And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep -- which is exactly our mental state
if we think we understand what that means. Actually, we probably fell alseep right at the
beginning when we thought we understood a time before time began.
We have seen that One Dual Energy creates
All that is. Existence is doubly created in
Bereshyt Bara. Biological life (Hay) appears first in Elohim, and then twice in
Et Ha Shamaim Ve Et Ha Eretz -- both the existence of the containers (the Yod in Shamaim) and
the life/death of the contained (the Aleph in Eretz) are given biological life.
Perhaps if we had 1) a comprehension of our deep psychological resistances and 2) a sense of our developemental
immaturity (as individuals and as a species) and 3) a clue what the "sacred" in "sacred scriptures" really meant,
we might respect God's Word a little more and try harder for understanding.
"The Earth being waste and desolation" is what happens to our understanding under the impact of the true meaning
of Tohu-Ve-Bohu, which is exactly the opposite -- an incomprehensible and unfathomable whirlpool of life,
both of the containers (Yod) and the contained (Aleph), in fertile interpenetration.
Follow along:
Ve Eretz: all the container elements in which Aleph (infinite, timeless consciousness) is buried.
Ha-Ita: Hay-Yod-Tav-Hay: two lives, again the Hay of Shamaim and the Hay of Eretz in existence (Yod) and
ultimate reality (Tav).
Tohu Ve Bohu: both unstructured (Tav) and structured (Bayt) energy are alive (Hay and Hay) and fertilize (Waw) each other.
Ve Hhoshekh Al-Phani Tehoum: the two lives are further qualified as unconscious and unstructured (dark) energy which is
full of potential for existential life in its deepest unstructured, fertile, biological depths.
And so, instead of "nothing" in our sleeping minds, we have the abundance of everything that can be.
That's what the verse actually says, if you bother to read it in the original language of energy and consciousness that it was
written in. And reading it in that language, is, of course, awakening to the revelation. And who wouldn't want that?
Tohu Wa Bohu is another double equation of the
One
Dual
Energy.
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What then is the aspect of these container-elements in which Aleph is buried? The life in them simply swarms,
uncontrolled, in a state of (says the verse) "Tohu and Bohu", which is a whirlpool of life, not limited to the planet
earth, but cosmically including all that exists in the Universe. And, at "the face of its very self", in its very
"deepness", that chaos is totally fecund, abundant, prolifically fertile. Such is the "darkness" referred to
in the accepted translation. And such is the true meaning of the first part of the second verse concerning
Eretz, the so-called earth: that in which Aleph is concealed.
Suares, Cipher of Genesis, p.81
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Again: Eretz is Aleph buried in the structures (Tsadde) of all containers (Raysh). Its state
is described by Tohu Ve Bohu -- doubly alive with the life (Hay) of Tohu (matter)
and the life (Hay) of Bohu (form) and Hhosekh Al-Phani Tehoum where unstructured/unconscious energies
(Hayt and Phay) are found in their very depths. Eretz is characterized by a double (inner and outer) life and
the fertile potential for all possibile possibilities (darkness).
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2. Rabbi Berachiah said:
It is written (Genesis 1:2), "The earth was Chaos (Tohu) and Desolation (Bohu).
What is the meaning of the word "was" in this verse? This indicates that the Chaos existed previously
[and already was].
What is Chaos (Tohu)? Something that confounds (Taha) people.
What is Desolation (Bohu)? It is something that has substance. This is the reason that it is called
Bohu, that is, Bo Hu -- "it is in it."
Aryeh Kaplan, The Bahir, Weiser, 1989, section 2 p.1.
