On Chanukah we commemorate the deliverance God gave us from the Seleucid Empire and its idolatrous Greek Hellenic culture. Over the centuries, the Jewish spirit has continued to struggle spiritually against the same polytheistic Hellenic elements, especially those related to aesthetics. The progenitor of the Greek world was Japheth, Noah’s son. Noah blessed him that his aesthetic spirit would eventually be rectified and find its way into the “tents of Shem,” through a process of clarification carried out by the Torah.
Much of this is discussed in length in HaRav Ginsburgh’s newly translated book, Dancing Flames: Meditative Essays on Chanukah. Here we have an abridged version of a post regarding the lineage of Japheth and the aesthetic element in his progeny. The full post was first published in Hebrew in the Noach 5786 edition of Nifla’ot.
The Rectification of Japheth (Yefet)
“The sons of Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” These three are considered the three archetypes of souls: a righteous individual (tzaddik), a wicked individual (rasha), and an intermediate individual (beinoni). Their corresponding realms are thus: holiness (Shem), the three impure husks (Ham), and the intermediate husk known as kelipat nogah (Japheth). The rectification of Japheth thus leads to the complete rectification of the realm of nogah, the intermediate husk that veils God’s revelation partially, but can also be elevated to holiness.
An important principle is that rectification invariably requires us to focus on the intermediary between good and evil. The intermediate state or realm has an entropic tendency to descend into evil. If this can be overcome and the intermediate would cleave to the good, absolute evil would be eradicated.
Applying this principle to Noah’s sons, our focus is therefore on Japheth. The Torah describes Japheth’s lineage: “The children of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Yavan, Tuval, Meshech, and Tiras” (ְךֶׁשֶמּל וָבֻתְן וָוי וַדָמּג וֹגוָמּר וֶמֹּת גֶפֶי יֵנְּב סָירִתְו). Japheth (תֶפֶי), whose numerical value is 490, or 10 times 7 squared, had 7 sons, and they correspond to the 7 lower sefirot, from loving-kindness to kingdom, in the order the Torah mentions them in:
- loving-kindness-chessed דֶסֶח Gomer רֶמֹּג
- might-gevurah הָרּבוְּג Magog גֹגוָמ
- beauty-tiferet תֶרֶאְפִּת Madai יַדָמ
- victory-netzach חַצֶנ Yavan ןָוי
- splendor-hod דֹהו Tuval לָבֻת
- foundation-yesod דֹסוְי Meshech ךֶׁשֶמ
- kingdom-malchut תּכוְלַמ Tiras סָירִת
Japheth and Sukkot
As we will now see, the rectification of Japheth and his sons is related to Sukkot. The clearest connection is that the haftarah reading for the Shabbat of Sukkot begins with the words, “on the day that Gog arrives.” Gog is the king of Magog, “Gog [from] the land of the Magog, the king and head of Meshech and Tuval.” These three—Magog, Meshech, and Tuval—are all sons of Japheth as we saw, and they correspond to the sefirot might, foundation, and thanksgiving, respectively.
It is within Japheth’s four son, Yavan (Hebrew for Greece), who corresponds to the sefirah of victory (or eternity), that all of Japheth’s sons are included. This we learn from the interpretation the sages gave to the blessing Japheth received from Noah, “May God expand Japheth [materially], but may he dwell in the tents of Shem”: Japheth’s beauty, referring to the Greek language, will be worthy of dwelling in the tents of Shem, meaning that a Torah scroll may be written in Greek writing. The Greek language represents Greek culture, the secret of the intellectual soul (Japheth), which acts as an intermediary between the Divine soul (Shem) and the animal soul (Ham).
The letters of the Hebrew word for “Greece” (ןָוי) in reverse spell one of the eight synonyms for “beauty” in Hebrew, usually translated as “ornament” (יֹנו). The eight synonyms correspond to the sefirot from understanding to kingdom, and ornament is the one that corresponds to victory. One of the enduring staples of Sukkot are the ornaments hung on the walls of the Sukkah. These are known as “Sukkah ornaments” (הָכּּי סוֹנו). Thus, it is on Sukkot that we rectify the external dimension of the Greek aesthetic sense.
