organ
through which leaven passes (the phallus), while matzoh represents the Bread of Life that's cooked up in the womb
once the leaven has been cut out of the process. Matzoh is circumcised bread. Making bread symbolizes biological
reproduction.
One element in bread
represents sin and death: chametz.
Circumcision removes the serpent's role in reproduction, therein removing the chametz from the reproductive process.
The unleavened bread symbolizes the same thing as the circumcision blood on the
doorposts, and the fact that you must be circumcised to eat the unleavened
bread. The whole thing symbolizes a union between God and Israel that cuts out
both the leaven, and the organ through which it's introduced into the
"house," which "house," is the Jewish bride.
If the house is the bride, and the bride is going to consume-mate a union with God --- without phallic-mating ---- then the blood on the doorposts (which the Talmud and Jewish commentary says is circumcision blood) represents precisely the fact that God's Rod, the Serpent, who’s going into the Egyptian homes, the Egyptian brides, delivering a death sentence to the firstborn, doesn't go into the Jewish bride. She gets pregnant in a non-phallic manner. The serpent doesn't enter this bride. Her son is Messiah. He's not conceived in sin. No chametz. No serpent. No rod of judgment. No raising Cain, and no rising dough.
And it has been
taught: At the same moment the Egyptians were struck, the Israelites were
healed. For as Rabbi Yose said in the name of Rabbi Hizkiyah, "Why is it
written: YHVH will pass over the entrance (Exodus 12:23)? Why over הפתח (
ha-petah), the entrance? The verse should read YHVH will pass over you.
However, over ha-petah, the
opening--- the actual opening, opening of the body. What is the opening of the
body? You must admit, this is circumcision." . . This corresponds to the
mystery that we have learned: He was sitting at the opening of the tent
(Genesis 18:1) . . ..
The Zohar, Pritzker Edition vol. IV, Bo [2:36a], p. 163.
The Zohar, Pritzker Edition vol. IV, Bo [2:36a], p. 163.
Why does it not say
the rod of God, his serpent of judgment, will pass over "you"? ----It
says he will pass over a particular "opening" (ha-petah). ----- The sages know that the language means it must be
a "well known opening."
Abraham sits in the entrance to his tent on Passover (Genesis 18:1). He sits on a stool in the entrance of the tent, to catch any passing breeze, since he’s tending to the wounded serpent that was circumcised just days earlier. In the narrative, the angel of judgment comes by and sees Abraham's circumcision blood in the doorway and passes over Abraham's house on the way to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. Part and parcel of the angel of judgment passing over Abraham's entrance on Passover is that Sarah becomes pregnant with Isaac.
Abraham sits in the entrance to his tent on Passover (Genesis 18:1). He sits on a stool in the entrance of the tent, to catch any passing breeze, since he’s tending to the wounded serpent that was circumcised just days earlier. In the narrative, the angel of judgment comes by and sees Abraham's circumcision blood in the doorway and passes over Abraham's house on the way to judge Sodom and Gomorrah. Part and parcel of the angel of judgment passing over Abraham's entrance on Passover is that Sarah becomes pregnant with Isaac.
The bleeding of the
serpent who passes chametz on in the
womb (and which blood --- of the serpent --- is placed on the doorposts of the
"house" the "bride," even the tent) speaks to the type of
union affected between God and Israel, and thus, the type of conception being
noted in the symbolism: virgin conception from a non-phallic union. Messiah is
conceived (ritually) on Passover night, Israel leaves on Passover morning
pregnant with Messiah; he’s in Israel when they leave Egypt.
In Judaism, death is treated (properly) as a property that can be passed on like a disease. The imperfection of death is all over death, such that if you touch a corpse, you’ve become "imperfect."
"Death" is passed on
when the nun ן at the end of “death” מת
extends in a woman’s womb to knead the dough. Once it's established that death
is passed on in the womb through the kneading properties of the motan, the male's loins, the question
arises to how a child could be conceived who would be born without the death
passed on through the motan?
The eighth Hebrew letter is the chet ח while the thirteenth Hebrew
letter is the mem מ. Together they
spell "father-in-law" חם (chet-mem). In The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, vol.
