The Kabbalistic and Bible Codes

 

By: Rabbi Eyal Riess 

Over the past decade or so, after many books were written and much research was done on hidden Bible codes, the subject has fostered growing world interest. It has produced fascinating items in the print and electronic media, and in almost every language. What is encoded within the Bible's letters? Can the codes be used to predict the future? Can we benefit from using the encoded messages? To whom are these deeply inbedded secrets from the Prophets, Psalms and the Torah directed?

Dozens of articles have been written about these and other questions, but all agree on one basic point: there is indeed something very special and mysterious in the Bible codes. Given this general interest in Bible codes and encoding, the idea of the existence of mystical and Kabbalistic codes has taken on new significance and popularity.

What Is A Code?

The Bible code is based on several methods of analyzing and examining a Biblical text. Most come from the Torah itself (the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy). The Torah is seen as an organic textual unit, composed of different combinations of letters. Several analytical tools and textual decoding methods combined with mathematical rules, geometric forms and ancient knowledge are utilized in deciphering the texts.

The deciphered codes reveal strata of fascinating knowledge and deep insights of cosmological significance, including how to understand historical events, Bible stories, Kabbalistic secrets, and even contain implications for personal development and meaning. In the past, dealing in Biblical codes was considered the exclusive realm of Kabbalists and those knowledgeable in mystical secrets, about which the Talmud says, "they knew how to count the letters of the Torah". Today, modern technology and state-of-the-art computer programs have allowed freer access to Biblical codes to a much wider audience. 

However, it cannot be emphasized enough that without a basic knowledge of Torah, encoding and qualified Kabbalistic tradition, dealing in such codes may be fascinating and exciting, but will never be more than just entertainment.

Types of Encoding

Among the multiple encoding methods hidden within Biblical texts, the following are the most common:
• 13 Attributes – The oldest method passed on to Moses at Mt. Sinai, meaning 13 ancient methods of thousands of years duration, through which the Biblical text is analyzed in order to attain its deepest and most secret meaning.
• Omitting/Skipping over Letters – When certain letters spaced a certain distance apart (intervals) from one another are combined, a new word is obtained that sheds light on a text's inner meaning.
• Interchanging Letters – Switch the first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, "Alef" with the last letter, "Tav", the second letter "Bet" with the next-to-last letter "Shin" and so forth. Here again a new word is formed which is the 'horizon' of the original text.
• Numerology (Gematria)– The numerical value of each letter and word teaches about their energies and the frequency of the same combination of letters and names provide an important analytical tool for Kabbalistic numerology.
• Matrixes – Crosswise letters in different geometric patterns and you can reveal very meaningful processes encoded in different writings and texts. 

The Kabbalistic Code

The inner dimension of the Torah, the Kabbalah, teaches that the word 'kabbalah' [receiving] is related to the term 'hakbalah' [parallel]. Kabbalistic doctrine teaches how the ordered world is explained in terms of models of spiritual worlds, running parallel to the physical universe. When we want to understand the Bible code on the spiritual level, amazing and wonderful insights of upper worlds spread out before us, insights regarding the spiritual processes and experiential worlds of the soul. Bible stories and characters become living situations and live experiences when their accompanying codes are understood.

This idea can also be applied to the cognitive processes we experience every day, which are transformed into an exciting tapestry of spiritual experiences that we learn to identify and activate through the letters of the Kabbalistic code. 

The Personal Code

One especially fascinating aspect of the Bible-Kabbalistic Code is the personal code that enables each and everyone of us to reach self-fulfillment and purpose in life by discovering the meanings of the letters of our name.

Combining several computer programs, a person's name is found in the Torah, within the weekly portion read in synagogues the week the person was born, and the method of omitting letters (intervals) is used. From the verses, words and letters of the person's name, his or her special powers and strengths are identified, as well as how to use them. Kabbalah teaches that the letters of a person's name have important impact on his or her life, and they form the 'conduit of abundance', through which all superior influences flow into the person's life. Therefore, when parents name their children, this is really a form of prophecy, since the parents were given a certain prophetic power to match their children with the 'proper' names. 

The personal code has an especially uncanny power of accuracy, because it takes into account the birth date and birth hour, and cross references them with the letters of the person's name in the Biblical code of the Torah portion of the week the person was born. 

Kabbalistic tradition emphasizes that no prophetic implications can be made on the basis of codes. The codes teach us how to better understand our realities, to be better able to connect with the inner meanings of personal and global events and live according to our deepest insights, which were planted in the Book of Books- the Bible.