5 Meditations Prior To Immersion In The Mikvah Before Shabbos

After entering the Mikvah, but before immersing, meditate on the word Mikvah:

מקוה

Meditate (1) that the Mikvah is the mystery of the Name אהיה expanded through the letter ה :

אלף הה יוד הה

This expansion has gematria of 151, and this is also the gematria of the word מקוה. Just as water is gathered together in a Mikvah, the expansions of the Name אהיה , are gathered into the above expansion.

Meditate (2) on the word נחל , meaning stream.

נחל

This supernal stream consists of seven names. These are the 4 expansions of י – ה- ו- ה : עב סג מה בן

Together with the 3 expansions of אהיה with the י ה א :

In this manner bring the מקוה into the נחל.

Mediate (3) on these 7 names when they are not expanded:

1. יהוה
2. יהוה
3. יהוה
4. יהוה

5. אהיה
6. אהיה
7. אהיה

Each of these contains a single Yod. Therefore, in the 7 Names there are a total of 7 Yod’s.

These 7 names are the mystery of the 7 names of the Shabbos.

This is the mystery of the seven letters אהיה יהו mentioned in the Zohar.

You must meditate on the simple spelling of the 7 names, which contain 7 simple Yod’s. At the same time, you must also meditate on the expanded forms, as above.

To the 7 names, now add the name יה . This Name is the mystery of the Shabbos itself. You now have a total of 8 Yod’s.

These 8 ( י )Yod’s , each Yod has a gematria of 10, add up to 8×10= 80. This is the gematria of the letters נל (50+30) from the word נחל. Then include the letter ח , which represents the 8 Yod’s themselves. You now have נחל.

Now meditate (4) on the Yod’s in groups. There are two such groups, those of יהוה and אהיה. You must therefore meditate on the number 2 (ב).

The word נחל has gematria of 88. Add this to the 2 and you have 90 (צ). This is the gematria of water מים.

In this manner you have brought Water מים into the Mikvah מקוה.

Now meditate (4)  that all of this should be לכבוד שבת . Mediate on these two words.

We have used 8 names. These are the 4 expansions of י – ה- ו- ה : עב סג מה בן, the 3 expansions of אהיה with the י ה א . The original 7 names, each having 4 letters, contain 7×4 = 28 letters. Add this to the 2 letters י-ה , and you have a total of 30 letters. This is the numerical value of the letter ל of the word לכבוד , meaning “in honor of”.

Now divide the 8 into two groups, the original 7 names and the added name י-ה. This yields the number 2. Add this to the number 30 above and you have 32. This is the gematria of כבוד meaning honor.

Now take the expansions of the 7 names, together with י-ה . The sum of all 8 names is 702, which is the gematria of the word .שבת

4 expansions of י – ה- ו- ה          = 72+63+45+52 = 232

3 expansions of אהיה                = 161+151+ 143 =    455

י-ה                                            = 15

Total                                        = 702 = שבת

Now immerse in the Mikvah.

When you emerge from the water, say the pasuk from ישעיה נח:יג

אם תשיב משבת רגלך

עשות חפציך ביום קדשי, קראתי לשבת ענג לקדוש ה’ מכבד וכבדתו מעשות דרכיך ממצוא חפצך ודבר דבר

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Meditation and Kabbalah. Aryeh Kaplan. Samuel Weisner Inc. 1982. pg. 215-217.

(Shaar HaKavanot)