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Divine Light and Healing...

Divine Light and Healing

Further thoughts on Parashat Bereshit...

by John J. Parsons
www.hebrew4christians.com

The Torah begins with the the famous words "in the beginning [God] created" (בראשׁית ברא) which some sages say can be read as "it was created for the head" (בראשׁ יתברא), referring first of all to the Messiah who is the head over all (Col. 2:10), but also to the intellect or mind that reflects the image of God.  Recall that the first act of creation was that of light: "God said, 'Let there be light, and there was light" (Gen. 1:3). Now light itself is a mysterious thing - a "wave" or a "substance" depending on how you consider it - a connection between the spiritual and the physical realms.

In Hebrew light is called "ohr" (אור), a word formed from three letters Aleph (א), Vav (ו), and Resh (ר). The letter Aleph is the "father" of the Aleph-Bet, whose original pictograph represents an ox, symbolizing strength. It's numerical value is one and it is a silent letter. Aleph therefore is preeminent in its order and alludes to the ineffable mysteries of the oneness of God. Indeed, the word aluph (derived from the name of this letter) means "Master" or "Lord." Note that Aleph is formed from the letter Vav with two Yods (י), one ascending and the other descending. The gematria for these parts add up to 26 (Yod+Yod+Vav), the same number as the sacred Name YHVH (יהוה), also indicating a link between the "three-in-one" Aleph and God Himself. The letter Vav (ו) originally looked like a hook or nail, and in Biblical Hebrew it is used as connective prefix meaning "and." Symbolically Vav pictures a conduit or connection between heaven and earth. The letter Resh (ו), as mentioned above, represents the head, and by extension, intelligence, the mind (לֵבָב), comprehension, uncovering (ἀλήθεια), remembering, and revelation.

The Torah is called "light" in Prov. 6:23 (תּוֹרָה אוֹר), and the Word of God brings light to the heart as it says, "Your word is a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105) that "enlightens my eyes" (Psalm 19:8) and "imparts understanding" (Psalm 119:130). YHVH is called our light and our salvation (Psalm 27:1), just as Yeshua is the creative force of reality (John 1:1-3) who embodies the divine light to the world (John 8:12). Light is God's means of connecting with us through the heart, and divine healing comes from connecting with God through revelation - the "sun of righteousness (שֶׁמֶשׁ צְדָקָה) that shines with healing in his wings" (Mal. 3:20). Yeshua is the heart and healing center of existence who came to deliver people from darkness.

Now on the other hand the Hebrew verb chalah (חָלָה) means to be sick, from a root that means emptiness (חלל) and profanity (חֹל). To be sick can symbolically be understood as profane (ח) thinking (ל) regarding the Spirit of God (ה), which suggests that illness and disease result from obstruction of the divine light. Using the same sort of methodology we see that the Hebrew word for healing (רפא) can suggest that when the mind (ר) directs the mouth (פ) to praise God (א), the soul will experience shalom (שׁלום).

Since the words that are the "vessels" of Torah are themselves Torah, the same can be said of the letters that form them. That is why the Hebrew word for "word" (דּברֵ) also can mean "thing" or "matter," and words are regarded as spiritual substances (or molecules) composed from the more basic ideas expressed by the individual letters.  Note further that the Hebrew word for letter is 'ot (אות), a word that means "sign" or "wonder" and that reveals Yeshua the Messiah as the Aleph and Tav, the beginning and the end, of all reality.


 


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