Surrounding light, like that of the Sukkah, conjures up an association with the feminine. The prophet Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 31:22 describes a reality wherein “God creates something new in the world/earth–a woman will surround a man.” New or re/newed materiality (L: mater) comes from of matrix (L: mater) of the mother (L: mater). Nowhere is the encircling of the feminine seen more dramatically than in the image of the womb. Enveloped in the Sukkah we effectively experience our own re-fetalization (to borrow an expression from Peter Sloterdijk) which automatically transfigures a person from the larva self (born of the new year and its accompanying changes) into a mature form of imago Lepidoptera.

This process of self-realization manifests as a twofold movement of externalization and internalization. The surrounding light (ohr makif) is first found written into the base code of Adam (Adam who is everyman/woman) as the Alef (ohr) and Mem (makif) of this name in Hebrew. This informs us that we are like shell creatures whose exoskeleton grows out of the body proper (and in this case the body of the name). What was once internal (and undifferentiated) became separated from self–self from self, self divided within itself, self undergoing mitosis–until this ‘clarifying distance‘ turns quasi-independent and becomes regarded as ‘me-not-me’ or ‘self-as-other.’

The human subject (sub-ject) turns itself into its own object (ob-ject) that casts it to the outside splitting our initial androgynous psyche into two–a masculine-feminine pairing that establishes an encompassed-interior and surrounding-exterior relationship. I build my own Sukkah and then I enter and dwell within it. Becoming conscious of self-as-Sukkah enacts the truth of our original experience of encountering the other in Genesis 2:23 where “Adam said ‘this time [instance] is bone of my bones, flesh of my flesh. This will be called woman for from man she was taken.’”

The esoteric reading of this verse asserts that the word ‘Adam’ speaks. Adam already alludes to its exo-skeleton and that which is most inside (bone/essence) becomes the most exterior. The first and last letters (Alef and Mem) of Adam (the outer letters) speak in that those are the letters directly facing (and thus in relation) with other words. As part of Adam, the Alef and Mem surround while remaining within (the name). The quality of surrounding light is first part of me in a closed and muted way. I only have the first letter (the rosh hataivot, literally the ‘head’ of the words, but not the full body) encoded in the name. For Alef to open into ohr (light) and Mem to open into makif (surrounding) I need to externalize and unfold the full expression. This is like Chava/Eve being separated from Adam. The reason for this is found in the secret of her name as alluded to in Psalms 19:3 “…night after night expresses [yechaveh] knowledge.” ‘Yechaveh’ comes from Chava/Eve. Thus her name is about ‘expression.’ Alternatively, Chava/Eve also builds the word chavayah which means ‘experience.’ From this, we can compile a hybrid definition of our Sukkah as the matrix of the surrounding light as an expression of our experience.

We can now introduce a new matheme with which we can further enhance the transmission of these ideas. When we examine the words ohr makif, ‘surrounding light’ [אור מקיף] in Hebrew, we find that they equal 437. If we look at the prime factors of 437, we see that it is a product of 19 times 23. Amazingly 19 is the numerical value of Chava/Eve [חוה], while 23 equals the originally intended name for this first female figure–Chayah [חי’ה]. ‘Chayah’ means ‘living one’ from chai ‘life.’

In Genesis 2:7 Adam becomes ‘a living soul [l’nefesh chayah],’ as if to say that it’s exported from the name ‘Adam’ which serves as the vital force (soul) to ‘life/the living one.’ Furthermore, we find in Genesis 3:18 that the name ‘Adam’ called his wife [conceptual and semiological pairing] Chava [19] because she had become the “mother of all life (em chol chai).” Mothering all of life could be understood as a kind of re-mediation. Each return to the womb or matrix is transformative while that material [matter: L mater–mother] transformed shifts from one media to another. Mothering or producing life amounts to giving expression (birthing) to life, casting it to the outside. We pick up on those expressions of life and try to internalize them as experience (chavayah).

In sum, the name as issued–Chava/Eve (experience/expression)–multiples the intended name–Chayah/life (or gestating life)–to yield our surrounding light (437). All around us, we are enclosed by ‘life-experience,’ the Chava-Chayah factor, which we attempt to connect to in a process of internalization (the ‘logic of sexuation’ compares with eating in the Torah in that Adam knowing his wife Chava/Eve is painted as the act of marital relations that were the equivalent to eating from the Tree of Knowledge). Once we identify the outside of our ‘self’ as ‘self’ we marry it and re-unite.

