In the 7th Blessing of the Amidah (Standing Prayer), we pray:

1) Re’eh na be’onyeinu ve’riba ribenu –
Please consider our affliction and wage our battle.

2) U’maher le’ga’olenu Geulah Shelemah le’ma’an Shemecha – And hasten to redeem us with a complete redemption for Your Name’s sake.

3) Ki El Go’el Chazak Atah –
For You are a powerful redeeming G-d [Whose desire to bring Redemption cannot be diverted].

4) Baruch Atah YHVH Go’el Yisrael – Blessed are You, Hashem, Redeemer of Israel.

In all Siddurim, the word Geulah in phrase #2 is spelled Gimel-Aleph-Lamed-Heh. In order to indicate that the Aleph be pronounced as an “oo” sound (Geulah), it receives a kubutz vowelpoint beneath it.

Of course, there is another way to indicate an “oo” sound. By adding a letter Vav after the Aleph, and voweling it with a Shuruk, we would obtain the same sound.

What difference does it make?

The difference in letters would also produce a corresponding difference in gematria (numerical value).

Without an additional Vav (6), the gematria of Geulah is 39. With an additional Vav, its gematria is 39 + 6 = 45.

Why point this all out?

Well, in many old Sephardic Siddurim (Prayer Books), we find a note placed by the words Le’ma’an Shemecha (“for Your Name’s sake”).

The note reads:

Yikhaven: Yod-Vav-Dalet, Heh-Aleph, Vav-Aleph-Vav, Heh-Aleph she’oleh mispar Gimel-Aleph-Vav-Lamed-Heh.

We will translate this in a moment, but first one basic reminder: In Hebrew, each letter is spelled out exactly as it is pronounced (or vice versa). For instance, Aleph is spelled Aleph-Lamed-Pheh, Beth is spelled Beth-Yod-Tav, Gimel is spelled Gimel-Mem-Lamed, Yod is spelled Yod-Vav-Dalet. All letters except two are consistently spelled the same. These two letters are Heh and Vav. Both of these letters can be spelled in one of three ways:

Heh can be spelled: Heh-Yod, or Heh-Aleph, or Heh-Heh.

Vav can be spelled: Vav-Yod-Vav, or Vav-Aleph-Vav, or Vav-Vav.

Again, a difference in spelling will yield a corresponding difference in gematria.

Contemplate the Divine Name YHVH (pronounced Yod-Keh-Vav-Keh) in Hebrew. Note that the Name is made up of one Yod, two Heh’s and one Vav. This will obviously have an effect on the way we “expand” (spell out) the Name. In all, these differences produce four variant spellings (and hence four different gematrias) of the Name. These spellings are called Expansions. (We are not going into what these expansions represent at this time, nor why we would want to perform such an operation.)

1) The highest expansion consists entirely of Yod’s, and has a numerical value of 72, thus: Yod-Vav-Dalet (20), Heh-Yod (15), Vav-Yod-Vav (22), Heh-Yod (15) = 72.

2) The second expansion is a mixture of two Yod’s and one Aleph, and has a numerical value of 63, thus: Yod-Vav-Dalet (20), Heh-Yod (15), Vav-Aleph-Vav (13), Heh-Yod (15) = 63.

3) The third expansion consists exclusively of Aleph’s, and has a numerical value of 45, thus: Yod-Vav-Dalet (20), Heh-Aleph (6), Vav-Aleph-Vav (13), Heh-Aleph (6) = 45.

4) In the fourth expansion, each Heh is spelled out (filled in) with a Heh. It thus has a numerical value of 52, thus: Yod-Vav-Dalet (20), Heh-Heh (10), Vav-Vav (12), Heh-Heh (10) = 52.

The 3rd expansion, that of 45, is our target. This is the Name that we refer to in our blessing when we say: “And hasten to redeem us with a complete redemption for Your Name’s sake.”

We can now translate the above note:

Yikhaven: Yod-Vav-Dalet, Heh-Aleph, Vav-Aleph-Vav, Heh-Aleph she’oleh mispar Gimel-Aleph-Vav-Lamed-Heh.

Intend to expand (i.e. spell out) the Divine Name YHVH with Aleph’s, thus: Yod-Vav-Dalet (20), Heh-Aleph (6), Vav-Aleph-Vav (13), Heh-Aleph (6) which has the same numerical value as Geulah spelled out with a Vav, thus: Gimel (3), Aleph (1), Vav (6), Lamed (30), Heh (5) = 45.

We now know two things:

1) Geulah with a Vav is Geulah Shelemah – Complete Redemption.

2) The gematria of Geulah with a Vav is 45, the same as the Name YHVH spelled out with Aleph’s.

Next: ABOUT THE NAME OF THIS SITE- 3

HOME PAGE   AVRAHAM SUTTON   ESSAY LIST   BOOKS & TAPES   CONTACT US

ALL MATERIAL ON THIS SITE
Copyright © 2002 Avraham Sutton
Site design and construction by Baruch Benchayil.