# The 72 Letter Name of God in the Prophetic Kabbalah of Rabbi Avraham Abulafia ## Part One: The Divine Name of 72 Letters - שם הע"ב ### Brief Overview The 72-letter Name of God is a central concept in Jewish mysticism, originating from a unique interpretation of Exodus 14:19–21. Through a special method of reading—alternating right-to-left and left-to-right—the verses are rearranged to produce 72 three-letter sequences. It is ascribed miraculous properties and deep spiritual significance, including use in exorcism, healing, and divine protection. The Name became a focal point in Kabbalistic practices and later influenced Christian mystics and Hermetic traditions​. ![[Image of 72 Letters.png | center]] ### Getting Deeper There are three verses in Shmot (Exodus) that describe the final dramatic standoff between the Israelites and the army of Egypt in the story of Exodus. Just before the standoff described in these verses, the Egyptian army is closing in on the Israelites to destroy them. Just after this, the Israelites pass through the sea on dry land, while the Egyptian is drowned. In between these events, there is a standoff, marked by a threatening angelic figure, silence, darkness and fire: <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div> | Shmot (Exodus) 14:19-21. Translation by Robert Alter | שמות יד:יט-כא | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | (19) And the messenger of God that was going before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. | וַיִּסַּ֞ע מַלְאַ֣ךְ הָאֱלֹהִ֗ים הַהֹלֵךְ֙ לִפְנֵי֙ מַחֲנֵ֣ה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיֵּ֖לֶךְ מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶ֑ם וַיִּסַּ֞ע עַמּ֤וּד הֶֽעָנָן֙ מִפְּנֵיהֶ֔ם וַיַּֽעֲמֹ֖ד מֵאַחֲרֵיהֶֽם׃ | | (20) And it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel, and there was the cloud and the dark, and it lit up the night, and they did not draw near each other all night. | וַיָּבֹ֞א בֵּ֣ין ׀ מַחֲנֵ֣ה מִצְרַ֗יִם וּבֵין֙ מַחֲנֵ֣ה יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וַיְהִ֤י הֶֽעָנָן֙ וְהַחֹ֔שֶׁךְ וַיָּ֖אֶר אֶת־הַלָּ֑יְלָה וְלֹא־קָרַ֥ב זֶ֛ה אֶל־זֶ֖ה כׇּל־הַלָּֽיְלָה׃ | | (21) And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD led the sea with a mighty east wind all night, and He made the sea dry ground, and the waters were split apart. | וַיֵּ֨ט מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶת־יָדוֹ֮ עַל־הַיָּם֒ וַיּ֣וֹלֶךְ יְהֹוָ֣"ה ׀ אֶת־הַ֠יָּ֠ם בְּר֨וּחַ קָדִ֤ים עַזָּה֙ כׇּל־הַלַּ֔יְלָה וַיָּ֥שֶׂם אֶת־הַיָּ֖ם לֶחָרָבָ֑ה וַיִּבָּקְע֖וּ הַמָּֽיִם׃ | ![[Image Pillar Fire.png | center]] Each verse has exactly 72 Hebrew letters. In total, the three verses have 216 letters. At least since the middle ages, and possibly reaching into antiquity, Jewish mystics have found in these 216 letters an esoteric key to life, the universe and everything. For Rabbi Abulafia, they are a gateway to a shared human-divine state-of-consciousness or way-of-being. You enter this state through focusing on your breath, vocalizing the letters of the divine names and moving your body. The practice bears considerable resemblance to Yoga's *Pranayama* (breath meditation) and the Sufi *Thikr* (ritual chanting of divine names). In the chart above, there are 216 letters combining the 72 letters of each verse. For a tradition beginning in the Middle Ages or earlier, you combine the letters like this: You take the first letter from the first verse, the last letter from the middle verse, and the first letter from the third verse, and put them together. Each such three letter combination is a divine name. For example, take the first letter of the first verse (Vav), and the last letter of the second verse (Heh) and the first letter of the last verse (Vav), you get the name והו / Vav Heh Vav. That is the first divine name. You can see it in the upper right hand side of the chart. When you have combined all the letters in that way, you end up with 72 three-letter divine names. Those are the names that appear in the chart above. In the Tanakh, the three verses describe the transformation of Israel from enslavement to a new radical and terrifying freedom. For the mystics, these verses are a mystical gateway to the transformation of consciousness. <div style="page-break-after: always;"></div> ## Part Two: Abulafia ### Bio Abraham ben Samuel Abulafia (Hebrew: אברהם בן שמואל אבולעפיה) was the founder of the school of "Prophetic Kabbalah". He was born in Zaragoza, Spain, in 1240, and is assumed to have died sometime after 1291 following a stay on the small and windswept island of Comino (the smallest of the three inhabited islands that make up the Maltese archipelago). *Here is what Rabbi Abulafia writes about the 72 Letter Name (See commentary and study questions below:* ![[21 Abulafia Anointing Oil Text in Hebrew-English Table]] **Commentary and Study Questions** Paragraph 1: - **Know that it is through these names, combined together here in the explanation of these 72 letters** - Here Abulafia refers to the 72 Letter name discussed above. While we are studying the four letter name for now, the same principles apply. - **...that those who practice prophecy [מתנבאים]** - "Those who practice prophecy" is a term which first appears in the context