XXII. No. 4, July 1906, Professor Paul Haupt, from John Hopkins University,
wrote an essay, The Etymology of Mohel,
Circumciser Semitic Verbs Derived from Particles. In that essay Professor
Haupt notes that the ancient Hebrew word for "bridegroom," חתן hatan, originally meant
"circumcised." He says the ancient word for "father-in-law"
חותן xothen (hatan with a vav), originally
meant "circumciser."
On the eighth day it's traditionally the father who "circumcises" the Jewish male. Similarly, according to Exodus 13, it's the same father who initiates the Jewish male into the covenant by making him a bar mitzvah (son of the commandment) on his thirteenth birthday. But Professor Haupt points out that circumcision was originally a marriage rite. The male was circumcised by the father-of-the-bride (the "father-in-law" chet-mem: eighth-letter and thirteenth-letter) as a part of the wedding ceremony.
It's interesting then that when circumcision is practiced as a wedding rite, the "father-in-law" chet-mem (8-13) technically enters the Jewish male into both aspects of the covenant (circumcision and bar mitzvah) since a post-puberty brit milah condenses both rituals (circumcision and bar mitzvah) into one event. And when both rituals are combined into one event, it's the "father-in-law" (the eight and thirteenth letter) חם that performs both rituals simultaneously at the wedding ceremony.
On the eighth day it's traditionally the father who "circumcises" the Jewish male. Similarly, according to Exodus 13, it's the same father who initiates the Jewish male into the covenant by making him a bar mitzvah (son of the commandment) on his thirteenth birthday. But Professor Haupt points out that circumcision was originally a marriage rite. The male was circumcised by the father-of-the-bride (the "father-in-law" chet-mem: eighth-letter and thirteenth-letter) as a part of the wedding ceremony.
It's interesting then that when circumcision is practiced as a wedding rite, the "father-in-law" chet-mem (8-13) technically enters the Jewish male into both aspects of the covenant (circumcision and bar mitzvah) since a post-puberty brit milah condenses both rituals (circumcision and bar mitzvah) into one event. And when both rituals are combined into one event, it's the "father-in-law" (the eight and thirteenth letter) חם that performs both rituals simultaneously at the wedding ceremony.
Heinrich Gesenius explains:
(1) a bridegroom, Ps. 19:6;
Isaiah 62:5. It is not easy to explain now in what sense the new-born child,
Ex. 4:25, should, when circumcised, have been called by its mother חֲתַן דָּמִים
bridegroom of blood [see note above]. It seems to me that in this metaphorical
appellation is contained a comparison of circumcision, as the sign of the
covenant between God and the new-born child (Gen. 17:10, 13), with marriage;
and for the same reason the Arabic verb ختن to contract affinity, has also the
signification of circumcising, no doubt a secondary sense, derived from the
former. [But see above]. Aben Ezra says, “It is customary for women to call a
son when he is circumcised, bridegroom.” Those who apply these words to Moses
and not to the child, seem to have made a great mistake; see the observations
of Pococke in Not. Miscell. ad portam Mosis, p. 52. Rosenm. on Ex. loc. cit.
According to Gesenius’ lexicon, the term "bridegroom of
blood" is applied to the circumcised child (of Moses) and not Moses
himself. Ibn Ezra says it's customary for women to call their sons . . . when
circumcised, "bridegroom." Look at Isaiah 62:5:
For as a young man marrieth a virgin,
So shall thy sons marry thee:
And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
So shall thy God rejoice over thee.
So shall thy sons marry thee:
And as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,
So shall thy God rejoice over thee.
According to etymology, and Ibn Ezra, as well as Heinrich
Gesenius, circumcision is a marriage ritual whether performed by the
"father-in-law" at the wedding/bar-mitzvah, or on the eighth day
after birth. But how can the eight day old child become a bridegroom without a
bride? His bride is Shekinah: the feminine essence of the Godhead.
Professor Eric Kline Silverman states that Jewish midrashim suggest that circumcision makes the circumcisee attractive to God. He claims circumcision prepares the circumcisee for a mystical union with God. He goes to far as to claim that it literally, or figuratively, turns God on.
Professor Eric Kline Silverman states that Jewish midrashim suggest that circumcision makes the circumcisee attractive to God. He claims circumcision prepares the circumcisee for a mystical union with God. He goes to far as to claim that it literally, or figuratively, turns God on.
