Now, although the name e-v-e-n "[stone]" is not mentioned in the Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, - [how, then, can we say that letters of the Ten Utterances are enclothed within a stone?]

Nevertheless, life-force flows to the stone [from the Ten Utterances] by means of combinations and substitutions of [their] letters, whereby an alef, for example, may take the place of a hei, since both letters are articulated by the same organ of speech, and so on, which are transposed in the "two hundred and thirty-one gates," either in direct or reverse order, [14] as is explained in Sefer Yetzirah, [15] so that ultimately the combination [of letters that forms] the name e v e n descends from the Ten Utterances, and is derived from them, and this combination of letters is the life-force of the stone.

And so it is with all created things in the world.

[The Holy Tongue, the Hebrew of the Torah, was the language used in creation.

Thus, all created things are directly affected by their Hebrew names, as well as by the component letters of their names. In this, the Holy Tongue is unlike other, arbitrary languages, the meaning of whose words is the result of mere concensus].

The names [of all creatures] in the Holy Tongue are the very letters of speech which descend, degree by degree, from the Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, by means of substitutions and transpositions of letters through the "two hundred and thirty-one gates," until they reach a particular created thing and become invested in it, thereby giving it life.

[This descent is necessary] because individual creatures, [unlike the more pervasive beings such as the heavens, earth, sun and moon], cannot receive their life-force directly from the actual Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, for the life-force issuing directly from them is far greater than the capacity of the individual creatures; [i.e., it is far too intense to serve as their life-force].

They can receive the life-force only when it descends and is progressively diminished, degree by degree, by means of substitutions and transpositions of the letters, and by means of gematriot, their numerical values.

[The life-force may be so muted that it reaches a created being not even through a transposition of letters, but merely through their numerical equivalent], until [the life-force] can be condensed and enclothed, and a particular creature can be brought forth from it.

And the name by which [the creature] is called in the Holy Tongue is a vessel for the life-force condensed into the letters of that name which has descended from the Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, that have the power and vitality to create a being ex nihilo and give it life forever.

[Why does it have the power to do so?] - For [16] "the Torah and the Holy One, blessed be He, are one." [Just as G-d has the ability to create ex nihilo, so too do the Ten Utterances of the Torah].

   

Notes:

14. (Back to text) Note of the Rebbe Shlita: "Enumerated in detail in Sefer HaPardes, Shaar HaTziruf, chapter 5."

    The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet in two-lettered combinations yield a total of 462 combinations. Of these, half are the exact reverse of the other half, e.g., alef-bet, bet-alef.

    Hence, there are 231 two-lettered combinations in direct order and the same number in reverse order.

15. (Back to text) Ch. 2:4-5.

16. (Back to text) Cf. Zohar I, 24a; II, 60a.