Faces of the Goddess 4: Collection Points אדני – אדנים – ברכה – בריכה

(17) Adonai אֲ֭דֹנָי, open my lips, and let my mouth declare Your praise.

KNOW that the primary name, which is most accessible to all created beings, and by means of which all can come before the King, יהוה Blessed Be - and without which there is no way in the world to enter into the presence of the Blessed King - is the name known as ADNY.

How so? Know that the ultimate, most central name is יהוה, to which everything is connected and which most fundamentally teaches us about the nature of our creator, and upon which everything depends.

However, the initial gateway and key by means of which one may access the blessed Name is the name ADNY.

This is the bottom step of the concatenation of God from top to bottom. Up to the Name ADNY lies the foundation of the truest and most complete unity - as will be further explained, with God’s help.

Below ADNY is the world of separation or disintegration. When we read the verse in Genesis, “A river went out from Eden to water the garden, from there splitting into four riverheads” (Gen 2:10), on a mystical level this hints at the four encampments of Shechina which exist beneath the blessed name ADNY, which is the final stage in the expression of the Unified Name from above through to below.

This name, which is known as ADNY, is like a treasury or collection-point for all the types of shefa (beneficent divine flow) and all the types of supernal emanation of vitality that are drawn forth from יהוה Blessed Be by way of the channels. So much so that actually we see that this is one of the three most fundamental names:

ADNY at the base,

יהוה in the middle, a

nd EHYEH on high.

It is from the Name EHYEH that all these types of shefa emanate from the source, from the Infinite, through the higher levels until they reach the name יהוה Blessed-Be; and from the name יהוה all the channels and processes lead to the name ADNY.

The name ADNY is the treasury in which is all the materiel of the King, and is the great depot for nourishing all creation in its entirety; ADNY feeds and sustains everything, through the power of יהוה which is within him. It is through ADNY’s mouth that all who come to cleave to the name יהוה Blessed-Be must enter and exit. There is no way, no aspect, no approach by which to cleave to the name יהוה Blessed-Be except by means of ADNY, and this is why this name is the treasury of the Unique Name (יהוה), and it is the temple within which יהוה resides (shochen).

This is why throughout the Torah we pronounce יהוה as ADNY - which is to say, all who seek יהוה must find Him within the name ADNY.

Since יהוה Blessed-Be distributes all manner of shefa and divine emanation through the name ADNY, and within ADNY are the treasure-houses of the king, and many aspects of his wealth; and since it is to ADNY that they come and through ADNY that they are entered and stored and disseminated in order to fulfill the needs of all creatures, this portal {adny} can also be seen as a POOL [breicha] into which the river flows; and from this pool there is sufficient water to quench the needs of the garden, to drink, and to provide many other things. And thus in the Torah we refer to this name, ADNY, by the appellation BLESSING [bracha] - which is itself related to the word POOL [breicha].

It is through this name that Jacob our ancestor, peace be upon him, blessed his sons - having himself inherited it from his father Isaac and he from his father Abraham. For the Holy One, who is blessed upon blessed, engifted this Name to Abraham our ancestor, peace be upon him, to open the gates of the storehouses of Adonai to take all that he needed for himself and for all the other children of the world. God gifted into his hand this BLESSING, and this is the secret of Genesis 12:2, “I will bless you and I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” It does not say “you will be blessed” but rather “you will be a blessing” - ‘For the blessing has passed into your hand, take as you want! And I am not giving the authority to take for yourself alone, but for all that need! Take as you want for all the children of the world. This is the meaning of Genesis 12:3 “All the families of the earth will be blessed by you”: which is to say that all that want to take anything from this blessing must do so through your hand since it has been given into your hand and it is yours.’

(2) I will make of you [Abram] a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.

(2) But Abram said, “O Adonai-YHVH! What can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer?”

Isaac speaking to Jacob:

(3) May El Shaddai bless you, make you fertile and numerous, so that you become an assembly of peoples.

(28) All these were the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each one with the blessing appropriate to him.

Thus, our Rabbis have said (Talmud Bavli Brachot 7b) “The first person to call the Holy Blessed One by the name ADoNaY was Abraham our ancestor, peace be upon him, when he said in Genesis 15:2 “ADNY YHVH! What can you give me…?” For from Adonai he asked for what he needed, using this great name.

And after Abraham, Isaac inherited and thus, (Genesis 25:11) “After the death of Abraham Elohim blessed Isaac his son.” This is the blessing that Esau and Jacob argued over and this was the birthright that Esau sold to Jaocb. Isaac “fulfilled” the sale when he sent Jacob off to Padan Aram, saying (Genesis 28:2-4) “Get up and go to Padan Aram...and El Shaddai will bless you...and give you the blessing of Abraham, you and your offspring with you.” This blessing was tied uniquely to Jacob’s inheritance and to his children alone when it said “you and your offspring with you.”

Thus, when Jacob was about to die he opened up the blessing for the twelve tribes so that each of them could take their portion from this blessing/pool for an inheritance. This is what is meant by (Genesis 49:28) “All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them in blessing them; he blessed each person according to his [own particular] blessing.” What does “each according to his blessing” mean? Lest one say Jacob blessed them each from his own intuition; this is not the case! Rather, each and every tribe was given the appropriate portion for it from this breicha [pool] and not from Jacob’s own intuition, but rather from the intuition of the blessing herself!

With this same blessing Moshe Rabeinu (our teacher, peace be upon him) blessed Israel before they entered the land, and this is the secret of (Deuteronomy 33:1) “And this is the blessing which Moshe, man [husband?] of Elohim, blessed B’nei Yisrael before he died.” We find that the name Adonai is the foundation of this blessing and that this blessing enriches those that cling to it without sadness or worry. This is the meaning of (Proverbs 10:22) “The blessing of Adonai enriches, and he adds no concerns with it.”