of prophetic bands of biblical hippies who wandered the land "speaking in ecstasy", playing music, and rolling around naked in the desert. See Samuel 1:19:20-24. - Abulafia's use of this term also recalls medieval interpretations of prophecy as a transpersonal meditative state understood in light of Aristotelian and neoplatonic philosophy. - **...will attain eternal life [חיי העולם הבא], and therefore this book is called The Book of Eternal Life. -** Eternal Life [חיי העולם הבא] is a term that resonates with rabbinic and medieval philosophical and Kabbalistic meanings. For Abulafia, like Maimonides, it involves an expanded state of consciousness which involves transcending the ego or personal identity, and it also overlaps a metaphysical reality. - The rabbis would not necessarily approved of Abulafia's idea that the prophecy is still is a thing and that he was one. The rabbis who excommunicated Abulafia were certainly not sympathetic. Paragraph 2 - **It is known in the divine prophetic tradition of the Torah that when an enlightened sage combines the letters, the holy spirit overflows upon hir.** *The combination of letters* is understood as the means of the creation of the world and achieving higher states of consciousness. This tradition may first originate in the Tanakh, but it appears in any case in rabbinic (200-500 CE) and medieval (circa 1000 CE) sources. - **...This is for you a sign when you study the holy letters in truth and faith".** I think the "this" is this sentence is the experience of the holy spirit overflowing on you. When you feel it, it is a sign that you are studying the letters correctly. - **...and combine them, the beginning with the end, and the end with the beginning**: "Combining the end with the beginning" etc. is the patten of combining letters in various orders, back and forth, until all possibilities are covered. - **Thus, you will understand everything in this way, you will role the letters forward and back, repeatedly vocalizing them.** "Repeatedly vocalizing them" refers to Abulafia's meditation technique, according to which you vocalize letters from the divine name for the full length of your exhalation. Paragraph 3 - **One should begin in a relaxed manner...**: Abulafia is describing the process of vocalizing the name. - **And one should also be learned in the secrets of Torah and wisdom so that s/he may recognize what emerges through the rolling of the combinations...** During the vocalization, breathing and movement, images or feelings or symbols appear to the mind's eye. Abulafia teaches that it is important to learn Torah tradition so that one will be able to interpret these appearances. - **...and hir heart will be aroused in the contemplation of the intellectual, divine, prophetic image."** When one focuses hir awareness on images that emerge during the vocalization of the name, this awakens spiritual energies in the practitioner. Abulafia calls the image that appears *intellectual* in light of Jewish philosophy in the middle ages. He calls in *divine* and *prophetic* in light of biblical and rabbinic tradition. Paragraph 4 - **At first, that which emerges from the combinations in secluded meditation [התבודדות] will reignite an experience of fear and trembling, and the hairs of hir head will stand, and hir limbs will be shocked.** - *Fear and trembling* are common in biblical and medieval portrayals of altered states of consciousness. *Secluded meditation [hitbodedut]* is a technical term for transcending our day-to-day state of mind in order to seclude the divine part of the self. The term was coined by medieval thinkers seeking to understand biblical prophecy. It is today an important practice for hassidut Breslov. It is also the term Abulafia uses to describe his own technique. - **Afterwards, if one should merit this, the spirit of the living God will pass over hir, *And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon hir, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and might, The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. (Isaiah 11:2).*** Abulafia identifies the experience of awakened spirit accessed by the meditator as becoming possessed with the spirit of God. His source is the biblical prophecy of Isaiah. - **And s/he will feel as if hir whole body, from head to foot, has been anointed with the anointing oil...** - Abulafia describes his experience during the vocalization of the divine name: She feels awash in a pleasurable life-giving flow which identifies as the anointing oil used to anoint the *mashiach* (the anointed of God). I think I know that feeling of being awash in life-giving energy during meditation. Have you every felt it during meditation or some other time? This is what we referred to as "flow". - **and s/he will be the anointed one [mashiach] of God, and God’s emissary. And s/he will be called "the angel of God", and hir name will be like the name of hir master, which is *Shadai*, the one who is called *Metatron*, the heavenly ministering angel.** Abulafia said you experience the anointing oil and so you are...the anointed one! You are the mashiach. And also may become an angel, or perhaps even God. This is the stuff that got Abulafia excommunicated. What do you think about it?