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There are a number of forms of the "Name in 42 Letters," the most common being based on the
seven days of creation or seven planetary spirits. See
Uri Raz,
Yashanet,
Organelle, and
Jeff Spiegel, who comments:
"This is one of the most obscure names of G-d. Rashi comments that ‘this name was not given over to us’."
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| 1 |
Sunday |
Saturn |
Shabatai |
ABG YThTz |
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| 2 |
Monday |
Jupiter |
Tsedeq |
KRO ShTN |
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| 3 |
Tuesday |
Mars |
Meadim |
NGD YKSh |
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| 4 |
Wednesday |
Sun |
Hhamah |
BTR TzThG |
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| 5 |
Thursday |
Mercury |
Kawkab |
ChKB TNO |
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| 6 |
Friday |
Venus |
Nogah |
YGL PZK |
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| 7 |
Saturday |
Moon |
Lavanah |
ShKU TzYTh |
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Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, Aronson, 1995, p.184 + original planets
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[R. Abraham Peretz, a disciple of Nathan of Gaza (a disciple of Sabbatai Zevi) quoting
the early 15th century Byzantine text Sefer ha-Peliy'ah quoting
R. Joesph Askenazi's Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah]
These are the words of Metatron
to the holy Qanah called Sefer ha-Peliy'ah, who is a
wondrous man and it is found in our hands in a manuscript and his words had been copied by Rabad in his
Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah ... And these are the words of Metatron to the holy Qanah, and these
are his [Qanah's] words: "He has appointed the letter Bet of life andbound a crown to it and formed [the planet]
by it; Sabbatai in the world, and Sunday [41] in the year [i.e. in the dimension of time], and the right eye in the
person, namely that He elevated the letter Bet so that it is the head on 'the power of the Keter 'Eliyon.'
And he put in it the power of Hokhmah and formed in it the planet Sabbatai, which is beneath the [divine name]
ABGYTTz, [42] and the latter gave wisdom to Sabbatai.
[41] Sefer ha-Peliy'ah, from which the student of Nathan of Gaza has quoted, is attributed to a
second-century Tannaitic figure, a revered mystic named R. Hehuniah ben ha-Qanah, who is described as engaging
invarious mystical dialogues with Metatron, the hightest of the angels.
Both the occurence of the name of this mystic and the fact that this book is conceived of as being
revealed from above where bound to the authority of the discussion of Sabbatai/Saturn.
[42] This is the first group of letters that constitutes the forty-two-letter name, each group of the
six letters corresponding (according to Joseph Askenazi's Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah) to each of
the seven planes.
Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics, Yale, 1998, p.192
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Nor were the inner or true meaning of these given over:
Autiot-Yassod,
Sephirot-Belimah,
Nativot-Phayliot, and
32 Paths. Suares reveals the
Name in 42 Letters in the first verse
of the Sepher Yetsira, followed by its completion in the
Name in 72 Letters, the Shemhamphorash. The Sepher Yetsira, a commentary on Bereshit / Genesis, begins:
"By thirty-two intermediaries, Wisdom Engraves [42+30 letters of God names and attributes] and projects Shem [the Name] in three spheres."
The 42+30 letters are the names of the "active agent" in creation. Note that the 15 distinct autiot in the
Name in 42 plus the 11 distinct autiot in the Name in 30 equals 26 letters.
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Next come the names of the active agent (in the myth, "God"). They are given in nineteen
equations, eleven of which are, strictly speaking, "The Name," and eight of which are attributes.
In the first eleven "names" fifteen Autiot are composed so as to become, with certain repetitions, forty-two
signs.
In the eight which follow, eleven Autiot become thirty signs.
The forty-two signs of "Names" are the forty-two often mentioned by the cabalists. According to the Zohar
all forms in the world come from the forty-two letters crowning the sacred Name. The world has been moulded
by the letters of the sacred Name; thereform their role in the Name is the reverse of what they are in the world.
These forty-two, to which thirty are added, compose "The Name of seventy-two letters" which has given rise to numerous
speculations about angels. This is not surprising as we have seen that the Autiot, mediating between
intemporal and temporal, serve the function attributed to angels in deistic mythology.
As to the assertion that the Autiot -- according to the Zohar -- have "a role the reverse of what they are in
the world" (sic) we have just seen that when the symbolism is reducted to its essentials, it refers to the
reality of Hhokmah, reflected consciousness.
The names transcibed into forty-two Autiot are: YAH, YHWH, TSEBAOT, ELOHI, ISRAEL, ELOHIM, HHAIM,
WAMELEKH, OULAM EL and SHADDAI. When decoded they show as from within, the diminution of Energy
operated by the ten Sephirot.
Carlo Suares, The Sepher Yetsira, p.64
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Sepher Yetsira 1:1
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