(27) The 100 talents [talent = a measurement by weight] of silver were for casting the sockets of [adney] the sanctuary and the sockets for [adney] the curtain, 100 sockets [corresponding] to the 100 talents, a talent per socket.

Since the name ADNY is like a treasury in which to collect the shefa of all the blessings and types of supernal emanation, it can be seen as a pool or as a collection point. Thus we find too the idiom of the ADNEY he’chatzer - the sockets of the courtyard [of the tabernacle /mishkan, as described in the book of Exodus], into which the pillars were inserted.

You will find that there were 100 sockets of silver in the construction of the dwelling-place [mishkan, tabernacle], as is written (Exodus 38:27), “One hundred sockets ADNYM corresponding to 100 talents of silver, one talent per socket.”

These 100 sockets of the dwelling-place are an image of 100 pools which are filled from the Great Pool which is called ADNY.

This is why every person is instructed to make 100 blessings each day, to draw from each one of them - since each of these blessings [brachot] come by means of the name ADNY direct from these pools [brechot]. If you lack even one blessing, it causes a flaw - a mystery which rests on the idea of 1:10:100, or 2:20:200 [note that 2:20:200 is ברך – בכר] - which we see in our tradition as represented by the Kohen, the Levite and the Israelite, which in turn represent three levels of soul: nefesh, ruach and neshamah.

It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir would say: A person is obligated to recite one hundred blessings every day, as it is stated in the verse: “And now, Israel, what [ma] does the Lord your God require of you” (Deuteronomy 10:12). Rabbi Meir interprets the verse as though it said one hundred [me’a], rather than ma.

(26) Speak to the Levites and say to them: When you receive from the Israelites their tithes, which I have assigned to you as your share, you shall set aside from them one-tenth of the tithe as a gift to יהוה.

Sometimes, in the Torah, the name ADNY is referred to by the appellation WELL [Be’er], the idea being the well of living waters in which all kinds of shefa and supernal flow from on high are gathered, as we have said. Take the verse (Song of Songs 4:15): “A wellspring of gardens, a well of living waters, fed from Lebanon.” Further, when Israel are appropriately righteous, and make 100 blessings a day, as is their practice, this Well is filled with living water from the supernal flow of shefa, and everyone is satiated and filled with all goodness, drawing forth living waters according to their needs.

Sometimes this is also called THE-WELL-OF-SEVEN [Be’er Sheva], since she draws from seven “rivers”, by way of Yesod, the Foundation-of-the-World, from the seven higher levels [ie the sefirot Chochma through Netzach and Hod].

Opposite this Well is another Well of the external forces, which comprises numerous wells filled with snakes and scorpions, what we might call “foreign wells” or “cut-off wells,” about which it is said (Proverbs 23:27), “For a harlot is a deep ditch; and an alien woman is a narrow well [be'er tzarah].”

Those that are completely wicked and do not have the merit to draw from the well-of-seven fall into the well-of-cut-offness [be'er tzarah nochriah]- that is to say, those who find themselves compelled to do really serious sins.

Thus ADNY hinted, when Israel sinned in this manner, as the prophet (Jeremiah 2:13) says: “My people has done Me doubly wrong: they have abandoned the source of living waters to hew for themselves [other] wells, wells of brokenness which cannot hold water.” Which is to say, wells of tzarah (suffering, narrowness), which have no ground, being entirely broken, in which water cannot be held; rather they are full of snakes and scorpions. About this King David (Psalms 69:16): “Let not the well close her mouth for me.”

And sometimes the name ADNY is known by the appellation SEA [Yam] - since all of the pools and the supernal shefa are drawn into it, just like rivers, the esoteric meaning of (Ecclesiastes 1:7) “All the rivers flow to the sea.”

The word YAM actually means the seabed that holds the water, as in (Isaiah 11:9) “Just as the waters cover the YAM ie seabed,” and as it says in Genesis 1:11 “And He called the gathering of waters YAMIM” - which is to say that the container for the water is what is called YAM. And from within this seabed are formed various agents malachim and encampments machanot, many different kinds of species, with which the water it holds teems - all of them really chariots merkavot and supernal divisions machanot elyonot.

About this it hints (Psalms 104:25): “This is the great Seabed, expansive in its reach [outspread hands - rachav yadayim]; there swarm things without number, creatures infinitesimal with those gargantuan.” And in this seabed are numerous shipwrecks and sailors, and pennants waving on the mast-heads of their vessels, and waves and tumult tumbling within; as is said (Psalms 104:26), “There the ships take their course.”

There is also a liminal place at the edge of this seabed, which is called Yam-Suf - the Sea of Reeds / Sea of Limits/Endings. This relates to the edge of Known Divine Reality and the limits of the earth which are implied by ADNY. It is from this place that judgment descended upon Egypt, when they were sunk in the Yam-Suf of the below, as is written (Exodus 14:25), “יהוה fought for them with Egypt.”

Esoteric sages sometimes relate this aspect of ADNY to that which is called THE-SEA[BED]-OF-WISDOM, Yam haChochma - since all manner of wisdom and supernal excellence is drawn from the level of Supernal Chochma, Wisdom [almost the highest sefirah] straight into its midst, and it is from this place that all who are truly wise draw their wisdom. This is the quality middah that God gave to King Solomon, (Kings 5:26): “And יהוה gave wisdom chochma to Solomon.”

When he entered into the SEA-OF-WISDOM [Solomon] attained the power and intuition to understand all the levels and sequences of the higher realms and the lower, and nothing whatsoever was withheld. It was through the power of the name ADNY that he sat on the throne of יהוה and administered the upper realms and the lower, since the wisdom of Elohim was in his midst, enabling him to enact justly.