The mathematical study of this expression proves even more fruitful when we consider that the word ohr (light) by itself equals 207 which is 9 times 23 (Chayah), while the word makif (surrounding) equals 10 time 23 (Chayah). Thus, the two words naturally divide into a grouping of 9 Chayahs (23) and 10 Chayahs (23). This is particularly significant in that 9 and 10 are the units of Chava (19). In other words, this division possesses an additional layer of self-reference to the name Chava as the logic that splits the phrase ‘surrounding light,’ while the whole expression is a multiple of Chayah. As a result, 23 (the value of Chayah) as the life or the production of life breaks down according to the experiential-expressions of Chava. The fusion of the two names (Chava-Chayah) gives us something akin to ‘life-experience’ that illuminates us from every direction.

The panorama of our ‘life-experience’ may come in a variety of forms. If it is compacted or compressed to a minimum then it equals 437 or the simple value of the words ohr makif (surrounding light). If, however, it is expanded then it can go through two possible levels of expansion: the expansion and the expansion of the expansion. Deciphering this entails opening up the words ohr makif (surrounding light) by writing out each of the Hebrew letters as they would be sounded out. Sounding out a letter is its milui or filling. It extends the expressiveness of that letter by verbalizing it fully. For example Alef would be written Alef-Lamed-Pei. The full spelling of ohr makif would then be: Alef (1)-Lamed (30)-Pei (80), Vav (6)-Vav (6), Reish (200)-Yud (10)-Shin (300), Mem (40)-Mem (40), Kuf (100)-Vav (6)-Pei (80), Yud (10)-Vav (6)-Dalet (4), Pei (80)-Alef (1)

 [אלף וו ריש מם קוף יוד פא] = 1000

In Kabbalah, there is a tradition that 1000 lights were given to Moshe/Moses at Mount Sinai. We can now interpret those 1000 lights as an enlarged perception of life-experience or the surrounding light. 1000 is also the numerical value of Israel Ba’al Shem Tov [ישראל בעל שם טוב] the founder of the Chassidism. Chassidic thought has understood this to mean that the ‘Rebbe’ is an extension in the present generation of Moshe/Moses himself. Who is Moshe/Moses?– the one who is gifted with an expanded sense of ‘life-experience,’ that person who is intimate with the secrets of surrounding light.

Finally, the outer limit of our life-experience comes from the full array of dimensions in Creation, channels of Divine self-expression and powers of the soul known as the sefirot. Normally, the Kabbalah speaks of ten sefirot but this is because two of them Keter (Crown) and Da’at (knowledge) are just two sides of the same coin. Keter denotes the superconscious. When it becomes conscious it is called Da’at.  The relationship between the two might be likened to a Möbius strip such that they are considered as one making the sefirotic total 10 and not 11. Yet, the Arizal explains that there is something unstable about this assessment. Conflating the superconscious and conscious powers of soul is symptomatic of the world of Chaos. In the world of Rectification, the difference between them must be clarified and each counts in its own way. Therefore, the most expanded array of dimensions/channels/powers that express our life-experience is 11 in total.

When we expand the expansion to give the fullest possible expansion of the surrounding life we must perform the same operation as before only doubly so. This time each letter is filled out according to its spelling but then its filling is also filled, meaning that the letters of the first expanded form are themselves expanded as they would be pronounced. Thus, the simple letter Alef (unexpanded) has as its first filling Alef-Lamed-Pei and as its second filling or expansion Alef-Lamed-Pei, Lamed-Mem-Dalet, Pei-Alef. Numerically it would look like this: 1 becomes 111 which becomes 266. The filling of the filling (milui hamilui) of ohr makif (surrounding light) would then produce line of code:

אלף למד פא וו וו ריש יוד שין מם מם קוף וו פא יוד וו דלת פא אלף

which all together adds up to 2277.

2277 = 11 times 207 (ohr “light”) meaning that all 11 sefirot are (potentially) providing surrounding illumination. Everything would be a source of light. We then have three levels of life-experience: 1) the compact baseline form (437) 2) the practical limit of expansion (1000) and 3) the theoretical limit of expansion (2277).

May we merit to marry and integrate life to the fullest and in doing so have deeply enriching experiences.

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