Perhaps the most important Greek aesthetic principle is known as “the Golden Mean,” or “the Golden Proportion,” which is intrinsically (albeit somewhat mysteriously) connected with what is known as the Fibonacci series of numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, etc. The Fibonacci series is an additive series—a series in which each number is the sum of the two previous numbers—that begins with 1 and 1. This series is essential to the Japheth ideal of beauty, as the value of, “May God expand Japheth [materially], but may he dwell in the tents of Shem” (יֵלֳהׇאְּן בֹּכְׁשִיְת וֶפֶיְים לִהֹ־לֱ אְּתְפַיםֵׁש) is 1870, the product of 34 and 55, the ninth and tenth Fibonacci numbers.
Not only are the Sukkah ornaments related to beauty; the Sukkah itself is also related to beauty. The value of the filling of Sukkah (סמך וו כף הא—(הָכּּסו—is 238, the same as “Rachel” (לֵחָר), who is described as possessing, “beautiful features and complexion” (הֶאְרַת מַיפִר וַאֹּת תַפְי)
Japheth and Creation
Japheth’s first and last born are Gomer and Tiras. Gomer, corresponds to loving-kindness, alluding to the verse “to God who consummates what I do” (יָלָר עֵמֹּ-ל גֵאָל), the Name of God appearing in this verse is Kel (-לֵא), the Name that corresponds to loving-kindness. Gomer has a special connection to Japheth’s aesthetic. Tiras is Persia, the kingdom of Japheth. The sum of their names, Gomer Tiras (סָירִר תֶמֹּג), is 913, the value of “In the beginning” (יתִׁאשֵרְּב), indicating that the world was created with the purpose of rectifying Gomer and Tiras—i.e., rectifying their aesthetic sense.
Gomer equals 243, or 3 to the 5th power, the secret of Abram (םָרְבַא), as elaborated upon in Kabbalah. This number, 243, is one of the secrets of Creation and with the identity “Abram is Abraham” (אּם הוָרְבַא םָהָרְבַא), is further connected to Creation as hinted to in Abraham’s name (םָאְרָּבִהְּב), meaning “When they were created” but when transposing the letters becomes, “With Abraham, the Heavens and the earth were created.”
Words spelled Gomer (רֶמֹּג) appear 9 times in the Bible. 9 times 243 is 2187, or 3 to the 7th power! Of these 9, there is one more person. She is Gomer the daughter of Divlayim, a promiscuous woman whom God commanded the prophet Hosea to marry. Interestingly, “daughter of Divlayim” (םִיָלְבִּת דַּב) equals twice the value of Gomer (רֶמֹּר גֶמֹּג) as well as the value of Sukkot (תֹוּכֻס), so her full name is equal to 3 times Gomer, 729, or 3 to the 6th power. Thus, Sukkot is also the season of rectification for the soul of Gomer, the daughter of Divlayim.
Most interesting is Gog, who also has a positive side to him—even though most of his essence is the negative side of nogah—which is why he will be brought to burial, the final rectification in Kabbalah and as explained in Chasidut. The value of Gog (גֹוּג) plus the value of each letter squared (3 squared plus 6 squared plus 3 squared) is 66, the value of Yavan, Greece (ןָוי). Gog and Magog together (גֹגוָמּג וֹוּג) equal 70, making them inclusive of all 70 nations of the world.
One of the gematria methods we use is akin to finding the equivalent of the crown and intellectual faculties of a word. We do this by taking the sum of the word, its first and second filling, and its value in primordial numbering. In the case of Gog, these are 12 (גֹוּג)—the gematria of “this” (הֶז), the special prophetic formula of Moses: “This is the thing that God commanded” (ה הוי'ָּוִר צֶׁשֲר אָבָּדַ ההֶז). The value of the filling of his name (גימל וו גימל), 178 and the filling of the filling (גימל יוד מם למד וו וו 538 ,(גימל יוד מם למד and the value of his name in primordial numbering (אבג אבגדהו אבג), 33. The sum of all four is 761, the gematria of the Torah’s final three words, “[as Moses did] before the eyes of all of Israel” (לֵאָרְׂשִל יׇּי כֵינֵעְל), the words that designate the final rectification of kelipat nogah.
