The Name Written in the Body

In a podcast I watched recently, the following words distilled one of the most profound themes of Kabbalah into a few sentences.

“The human body is a representation of God’s name. The essential name of God is Yud and Hei and Vav and Hei (יהוה). So if you look at the human body, the head is like a Yud, the top of the body is like a Hei, the torso is like a Vav, and the legs are like a Hei. So you literally, your body is a Yud and Hei and Vav and Hei.

So when the man and woman get together, we say that the man’s head is like the Yud, and the woman’s body is like a Hei, and then the man’s organ is like a Vav, and the woman’s organ is like a Hei, which it is. So when the man’s organ enters, we’re bringing together the Vav and Hei of God’s name.

We’re bringing together Kudsha Brich Hu uShechintei, which means HaKadosh Baruch Hu, God’s masculine aspect, brought together with the feminine aspect, which is the Shechinah, represented by the final Hei of God’s name.”

Behind this concise account lies a tradition of interpretation and mystical reflection developed over many centuries. Its point of departure is the verse of creation in the first chapter of the Torah.

ויברא אלהים את האדם בצלמו בצלם אלהים ברא אתו זכר ונקבה ברא אתם

“God created the human being in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1, 27)

Kabbalah does not regard this verse as figurative language. Job’s declaration, “from my flesh I shall see God,” is read with the same seriousness. The body is the projection of the divine order upon the earthly plane, and the key to that projection is the four letter Name, יהוה.

The upright human form reflects the letters of this Name in its very shape. The head, resting like a single point, corresponds to the Yud. The upper body, broadening through the shoulders and arms, corresponds to the Hei. The torso, extending vertically, corresponds to the Vav, and the legs, opening once more below, correspond to the second Hei. Simple as it may appear, this reading based on the form of the letters carries a significant claim. Every person who stands upright bears the Name within their own being, whether or not they are aware of it.

Each letter holds its own layer of meaning. The Yud is the smallest letter of the alphabet, scarcely more than a point. According to Kabbalah every letter begins with a point when it is written, and thus all the letters are understood to derive from the Yud. Its numerical value of ten indicates that the ten sefirot are contained within that point before they become manifest. It is deeply fitting that the Yud corresponds to the head, the seat in which thought has not yet become speech or deed.

The Hei is composed of three strokes. Chassidic teaching associates them with the three garments through which the soul expresses itself, namely thought, speech and action. The idea concentrated in the Yud expands in the Hei and opens outward.

The word vav means hook. The hooks that fastened the hangings of the Mishkan’s courtyard to its pillars are called vavei ha’amudim in the Torah (Exodus 27, 10). In grammar the Vav serves as the conjunction “and,” joining one word to another. Just as the torso unites the head with the legs, the Vav unites the upper realm with the lower.

The Talmud preserves a remarkable teaching concerning the final Hei (Menachot 29b). In the passage of Genesis describing the creation of heaven and earth, the word behibaram may also be read as “with a Hei He created them.” From this the Sages conclude that this world was created with the letter Hei. The Hei is open at its base, for the way remains open to anyone who chooses to stray. Its left leg does not touch the upper stroke, leaving a narrow opening above. Whoever seeks to return, to do teshuvah, is received back through that opening. That the legs are the very limbs which carry a person away and bring them back lends this teaching a particular depth.

Beneath the form of the letters lies the order of the sefirot. The tip of the Yud corresponds to Keter, the Yud itself to Chochmah, and the first Hei to Binah. The Vav is the letter of the six sefirot extending from Chesed to Yesod, collectively known as Zeir Anpin, which accounts for its numerical value of six. The final Hei is Malchut, the Shechinah.

Patach Eliyahu, the celebrated passage of the Tikkunei Zohar, enumerates the places of the sefirot within the body. Chochmah resides in the brain and Binah in the heart. Chesed corresponds to the right arm and Gevurah to the left. Tiferet is the torso, Netzach and Hod are the two legs, and Yesod is the sign of the covenant. Malchut is called the mouth, for speech and the Oral Torah issue from it. Here a subtle distinction comes to light. According to the form of the letters, the arms resemble the first Hei and the legs the final Hei. Within the order of the sefirot, however, both arms and legs belong to the Vav, to Zeir Anpin. This is not a contradiction but an indication of two distinct planes. The form describes how the Name appears in the body, while the sefirot describe how it operates within it.

The direction of this relationship must be properly understood. Kabbalah does not fashion God in the image of man. It regards the human being as a reflection of the order above. In the teaching of the Arizal the sefirot are arranged into partzufim, faces or configurations, and Abba and Imma, Zeir Anpin and Nukva, are each portrayed in the likeness of a human form. The human being was created in this form because the structure above already bore it. Herein lies the secret of Job’s beholding God from his own flesh.