This might seem absurd to someone not familiar with the idea
found in various mystical midrashim that circumcision blood is used as a
symbolic "ornamentation." At one time the cloth used to soak up the
circumcision blood was hung at the synagogue mezuzah as an ornament similar to, well, the mezuzah. There's reason to believe that at the wedding ceremony
where the circumcision was performed (the wedding/bar-mitzvah), the cloth used
to soak up the blood was once given to the bride as part of her ornamentation.
“Tiferet" in
the kabbalistic sense associated with the Sefirotic Tree of Life, is found
between the breasts of the anthropomorphic image (the Sefirothic Tree). "Tiferet" means beauty or adornment.
In this light it’s significant that the human female is the only mammal in the
world whose "breasts" remain large permanently. In all other mammals
the enlarged breast occur only after consummation of mating. But in mankind,
the spiritual mammal, the female breast are an "adornment" an
attraction to the male, they're "ornamentation" turning on the female's
mate. Only this spiritual mammal, the human female, has this sort of permanent
sexual ornamentation.
. . . That is unless Professor Silverman’s claims that the circumcised Jewish male turns God on -----as though circumcision acts as some sort of ornamentation in line with the female's enlarged breasts?
In the animal kingdom the glans is always covered until it's time to mate. All mammals but the circumcised Jewish male have their phallus sheathed until consummating the mating. But . . . as is noted in numerous Jewish texts, the circumcised phallus, not unlike the female breasts, reveals the corona and the glans permanently.
. . . That is unless Professor Silverman’s claims that the circumcised Jewish male turns God on -----as though circumcision acts as some sort of ornamentation in line with the female's enlarged breasts?
In the animal kingdom the glans is always covered until it's time to mate. All mammals but the circumcised Jewish male have their phallus sheathed until consummating the mating. But . . . as is noted in numerous Jewish texts, the circumcised phallus, not unlike the female breasts, reveals the corona and the glans permanently.
Jewish sages note that the circumcised phallus appears in a
permanent ithyphallic state. In the same sense that the female gender of the
spiritual mammal, mankind, has an ornamentation separating her from the beasts,
her permanently enlarged breasts, so too, the male of the species, if he's to
leave the realm of the animal kingdom, and become a spiritual mammal, must have
an ornamentation that makes him sexually attractive in a manner that sets him
apart from the animal kingdom.
The circumcised Jewish male is the only mammal in the animal
kingdom that has an unsheathed sexual organ that by reason of the permanent
display of the glans and corona (mimicking the ithyphallic state) is a perfect
analogue for the permanently enlarged female breasts.
Biblical and rabbinic circumcision transforms the penis into
a sacred phallus. The male body becomes an ideal image of human reproduction
for, as noted, a circumcised penis continuously resembles an uncircumcised
erection. Yet circumcision, we have seen, feminizes men. It is a form of male
adornment that allures God.
Eric Kline Silverman, The Covenant of Circumcision, (Edited by Elizabeth Wyner Mark), p. 59.
Eric Kline Silverman, The Covenant of Circumcision, (Edited by Elizabeth Wyner Mark), p. 59.
As pointed out earlier, the Hebrew word
motan מתן speaks of a male's loins.
For instance the first two letters, mem-tav מת spell the word for
"death" mot ---- while the
last letter, nun ן (particularly when
"extended" at the end of a word: nun
peshuta) is a pictographic emblem of
the male organ of reproduction. The Hebrew word motan "loin" is a near-perfect emblem for the
"extended (ן ) organ of death ( מת )" motan.
As if further pictographic proof were required it also happens to be the case that if instead of taking the first two letters and leaving the last (segregating the extended ן organ of death מת) the last two letters are taken --- tav-nun תן --- leaving the first letter mem מ segregated, you have the letter representing the "womb" --- the mem -- being used as an adjective for the last two letters which spell "serpent" tav-nun תן. You have the phrase "the womb מ of the serpent תנ" you have a pictographic emblem of the phallus as the "womb" (mem) of the "serpent" (tav-nun).
The word "motan" means --on many levels -- "serpent of death" or "the organ of death" . . . the place where death is born and resides.