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Thus, the interpretation of tohu wa-bohu in Genesis 1:2 at the beginning of the Bahir can
definitely be said to be borrowed from the writings of the Jewish Neoplatonist Abraham bar Hiyya, who
wrote during the third decade of the twelfth century. This scholar seems to have been the first to
interpret tohu as matter and bohu as form, following an etymology that also reappears
in the Bahir. [22]
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[22]:
Abraham bar Hiyya, Hegyon ha-Nefesh (Leipzig, 1860), fol.2b commenting extensively on Genesis 1:2
"Everything that has been said about the hyle, you can also say about the [biblical] tohu. But
they [the philosophers] said of the form that it is something that has the power to clothe the hyle
with a figure and a form. And in this sense, the word bohu can be divided into two meanings,
each of which has two consonants. One is bo and the other hu ... [and thus tohu
means] that through which the tohu is clothed and given existence."
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His writings came into the hands of the German Hasidim as early as the twelfth century, as I have shown elsewhere.
The author seems to has composed some of his works in Provence and hence this borrowing may just as well have
taken place in Provence as in Germany. Apparenly, the same author was the source of the idea (Bahir, section 10)
that the verb bara' designates only that which is created from nothing, such as the hyle or darkness;
by contrast, the primordial light, which possesses form, or, as the Book Bahir puts it, reality
(mammash), is connected with the verb yasar. [24] Here the Bahir evidently also makes use of the
Yezirah 2:6.
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[24]:
The discussion concerning light and darkness that continues the reflections on tohu and bohu
in sections 2 and 9 are taken almost literally from Abraham bar Hiyya Hegilloth ha-Megalle (Berlin, 1924),
16-17. This book was composed between 1120 and 1127 ... "We find," it says there, "that Scripture employs the
word 'create' for the being of things that have no form or that are of no use to the world, whereas 'form' and
'make' are used for the being of things that have a form and are of use to the inhabitants of the world. Hence it
is written [Isa. 45:7] 'I form the light and create darkness. I make weal and create woe.' For light, which
has form and reality, the terms employed is 'formation,' for darkness, which has neither form nor reality but which
designates the absence of the form of light and its privation, it says 'creation.'
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Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, Princeton, 1990, p.62-63
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SY 2:6
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| its Ayn |
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and made |
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Mamash |
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with Tohou |
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Yatsar |
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Yatsar (formed) with Tohou Mamasch (material reality) and Assa (made from) its
Ayn
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The key nonbiblical term introduced in par. 2 is
a common rabbinic term that is used here in a epigrammatic form ... While the phrase is taken from rabbinic literature, its
Bahiric usage is dominated by the use made of it in the Sefer Yezira (2:6): "He made from
tohu mamash, and made his nothing into something." Thus a third element of the equation is added:
Besides the dualities of light and dardness and tohu and bohu, we now have the duality of nothing
and something, or absence and subsatance. Here the Abraham bar Hijja interpretation of bohu as
bo hu, indicating the imposition of form over matter and making it an existing substance, is clearly
employed ...
The central idea of this section, probably a combination of Bar Hijja exegesis and the authors own concept, is
the view that tohu and bohu form a sequence. The author introduces the "midrashic" exegesis
of hayta, "it was," as a double-meaning term: It is both "it was" and "it was tohu," because the key
letters of tohu are included in hayta; at first everything was tohu, and later it was
turned into bohu, substance. Tohu, therefore, is the originial, primordial state, over which
bohu was imposed and mamash emerged. The context, however, retains an element that is found in
neither Bar Hijja nor the Sefer Yezira: the implicatation that tohu is also darkness ... as well
as 'nothing."
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| Substance |
Non-Substance |
| bohu |
tohu |
| form |
matter |
| good |
evil |
| light |
darkness |
| right |
left |
| Michael |
Gabriel |
| Water |
Fire |
| yetzira |
beriah |
| mountains |
wind |
| south |
north |
| right hand/fingers |
left hand/fingers |
| good inclination |
evil inclination |
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Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah, Princeton, 1990, p.62-63,
J.Dan Jewish Mysticism Vol II 1998 p. xxix-xxxv
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6 |
5 |
2 |
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| 5 |
2 |
5 |
1 |
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4 |
8 |
1 |
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5 |
5 |
3 |
| Gematria: 13 |
See:
R. Marmorstein: Mila Yomit, Pasuk 2
Le Tohu et le Bohu - Kabbale En Ligne
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