Dr Yitzhaq Hayut-Man. This week we continue explaining semantically encoded messages in this week’s Parasha – No’aH. The exploration of the names of No’aH and his sons has already been given in the appendix to wider treatment of Prashat No’ah at http://www.global-report.com/thehope/a87-the-names-of-noa?-and-his-sons. We may note here only that the name of No’aH is the root to many concepts, including that of the NeShaMaH – the indestruvtible eternal divine soul of man; that this name, reversed, is an acronym to the Hidden Wisdom (HoKhMaT haNiSTaR); and the Gematria of this name – 58 – is the same as that of a hidden “filled name” of YHWH (namely Y’OD H’Y W’AW H’H in Hebrew characters).
As for No’aH’s sons, we may note that the name o the first – SheM literally means “Name”. So, from the semantic perspective that we have adopted, the most important of the three sons of No’aH is SheM – “(The) Name”. This is indeed the attitude of the Torah, which from here on focuses on Shem’s offspring, starting with SheM’s son, EBheR. Indeed, Jewish traditions made a unified concept of “ShM and Ever” and “The Academy of SheM and EBheR”. Such an academy (Beit midrash) would be the place for exploring the semantic dimensions of the world. Note that the highest value is attributed to a “Good Name” – SheM TOV, whereas the Gmatria of TOV is 17, and the Gematria of both SheM and EVeR are multiple of 17 (Good) and their sum is 612, same as BRIT (Covenant) – (SheM ó 340 = 17 X 20; EBheR ó 272 = 17 X 16; 340 + 272 = 612 = 17 X 6^2).
The 70 Nations
With this we come to the offspring – Toldot – of No’ah’s sons, which comprise new humankind. The word TOLDOT is used many times in the Torah, but the more common spelling of Toldot in the torah is TOLDoT which has Gematria value of 840. The number 840 is connected with concepts of multiplication, since 840 = 4 X 5 X 6 X 7. In the classical (Greek) numerology of the Biblical period, 2 is the first “Female Number” (even) and 3 is the first Male (odd) number. So from 2 & 3 as parents there issue their offspring – TOLDoT with the principles of 4, 5, 6 and 7.
This list is supposed to have 70 names in it, and this gives the concept of the composition of all humankind as ”The Seventy Nations”. The next book of the Torah (Pentateuch) is called in Hebrew “Shemot”, namely “Names”, because it starts with a list of the 12 Children of Israel making a community of 70 people, whose names are given elsewhere. So there is implied a one-to-one correspondence of each of the 70-fold Community of Israel with one of the nations of humankind., and of Israel comprising the essence of all humankind.
Let us set the list of the nations, along with the Gematria of each one of these names in square brackets
(just for exercise). In this list names in these brackets {x} mean the children of the name before, and so on {{y}} and {{{z}}} ):
YeFeT’s [490] Children: GoMeR [243, same as of ABhRaM – see below], {AShKeNaZ [378], RIFaT [690], ToGaRMaH [648]}; MaGOG [52], MaDaY [54], YaVaN [66], {ELISaH [346], TaRShISh [1210], KiTIM [470], DoDaNIM [108]}; TuBhaL [432]; MeSheKh [360]; TIRaS [670] – together 14
HaM’s [48] Children: KUSh [326], {SVA [63], HaVILaH [59], SaVTaH [467], RaAMaH [315], {{ShBhA [303], DeDaN [58, the same as of No’aH]}}; SaBhTKhA [483], NiMRoD [294]}; MiZRYiM [380], {LUDIM [90}, ANaMIM [210]; LHaBhIM [87], NaPhTuHIM [588], PaTRuSIM [770], KaSLuHIM [168], {{PLiShTIM [860]}}, KaPhToRIM [750]}; PUT [95], KNaAN [210], {ZIDoN [154], HeT [408], YeBhUSI [88], EMoRI [251], GiRGaShI [516], HiVI [24], ARQI [380], SINI [130], ARVaDI [221], ZMaRI [340], HaMaTI [458]} – together 31.
SheM’s [340] Children: EYLaM [150], AShUR [507], ARPaKhShaD [605], {SheLaH [338], {{EBheR [272] {{{PeLeG [113], YoKTaN [169] see * below)}}}; LUD [40], ARaM [241], {AUZ (“Oz”) [166], HUL [44], GeTeR [603], MaSh [340 (letters of SheM reversed)], together 13
* YoKTaN himself had 13 children: ALMODaD, SheLeF, HaZaRMaVeT, YeRaH, HaDORaM, AUZaL, DiQLaH, AUBhaL, ABhIMaEL, ShBhA, AOFiR, HaVILaH, YOBhaBh.
This is a strange list by any means, with many strange and unknown names in it. No traditional Torah interpreter tried to sort it out, and I leave it for pundits of that Shem-Ever Academy. For some of the names there is no progeny given, while for others it goes into second and third generation of offspring (and in case of YoKTaN to fourth generation). The name HaVILaH appears both in HaM’s and SheM’s – yet this is what keeps the count to 70.
One name stands out of this list, stopping the pedantic listing with 5 sentences telling his exploits – this is Nimrod, a model hero (Gibor), the king of Babel, Erekh, Akkad and Khalneh in the land of Shin’ar – the very place of the Tower of Babel before the peoples split. While he is called hero and king, his very name, Nimrod means literally “Let us rebel”. In the context of the story of the Tower this meaning makes him the leader of all the people in a revolt against God. The legends thus make him the very leader of the Tower enterprise and also one who tried to kill the young Avram (Abraham) – though this encounter does not make sense as the generations here don’t seem to allow them to be contemporary.
When we analyze the name by Gematria, its value is 294, which is the product of 6 X 7 X 7 – suggesting a perfect cube of the perfect number 7 X 7 X 7 – but not quite. Nimrod had the best capacity on two counts/dimensions, but did not reach holiness in the third and he rebelled against God.
Abraham appears at the very end of the Parshah, as the promise for the next round. But he appears with the name AVRaM ???? – literally “High Father”. We can understand his special height when we consider the Gematria of the four letters of the name ABhRaM, which is 243 – and 243 is three in the fifth power (3^5 = 3 X 3 X 3 X 3 x 3 = 243). This is a numerical expression of a geometrical form, of a “hyper-hypercube” of the fifth geometrical dimension. So his height is not in simple 3D height but in the added dimensions of Time (Shanah) and Soul (Nefesh) – a moral and semantic dimension as described in Sefer Yetsirah (which was traditionally attributed to Abraham, who is mentioned in the concluding sentence of that book).
