Kabbalah Group in SF, Week of July 13, 1995

Reproduction from Z. ben-Shimon ha-Levi's The Way of the Kabblah.

This week we started with the beginning of the Torah, studying the roots of the words and coming up with various alternative translations. The Hebrew is:

: _ _ _ _ _ _ .1
_ - _ _ _ _ _ - _ _ _ _ _ .2

We first read Aryeh Kaplan's translation, which is pretty standard:
"1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth; 2. The heavens and the earth were empty and without form, and darkness breathed on the face of God which hoovered over the waters."

But we noted that

can also mean "in her head", since

means "head". There were several alternatives, some closer to the

Pshat literal level of Kaplan's, other less so. My translation went as follows:
"In Her head She created the Gods, the Heavens and the Earth; The Heaverns and the Earth was astray and confused with the darkness on the face of the depthlessness, and the breath of the Gods hoovered on the surface of the water."
Robert and I also thought to try to do some Gematria on the initial letters of the passage:

.1 This has the value 2+2+1+1+300+1+1 = 308 = 11 = 2 . The second sentence has

.2 which has the value 1+5+400+2+8+80+400+200+1+100+80+40 = 1417 = 13 = 4.

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Reproduction from Z. ben-Shimon ha-Levi's The Way of the Kabbalah.

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