The Importance of Measurements
In modern times, people tend to associate Godliness with spirituality and less so with materiality. Indeed, when considering the spiritual versus the material, it would seem that the spiritual, because it is harder to grasp and define, would be a better representation of the ineffable and ungraspable nature of God. However, in reality, God is no more spiritual than He is material and both dimensions of reality equally serve Him, and both equally fall short of capturing His essence. It should therefore not come as a surprise that the first instruction regarding the fabrication of the Tabernacle, the Mishkan, where “I may dwell among them”[1] is, “They shall make an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.”[2] The movement of the heart to bring gifts for the construction of the Tabernacle is immediately translated into physical measurements, instructions that will turn pieces of wood into sanctified parts of God’s dwelling place below.
But not everything can be transformed into a part of the Tabernacle. Parashat Terumah begins the account of the construction of the Tabernacle that the Israelites constructed in the wilderness. The description of the Tabernacle, its vessels, its uniforms, and its utensils continues into parashat Tetzaveh and the account of its actual construction appears in parashot Vayakhel and Pekudei. In between these two sets of two parashot is parashat Ki Tissa, which includes the description of the construction of the Golden Calf—the idol that the people were seduced to construct, and which serves as an abominable counterpoint to the sanctity of the Tabernacle. Ironically, the Tabernacle contained many elements that could be misconceived as being just as abominable as the Golden Calf, if their fabrication had not been commanded directly by God.
Still another point comes to mind. The Tabernacle and all its parts and elements were perfectly described and measured. The Golden Calf on the other hand was simply “thrown together,” without design or schedule: “I hurled it into the fire and out came this calf.”[3]
A Purifying Measure
Indeed, when Rabbi Moses Cordovero, the greatest Kabbalist before the Arizal, whom the Arizal considered his teacher, opens his great work Shiur Komah on the most difficult parts of the Zohar that seem to be full of anthropomorphism, he first sets out to clarify the nature of the Hebrew word most often translated as “measures” or “attributes.” As we will see, he does so because though measurements are usually of physical objects, their Hebrew version is a ladder that can lift our mind and open it to abstract thinking. Stripping something of its materiality is done by the inner abstraction of the thing itself! Abstraction from physicality is achieved by considering its inner abstraction! We consider the idea or the word carefully, collecting all its meanings—the meanings of a word are known as its “tikkun” in the ancient work called Ma’ayan HaChochmah (Wellspring of the Wisdom). Once a word’s complete tikkun has been articulated, you can begin, as it were, to play with it—just as God plays during the Creation of the world. You can take a word and recombine its letters in a different order. For example, you can take the word for “distress” (צָרָה) and permute its letters to spell the word for “window/opening” (צֹהַר)! Thus, you have transformed the source of distress into an open doorway.
Rectifying a Word
So the first step is to understand the myriad meanings of a word. Rabbi Moses Cordovero writes that to properly understand the nature of the sefirot, one must first understand the meaning of the word “measure” (מִדָּה), in all its variants, because this word is used so often as a synonym for a sefirah:
Measures (מִדּוֹת). This word is a commonly agreed term among all Kabbalists, both early and later, to refer to the sacred forms [i.e., the sefirot] within it. And since the matter is thus, it is appropriate to explore how many ways this word can be derived, and to what intention we can attribute each of these meanings.
Know that this word can be used in four ways:
The first meaning is in the sense of "measure," as it is written, “And in his hand a measuring line”[4] (וּבְיָדוֹ חֶבֶל מִדָּה) and “You shall measure off two thousand cubits outside the town”[5] (וּמַדֹּתֶם מִחוּץ לָעִיר אֶת־פְּאַת קֵדְמָה אַלְפַּיִם בָּאַמָּה).
The second meaning is in the sense of “garment,” as in “…wore a garment made to measure”[6] (וְלָבַשׁ… מִדּוֹ בַד). Some commentators explain that it descends according to its measurements, beneath his garments.
The third meaning is in the sense of “area,” as it is written, "He spread himself over the child”[7] (וַיִּתְמֹדֵד עַל הַיֶּלֶד שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים), meaning he lay on top of him.
