Saturday, January 24, 2009

Ability To Bestow Ability

Bo

gave favour ... Shemot 11:3
אֶת-חֵן

The shoresh (root) for the word 'favor' (חן) in this phrase is חנן which means to "bestow traits", "granting favor", "blessing someone", "equipping with intellectual abilities" and "being worthy" [1].

The shoresh חנן has a gematria of 108, which is 36 X 3 (לו X ג), where 36 is the number associated with a lamedvavnik and 3 is the number associated with the triform Goddess. The value 108 is also the combined gematria of the three words 'eleh' (אלה) as discussed in my previous commentary on Vaera, The Mystery Of These.

Thus, we can understand that through these are bestowed the ability to go beyond the level of 'lamedvavnik'.

Footnote:

[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, Matityahu Clark