Shem HaMephorash

The 72-fold name of God written according to the art of grammar

Shem HaMephorash (Hebrew: שם המפורש, alternatively Shem ha-Mephorash or Schemhamphoras), meaning "the explicit name," is an originally Tannaitic term describing a hidden name of God in Kabbalah (including Christian and Hermetic variants), and in some more mainstream Jewish discourses. It is composed of either 4, 12, 22, 42, or 72 letters (or triads of letters), the latter version being the most common.

12-, 22-, and 42-letter versions

Maimonides thought the Shem ha-Mephorash was used only for the four letter Tetragrammaton.

A 12-letter variant appears in the Talmud, though it was unknown in later Kabbalah and completely absent from Jewish mysticism.

A 22-letter variant is first written down in Sefer Raziel HaMalakh, without interpretation, as אנקתם פסתם פספסים דיונסים (Anaktam Pastam Paspasim Dionsim). Its origins are unknown, with no connection to Hebrew or Aramaic being found, and no agreement on any particular Greek or Zoroastrian origin. There are Geonic precedents for the name, indicating that the name is older than Sefer Raziel.

A 42-letter variant was described by Hai Gaon as אבגיתץ קרעשטן נגדיכש בטרצתג חקבטנע יגלפזק שקוצית. He wrote "Although the consonants of this name are well known, its proper vocalization is not rendered by tradition. Some pronounce its first part Abgitaẓ, and others Abigtaẓ, and the last part is sometimes read Shakvaẓit, and sometimes Shekuẓit, but there is no definite proof." This variation in pronunciation was understood by Joshua Trachtenberg to indicate that this version is quite ancient, the vowels in Hebrew being easily lost over time. It is, by some means, derived from the first 42 letters of the Hebrew Bible. Like the 22-letter name, it is found in Sefer Raziel HaMalakh.

קרע (kra), which begins the second part of this variant, translates to "tear out," and when combined with שטן (Satan), the conclusion of the second part, it demonstrates that invoking this Name helps one defend against Satan, or their yetzer hara (evil/selfish impulse), alongside other divine creative acts that incanting Divine Names can aid kabbalists in joining HaShem with. Perhaps in this self-improvement and mystical apotropaic vein, the 42-letter Name has been turned into the acrostic prayer Ana b'Koach, which begs HaShem, with the power of His Right Hand, for freedom from captivity, sin, and impurity. Since this prayer is an extended incantation of this Name, it has an additional line spoken silently, as the acrostic implies secrecy: "Barukh shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va'ed." "Blessed be the name of the glory of the kingdom forever." This prayer has seven lines, which correspond to the seven Sefirot below the Supernal Triad (those being Binah, Chokmah, and either Keter or Da'at). All of the above is why the prayer is part of the liturgy for the Counting of the Omer, the seven week period between the Jewish holidays of Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) in which Jews are challenged to count and bless every day in between and ponder a system of Sefirotic permutations (each week has one Sefira, while the other six cycle through it, going from Chesed to Malkut. For example, the first day (which begins the second night of Passover) is Chesed b'Chesed, the second is Gevurah b'Chesed, etc., while the very last day before Shavuot will be Malkut b'Malkut. These meditations on the Sefirot are meant to improve our personal attributes in this period. Besides particular farming and sacrificing practices, the Omer is meant to represent the first time it was done by Bnei Yisrael: leaving Mitzraim (Egypt) and heading to Mount Sinai to receive the Torah, which Shavuot commemorates with all-night study and kabbalistic visualizations of the cosmic marriage of Shekinah, aided by her handmaids (kabbalists). During the journey, they stopped at 42 locations, once more connecting to the importance of this particular Divine Name. Despite his staunch atheism and absurdism, this might be the true kabbalistic reason that Douglas Adams declared that number to be the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

72-fold name

The "72-fold name" is highly important to Sefer Raziel HaMalakh. It is derived from Exodus 14:19–21, read boustrophedonically to produce 72 names of three letters. This method was explained by Rashi, as well as in Sefer HaBahir (c. 1150~1200). Kabbalist legends state that the 72-fold name was used by Moses to cross the Red Sea, and that it could grant later holy men the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, prevent natural disasters, and even kill enemies.

According to G. Lloyd Jones,

To overcome the problems posed by the doctrine of God's transcendence, the early Jewish mystics developed an emanation theory in which the alphabet played an important part. They taught that the universe was divided into ten angelic spheres each one governed by an intermediary or emanation of the divine. There were seventy-two inferior angels through whom the intermediaries could be approached. Contact with this celestial world was achieved by manipulating the letters of the Hebrew alphabet ... This invocatory technique may be traced through the works of Joseph Gikatilla to the famous thirteenth-century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia.

Liber Semamphoras (aka Semamphoras, Semyforas) is the title of a Latin translation of an occult or magical text of Jewish provenance attributed to King Solomon. It was attested in 1260 by Roger Bacon, who complained about the linguistic corruption that had occurred in translating Liber Semamphoras into Latin from Hebrew. It is heavily indebted to Sefer HaRazim through its Latin versions, Liber Sepher Razielis idest Liber Secretorum seu Liber Salomonis, and seemingly replaced the more explicitly magical text Liber magice in the Razielis.

The Kabbalistic angels

Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522) considered these 72 names, made pronounceable by the addition of suffixes such as 'El' or 'Yah', to be the names of angels, individuated products of God's will. Reuchlin refers to and lists the 72 Angels of the Shem Hamephorash in his 1517 book De Arte Cabbalistica. According to Bernd Roling,

After deriving a Shem ha-mephorasch of the 72 angelic names from the biblical verses of Exodus 14,19ff., Reuchlin makes a statement concerning the metaphysical significance of the names. [...] The names of the angels are products of the will of God. They are substantially based on the tetragrammaton, and through this connection they illumine and enhance man's spiritual return to God. [...] With the insertion of divine names such as 'El' or 'Yah', angelic names become pronouncable, and God himself (being nature) is the basis of angelic individuation.

Reuchlin's cosmology in turn influenced Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Athanasius Kircher.

Earliest textual variant

According to Valentina Izmirlieva, "The earliest extant text that documents a reconstruction of shem ha-mephorash on the basis of this passage (Exodus 14:19-21) is the classic Kabbalistic work Sefer HaBahir, first made known in manuscript form in Provence between 1150 and 1200.

The complete reconstruction of the name is available in a number of sources in English; see, for example, the critical bilingual edition of Johannes Reuchlin's famous treatise De Arte Cabbalistica (1517).

The Sefer HaRazim was the earliest text which dealt with the magical properties of the divine names.

See also

• Kabbalistic angel