The numbers bear witness to the same truth. When the letters of יהוה are spelled out in full with Alef (the milui), they yield the value 45. The word Adam (אדם) likewise equals 45. The name of the human being and the Name of God converge in a single number.

According to the Talmud (Makkot 23b), of the 613 commandments of the Torah, 248 are positive commandments and 365 are prohibitions. The former corresponds to the limbs of the human body, the latter to the days of the solar year. Kabbalistic sources link this reckoning directly to the Name. God says to Moses, “this is My name forever, and this is My remembrance for all generations” (Exodus 3, 15). Shemi (שמי), “My name,” equals 350, and with the addition of 15, the value of Yud and Hei, it reaches 365. Zichri (זכרי), “My remembrance,” equals 237, and with the addition of 11, the value of Vav and Hei, it reaches 248. Thus every limb of the body and every commandment of the Torah is gathered once more within the four letters of the Name.

The true centre of gravity in the podcast’s account, however, lies in what follows. The final clause of the verse is decisive in this respect. זכר ונקבה ברא אתם, “male and female He created them.” The human being bears the Name alone but cannot complete it alone. The fifth chapter of Genesis carries this idea further, declaring that God created them male and female and named them together Adam. According to the Zohar, an image that does not comprise both male and female is not deemed a supernal image.

In the union of man and woman, the letters of the Name are distributed between them anew. The man’s head is the Yud, the seat of Chochmah, which Lurianic terminology designates as Abba. This is why Kabbalah locates the source of the seed in the brain. The woman’s body is the first Hei, which is Binah and Imma. Binah is called the womb because she carries Zeir Anpin within her and brings it to maturity (ibbur). The man’s organ is the Vav, or more precisely Yesod, the final link of the Vav, where the entire flow of the six sefirot is gathered and transmitted. The woman’s organ is the final Hei, Malchut and Nukva. It is she who receives that flow and brings forth new life from it.

The Talmud expresses the same thought with striking simplicity (Sotah 17a). The letters shared by ish (איש, man) and ishah (אשה, woman) form the word esh, fire. An additional Yud remains in the man and an additional Hei in the woman, and together these two letters form the Name Yah (יה). So long as the Name abides between them, their union is holy. When the Name departs, only two fires remain.

The same image appears in the innermost sanctum of the Temple. The two cherubim above the Ark are portrayed in the tradition as male and female. The Talmud (Yoma 54a) records that when pilgrims ascended to Jerusalem for the festivals, the curtain was drawn aside and they were shown the cherubim intertwined, and were told to behold how beloved they were before God, like the love of man and woman. That the holiest image chosen to express the bond between God and His people should be the love of man and woman is a matter deserving of long contemplation.

The union of the Vav and the final Hei is not confined to the human plane. The Vav, as Zeir Anpin, represents the masculine aspect of the Holy One, Kudsha Brich Hu. The final Hei, as Malchut, represents the feminine aspect, the Shechinah. The meeting below sets in motion the meeting above. The Zohar names this truth itaruta diletata, the awakening from below.

In the teaching of the Arizal, exile signifies far more than the uprooting of a people from its land. The Name itself has been divided. The bond between the upper Yud and Hei, Abba and Imma, and the lower Vav and Hei has weakened, and the Shechinah has descended into exile. The declaration of intent recited before many mitzvot gives voice to this understanding. Leshem yichud Kudsha Brich Hu uShechintei, for the sake of the unification of the Holy One, blessed be He, and His Shechinah. The prayer continues with the petition that the Yud and Hei be joined with the Vav and Hei in perfect unity. The union of husband and wife is this prayer made flesh.

The tradition invests even the timing of this union with meaning. The Talmud (Ketubot 62b) designates Friday night as the fitting time for Torah scholars to be with their wives. The Zohar relates this to the union above, for Shabbat is the time when Zeir Anpin and Nukva, the Holy One and the Shechinah, are united. It is from this understanding that Shabbat is received as a bride through Lecha Dodi on Friday evening. The union below is established at the hour when the union above is most complete.

Nevertheless, this teaching does not lend itself to a superficial reading. The sources do not regard sexuality as inherently holy. They require the bond of marriage, mutual love and consent, the laws of family purity, and above all, intention. Where desire alone governs, where a spouse is reduced to a means, the Name is not unified. There burns the fire of which the Talmud speaks. Holiness begins where a person is able to perceive the one before them as the other half of the Name.

A final reckoning remains. Ahavah (אהבה, love) equals 13, and Echad (אחד, one) likewise equals 13. Their sum is 26, the value of יהוה. Where love and oneness converge, the Name is brought to completion.