The fourth meaning refers to the traits of men: the trait of anger, the trait of mercy, and so on.
Let us now consider these four meanings of the word measure (מִדָּה), elaborate on them and then correspond them to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah.
Measure as a Limit
The simplest meaning is a measurement, like a boundary, or limit. This is described in the Zohar as a measuring rod (קַו הַמִּדָּה), the ruler used to measure everything! This meaning is the most physical. Because this is the essence of what we mean when we say that God’s height, as it were, is measurable, meaning in other words that He has attributes or measures, the Ramak begins with this meaning. Obviously, this can be a very problematic proposition. Are we really suggesting that one can take a ruler and measure God! Of course not, which is why if we are going to understand the Torah’s use of anthropomorphisms, we need to fully understand what the word “measure” means.
Measure as a Garment
The second meaning of the word translated as “measure” (מִדָּה) is a "garment." When going to the tailor, the tailor measures you, takes your measurements and according to the measurements, he cuts the fabric and sews you a garment! He sews you a uniform, a suitable outfit. And so, here we can understand and picture the connection between measurement and a uniform. As is common knowledge, if the garment is not exactly according to your measurements and there is "excess material," it invites the external (and impure) forces to affect you. Again, a garment that is not according to your measurements becomes a big problem because it invites all kinds of evil forces that attach to what is known as "excess material." Therefore, it is very important that the tailor be an expert in his profession – and if he is not, then a specialist doctor is needed to repair what he has ruined. As mentioned, this is what is referred to by “measure” (מִדָּה) as "uniform" from the phrase “measured garment.”[8]
Measure as Lying Down or Expansion
The third meaning of “measure” is lying down on (הִשְׁתַּטְּחוּת). We find this meaning used when Elijah the prophet revivifies the Zeraphite woman’s child: “He lay down on the child three times”[9] (וַיִּתְמֹדֵד עַל־הַיֶּלֶד שָׁלֹשׁ פְּעָמִים). In Modern Hebrew, this verb means “to deal with something” (לְהִתְמוֹדֵד). This seems to be an entirely different meaning and a modern Hebrew speaker might not even recognize that the source of this word is “measure” or that in the Bible it means to lie down on something. In any case, what did the prophet do? He placed his face upon the face of the child, placed his hands upon the hands of the child, his feet upon the feet of the child, and so on. He figuratively “dressed” him, just as our tailor must make the uniform according to the measurements, and as mentioned, everything starts with taking the measurements. And so, here, Elijah the prophet is measuring the child, as it were, and hovering over him. That is, he was aligning himself, with his body, the image of God in the child’s body, as it were, so that the image of God in him align exactly with the child’s and in this way, he revives him. As mentioned earlier, if I were to translate the verse "He hovered over the child" into another language, I would not translate it with a word meaning "measure," but I would translate it as "he lay upon the child!"
Another point about this verse. "To lie down" is akin to the notion of expansion. This is especially so in the Temple, where one not only bows down before God, but one lies flat on their belly with hands outstretched in what is known as “expanding the hands and feet” (פִּשּׁוּט יָדַיִם וְרַגְלַיִם). Elijah too expanded (his full height) upon the child! And as mentioned, it is more accurate to say that he lay upon the child. And so, "measure" is related to the concept of "area." Close to this is the verse, "its measure is longer than the earth,"[10] and another not so familiar verse, "The bed is too short for stretching out."[11] One of the most important models in Kabbalah is that of point, line, and area! Just simply measuring could refer to a ruler used to measure a line. But in the verse we quoted, “to spread out” already indicates an area that one spreads out over! To stretch out over an area.
This word, “he lay down on” (וַיִּתְמֹדֵד), appears only once in the Bible. Still, this does not prevent the grammarians from arguing that the original meaning of the word "measure" is "to lie down on” or “to stretch out.” But this word also sounds like it is related to “always” (תָּמִיד). What is the connection between measure and always?
