צירופי התיבותThe Ways of the Letters

tzerufei ha-tevotIn Gamatria ↗

Some secrets are written forward, and some only backward.

Shaltiel objects to permutations, initials, substitute alphabets and gematria, and to adding one for the whole word when a sum falls short. Yehoyada says Shaltiel would have rejected Daniel, who read 'Mene mene tekel ufarsin' from letters written in permutation (Sanhedrin 22a). The Talmud itself uses atbash; the 42-letter and 72-word names come from verses by fixed methods; a midrash says the Torah's order was hidden, or its reader could revive the dead. Each secret is written in the form it needs. Pressed for an example, he gives one. In 'and the earth was tohu', tohu appears once outright and once in the initials, backward. The outright word is the seven lower vessels, broken front and back. The backward one is Abba and Imma, of whom only the back was annulled.

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