Holy Name

The first Hebrew letter - א Aleph - represents the unification of opposites.  

Its shape is comprised of an upper red part (actually a Hebrew letter י Yod); a lower blue part (an upside-down י Yod); balanced by a yellow diagonal part (a ו Vav which is a prefix that means ‘and’).  It can also be seen as the numeral 1.  The two are united into One by the Vav.  The Gematria of the sum of the 3 letters that comprise this Aleph equals 26 (2 Yods are 20 plus the Vav which is 6). 

In a sense, Aleph is a One-Letter Name of God, because the sum of the 4 letters of… more

A vision of the Divine Merkava is described in detail in Ezekiel Chapter 1.  The Hebrew word מרכבה (Merkava) means a vehicle; or a combination (of abilities).  The Kabbalah teaches that the more one becomes aware of one’s Eternal Soul, the more one sees oneself as a Merkava for the Shechinah.  The Tree of Life Diagram in this drawing has 13 Sefirot (instead of the traditional 10) that form two Magen Davids embedded in a large figure 8.  13 is the Gematria of the Hebrew word for 'One' אחד (echad).  13 is also the Gematria of the Hebrew word for 'Love' אהבה (ahava).  Putting these two 13s… more

This drawing shows a woman sitting in meditation, visualizing her body as the Tree of Life Diagram - the 10 Sefirot - and the 4 Letters YHVH, the Holy Name of God.  Often called the One Name, it points to the Eternal Existence.  YHVH means Was, Is, and Will Be.  This Eternal Name was revealed to Moses by the burning bush in Exodus 3:15.  In Exodus 20:21 God said, "Any place in which my Name is called (or meditated upon), I will come to you and and bless you."  I made a woman here because Malchut is Feminine, and is associated with שכינה (Shechinah) a word that means dwelling within.  In… more

In Genesis, God created Adam "in His own Image, in His own Likeness".   However, since we believe that God has no image or likeness, Kabbalists understand this as saying that God makes Himself known to us in our likeness by ‘clothing’ Himself in the 10 Sefirot of Adam Kadmon - associated with the 4 Letters of the Name of God יהוה (YHVH).

The 4 Holy Names in this 'Tapestry' are the same in that they all derive from the 4 Letters of the Name YHVH, but they are different in how these Letters are spelled out (the names of the Letters Heh and Vav can be spelled in different ways in… more

One of the most complex meditative techniques of the Kabbalah uses the 72 three-letter Names of God in this picture.  These 216 letters (72 x 3 = 216) actually comprise One Name. This Name is mentioned in the Bahir and the Zohar, in Rashi’s commentary on the Talmud, but it was Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, the controversial 13th Century Kabbalist, who taught how to use this Name in order to attain prophetic insight.
 
The triplets of this Name are derived from three verses in Exodus Chapter 14 (verses 19, 20, and 21) that tell the story of the splitting of the Red Sea when the… more