The Meaning of “Always”
We can start by asking what the root of the word “always” is.[12] As it turns out, it is not so simple to discover its root. A theory that would seem to utilize correct reasoning is that “always
” (תָּמִיד) comes from the word "measure," in the sense of expansion. So “always” is an infinite expansion that never ends. And so, the word "always" comes from measure and reminds us of the language found in Sefer Yetzirah: "Ten sefirot [measured] that have no end."
Consider a particular sefirah in the world of Emanation; let us use wisdom as an example. Even in the World of Emanation, wisdom is wisdom and it is not understanding, even though there is an infinite interpenetration of understanding into wisdom (and vice versa), i.e., there is the understanding of wisdom, and the understanding within the understanding of wisdom, and so on, endlessly. Still, generally speaking, wisdom is not understanding. Therefore, wisdom is measured on its own. And yet, it is written in Sefer Yetzirah: “Ten sefirot without ‘what,’ ten that have no end.” This means that each sefirah in the world of Emanation, in the world of the rectified, is eternal; therefore, each sefirah is considered true—an eternal thing, which never ends. It is true in the sense that it does not deceive; something that does intermittently stop is deceptive, for example a river that does not run all year long. When it is dry it becomes deceptive—the opposite of truth. And so, as explained, “always” is a measure that expands without end. There are several other good theories regarding the question of what the root of "always" is, and yet, the most original is that its root is “measure” (מדה) in the sense of to lie down!
Measure as Human Traits
The fourth meaning of "measure" refers to the traits in people. This fourth meaning is especially familiar to someone who studies Chasidut and thinks using the Chasidic mindset. For him, this is not the fourth meaning of “measure,” but rather the first meaning: the traits of the soul, the characteristics of the soul! These include the trait of mercy, the trait of judgment, etc. What we call "traits," the Rambam calls de’ot, which could be translated as "opinions" or “proclivities.”
Let us summarize the first chapter of the Ramak’s Shiur Komah: measure can mean measurement; it can mean clothing and uniforms. Measure can also mean to lie down or stretch out; and finally, measure can be in the sense of an opinion, a mental trait, traits of the soul.
Traits do not have to be only the six emotional traits of the heart; they apply to all ten sefirot, meaning that every sefirah is a trait!
This is what the Ramak presents in the first chapter of his most important and most sensitive work on Kabbalah. There is a saying that "everything follows the inception.” Apart from being the most important chapter in the sense that it sets the background, the tone and the direction for the entire work, the topic he covers in this chapter—how to understand the word “measure” (מִדָּה), the word used as a synonym for the sefirot—and the way in which he presents it—dividing it into four meanings of the word measure—reveals how important it is for him to organize his thoughts based on the fourfold division that is distinctive of God’s Four-Letter Name. By creating a latent correspondence between his subject matter and the four letters of God’s essential Four-Letter Name, he is fulfilling the pillar of Kabbalistic writing that one should “Reveal a handsbreadth but conceals a handsbreadth.”[1]
After he arranged and explained the four meanings of measure, now he must begin to explain them one by one to negate from them any physical interpretation. This is what he does in the rest of the first chapter. But to fully negate them from physical interpretation, he first needs to bring all four meanings together, which we identified earlier as the act of finding the tikkun (enclothement) of a word.
The Four Meanings of Measure and Havayah
Now, it is very clear that the four meanings of the word "measures" that the Ramak presents correspond to the four letters of God’s essential Name, Havayah (yud–hei–vav–hei), and they are even presented in order, from below to above. Meaning that the first meaning corresponds to the last letter—the final hei—the second to the second from last letter—the vav—and so on.
Thus, measure, in the sense of measuring—using a ruler for instance to quantify length, or width, or height—corresponds to the most physical level, i.e., to the lower hei, which represents the sefirah of kingdom and the World of Action.
