To Light Up the Night

Many of the sleep-dream secrets of the Samech can be found in the order of prayers in Jewish liturgy that are recited before retiring for bed. Preparation for sleep includes an encrypted reflection of both the number sixty as the numerical value of the Samech and the image of a circle which is its form. These passages act as a kind of sleeping pill by awaking in the psyche a sense of security. Knowing the inner dimensions within them enables me to let down my guard because I know that I am being watched over.

The first verse that explicitly functions as a sleep aid comes from Song of Songs 3:7  “Behold, the bed of Solomon (King Shlomo) has sixty mighty warriors encircling it, of the mighty of men of Israel.” Certainly the ring of sentries such as this would allay the fears of external attack. Here, the number of soldiers (60) forms the circles or ring of protection around the sleeping subject. In this particular context, the owner of this bed is King Shlomo whose names relates to the word ‘shalom‘ meaning ‘peace.’ If I am to put myself in King Shlomo’s place, I have to meditate on this verse and I have to become the master (i.e. be the king) of my own inner state of peace (shalom/Shlomo).

Fast-forward in history and we find that the Ba’al Shem Tov interpreted the bedding down of the soul as its descent into this world. Prior to one’s birth and the process of individuation, the soul was truly awake as it was only conscious of Divinity and being One with the Creator. The journey into the body might as well be the journey to the center of the earth. This descent brings about such a shift in atmospheric conditions that the soul can no longer get enough spiritual air. Its consciousness virtually asphyxiated, the soul begins to slumber in the bed of the physical body. The concrete material world threatens to suffocate all of a person’s awareness of spiritual matters. Knowing this full well, the Ba’al Shem Tov insisted that if he were to come down into this world–to lie in this bed and sleep–that he needed to have sixty mighty warriors accompany him who would later be represented as his sixty closest disciples (Talmidim)

Another clue to the identity of these all encompassing sixty warriors can be found in the structure of the Oral Torah itself. The Oral Law is comprised of 6 general ‘orders’ that are further broken broken up into 60 tractates or masekhtot. In addition to being 60 in number (Samech), scrambled in the root of masekhta is the word Samech (spelled out Mem, Samech, Kaf which is just a permutation of Samech, Mem, Kaf). For anyone who has delved into the text of these tractates, the incessant jumping around of the discussion assaults the senses and thwarts all attempts at linear conception. In its organization, the Oral Law (Talmud) is decidedly non-linear and highly intertextual. Many have pointed to the layout of the Talmud as one of the best and earliest examples of a hypertext setup similar to our modern day experience of hyperlinking one textual reference and page to another within our web-browsers. Since we already put forth the idea that the circle of the Samech acts as non-linear association, the reasons for this word choice for a tractate should resonate loud and clear.

Under these circumstances, the protection offered in the spiritual unconscious, in the sleep state of exile down into this world, comes from the learning of the Talmud in its entirety. Each tractate stands guard over me as I move through the darkness. If I have mastered all of them like King Shlomo (whose name also stems from the word ‘shalem’ meaning ‘wholeness’ and ‘completion’) then my ring of protection provides an impenetrable layer of security (bitachon). Moreover, a true genius (gaon) has achieved this–a fact alluded to in the word gaon itself which equals 60 (Gimel 3 – Alef 1 – Vav 6 – Nun 50).

After the passage of about the bed of King Shlomo, the liturgical text then proceeds to the Priestly Blessing (Brikat Cohanim) from Numbers 6:24-26 which reads as follows:

May God bless you and guard you –

יְבָרֶכְךָ ה’ וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ

May God make His face shed light upon you and be gracious unto you –

יָאֵר ה’ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וִיחֻנֶּךָּ

May God lift up His face unto you and give you peace –

יִשָּׂא ה’ פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ, וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם

Why this three part blessing at night just before sleep? If we count up all of the letters of the three verses in Hebrew, we find that they contain exactly 60 letters. Rabbinically speaking, this blessing is sometimes even referred to as the blessing of 60 letters to emphasize this implicit connection to the letter Samech. Even more amazingly, the verses are composed of exactly 15 words and Samech is the 15th letter of the 22 Hebrew letters. There are even some kabbalists such as Rabbi Eleazar of Worms (c. 1176 – 1238 who is also known as the Ba’al Rokeach) who would calculate the combined gematria of letters and words of the verse or set of verses in order to obtain additional mystical hints. If we follow this procedure, adding 60 (the number of letters) to 15 (the number of words), the resulting number of 75 further reinforces all that we have learned until now about the knotted significance of the Samech and the month of Kislev.

Firstly, the number 75 equals the word ‘Cohen’ in Hebrew (Kaf 20 – Hei 5 – Nun 50). This deeply entrenched example of self-reference (in that the blessing that the Cohen says encodes the word Cohen in its sum of letters and words) also extends to the timing of the blessing (in our context) which is night just before bed. Thus, secondly, 75 also equals the word lilah which is Hebrew for ‘night.’ Thirdly, to overcome the fear of the night (especially metaphysical night [the Divine contraction] and spiritual night [exile]), one must have confidence and security (bitachon) as we have already explained. Bitachon also equals 75. Consequently, these three terms (‘Cohen’, ‘night’, and ‘security’) are ‘linked in’ together. They connect via an associative logic which is presented through various apparitions of the Samech.

Our probing of the role of the Cohen and the mystical meaning of the Priestly Blessing as they pertain to dreams will continue in Part 5.

http://www.interinclusion.org/inspirations/circus-of-dreams-part-5/

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