But as Professor Haupt points out , xothan (or hatan) chet-tav-nun חתן originally meant "circumcised" but now means "bridegroom." -------The person familiar with Hebrew letters would immediately notice that the word hatan חתן is the word motan מתן with a chet ח replacing the mem מ. ---- If motan means "serpent of death" or the "womb" of the serpent of death, the place where death is born and resides, then hatan ("circumcision") means the end of the serpent of death, the end of his reign, the breaking of his power.
So it's not surprising that whereas the first two letters of motan מת spell "death," the first two letters of hatan חת spell "broken." ----The letters chet-tav חת spell a Hebrew word for "broken."
Since the letter shared by the two Hebrew words "death" mem-tav מת and "broken" chet-tav חת is the letter tav ת, and since as pointed out before, the letter tav ת is a ligature for two other letters dalet-nun דנ (squeeze them together and you have a tav ת=דנ) . . . and since the word dalet-nun דנ spells "judgment" ---- the final form being "death" (and the tav is final in every way) it's more than fair to say that the tav ת is a Hebrew emblem of "death."
To point this out is to point to the irony that the Hebrew word "death" mot (mem-tav) מת is the emblem of the "womb" מ of "death" ת while "broken" hat (chet-tav) חת is the emblem of the eighth letter (chet) ח --- representing "circumcision" (which occurs on the eighth day) united with the letter meaning "death," the tav. The Hebrew word "broken" hat (chet-tav) is the letter for "circumcision" (the eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet) with the letter for "death" (the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet).
It might create vertigo to point out that if you add an "extended nun" ("a circumcised penis continuously resembles an uncircumcised erection" (Prof. Silverman) ----- an "extended" organ of reproduction, to the word "death" מת you get the word for "loins" motan (מתן), while if you add the same "extended organ of reproduction" to the word "broken" חת you get the word "circumcised" or “circumciser,” hatan (חתן).
As if further pictographic proof were required it also happens to be the case that if instead of taking the first two letters and leaving the last (segregating the extended ן organ of death מת) the last two letters are taken --- tav-nun תן --- leaving the first letter mem מ segregated, you have the letter representing the "womb" --- the mem -- being used as an adjective for the last two letters which spell "serpent" tav-nun תן. You have the phrase "the womb מ of the serpent תנ" you have a pictographic emblem of the phallus as the "womb" (mem) of the "serpent" (tav-nun).
The word "motan" means --on many levels -- "serpent of death" or "the organ of death" . . . the place where death is born and resides.
But as Professor Haupt points out , xothan (or hatan) chet-tav-nun חתן originally meant "circumcised" but now means "bridegroom." -------The person familiar with Hebrew letters would immediately notice that the word hatan חתן is the word motan מתן with a chet ח replacing the mem מ. ---- If motan means "serpent of death" or the "womb" of the serpent of death, the place where death is born and resides, then hatan ("circumcision") means the end of the serpent of death, the end of his reign, the breaking of his power.
So it's not surprising that whereas the first two letters of motan מת spell "death," the first two letters of hatan חת spell "broken." ----The letters chet-tav חת spell a Hebrew word for "broken."
Since the letter shared by the two Hebrew words "death" mem-tav מת and "broken" chet-tav חת is the letter tav ת, and since as pointed out before, the letter tav ת is a ligature for two other letters dalet-nun דנ (squeeze them together and you have a tav ת=דנ) . . . and since the word dalet-nun דנ spells "judgment" ---- the final form being "death" (and the tav is final in every way) it's more than fair to say that the tav ת is a Hebrew emblem of "death."
To point this out is to point to the irony that the Hebrew word "death" mot (mem-tav) מת is the emblem of the "womb" מ of "death" ת while "broken" hat (chet-tav) חת is the emblem of the eighth letter (chet) ח --- representing "circumcision" (which occurs on the eighth day) united with the letter meaning "death," the tav. The Hebrew word "broken" hat (chet-tav) is the letter for "circumcision" (the eighth letter in the Hebrew alphabet) with the letter for "death" (the final letter in the Hebrew alphabet).
It might create vertigo to point out that if you add an "extended nun" ("a circumcised penis continuously resembles an uncircumcised erection" (Prof. Silverman) ----- an "extended" organ of reproduction, to the word "death" מת you get the word for "loins" motan (מתן), while if you add the same "extended organ of reproduction" to the word "broken" חת you get the word "circumcised" or “circumciser,” hatan (חתן).