The second interpretation of measure, in the sense of a garment or uniform, certainly corresponds to the letter vav of Havayah. The letter vav, whose value is 6, represents the six emotional traits of the heart also called the six directions or extremities (ו קְצָוֹת). The verse the Ramak quotes to illustrate this meaning, as we saw earlier, is “…wore a garment made to measure” (וְלָבַשׁ… מִדּוֹ בַד), in it the value of the word translated as “garment” (בַד) is 6, divided into 2 and 4. Likewise, among the 6 measures of the heart, the 6 emotional traits from loving-kindness to foundation, there are two primary ones—loving-kindness and might—along with four additional traits (beauty, victory, acknowledgment, and foundation).
There is another source of support for identifying garment with the letter vav of Havayah. This comes from another central model found in the Arizal’s writings known by its acronym, שנגל"ה, which stands for root (שֹׁרֶשׁ), soul (נְשָׁמָה), body (גּוּף), garment (לְבוּשׁ), and chamber (הֵיכָל). The 5 elements in this model correspond to the four letters of Havayah including the tip of the letter yud. Thus, the garment corresponds to the letter vav.
The third interpretation of measure—to lie down, to spread over—corresponds to the first hei of Havayah, which also represents the partzuf of Ima, the mother principle, as we usually translate its name into English. The most striking connection between spreading over and the mother principle appears in the image of a mother bird covering her hatchlings in her nest. What Elijah did and what brought about the revivification of the young child was to spread himself over him.
What Elijah did is akin to the Resurrection of the Dead. Interestingly, the value of the words, “He lay over the child” (וַיִּתְמֹדֵד עַל הַיֶּלֶד) is exactly 613, which is not just the number of commandments in the Torah but also the number of organs and sinews in the body. 613 is the number that perhaps represents the human body, the form that has in it the image of God, more than any other number. It might be surprising to connect the Resurrection of the Dead with understanding rather than wisdom, because wisdom is the gateway through which the infinite revelation of God enters every reality. But we find that, “they will die, but not in wisdom.”[2] In wisdom, it is as if there is no recognition of death in the first place. In understanding, in the mother principle, there is a possibility of death, but then there is also the remedy of the Resurrection.
Finally, we come to the fourth meaning of measure: a trait, a human mental or emotional trait. One might think that anything human would involve the greatest degree of personification or anthropomorphism of the Divine. But according to Chasidut, there is the least personification in this, since every soul is a "literal part of God from above." Therefore, there is no great distance, no gap, between the metaphor (human mental and emotional traits) and what it signifies (the Divine sefirot).
For this reason, Chasidut interprets the verse "From my flesh, I will behold God" as referring to perfected mental and emotional traits, meaning that they serve as the best metaphor or analogy for contemplating the Divine. Contrastingly, when the analogy or metaphor used is something physical, then there is a fracture between the analogy or metaphor and what it signifies! When there is a disconnect between them, it is very difficult to reconstruct the Divine analogy properly from the analogy. That is why this verse, “From my flesh, I will behold God” is interpreted as referring not to our physical flesh, to our corporeal body, but to the form in the body or the mental and emotional traits in the body and specifically these traits when they are perfected traits; not just love, but specifically love of God, not just awe, but awe of God, etc.
This fourth and final meaning of measure corresponds to the letter yud in Havayah, to the father principle and the sefirah of wisdom because there is no death, there is no fracture between the metaphor and what it signifies. This is also alluded to by the simple dimensionless point-like form of the letter yud, which leaves no room for fracturing. The inner experience of wisdom is self-nullification. By contemplating the rectified mental and emotional traits (love of God, fear of God, etc.), we achieve a state of self-nullification, which does not allow for personification and anthropomorphism.
Image by Elizabeth from Pixabay
[1]. Nedarim 20b.
[2]. Job 4:21.
[1]. Exodus 25:8.
[2]. Ibid. v. 10.
[3]. Ibid. 32:24.
[4]. Zachariah 2:5.
[5]. Numbers 35:5.
[6]. Leviticus 6:3.
[7]. 1 Kings 17:20.
[8]. Leviticus 6:3.
[9]. 1 Kings 17:20.
[10]. Job 11:9.
[11]. Isaiah 28:20.
[12]. Incidentally, the first occurrence of this word in the Pentateuch is in our parashah, Exodus 25:30.
