Shem HaMephorash

Template:Short description Template:Italics Template:SpecialChars Shem HaMephorash (Template:Langx Šēm hamMəfōrāš, also Shem ha-Mephorash), meaning "the explicit name", was originally a Tannaitic term for the Tetragrammaton.Template:Sfnp In Kabbalah, it may refer to a name of God composed of either 4, 12, 22, 42, or 72 letters (or triads of letters), the latter version being the most common.Template:Sfnp

Early sources, from the Mishnah to the Geonim, only use "Shem haMephorash" to refer to the four-letter Tetragrammaton.Template:Sfnmp

12- and 42-letter names

In addition to the Shem haMephorash, b. Qiddushin 72a describes a 12-letter name and a 42-letter name.Template:Sfnp The medievals debate whether the 12-letter name is a mundane euphemism,Template:Sfnp unknown, YHVH-EHYH-ADNY (יהוה אהיה אדני), or YHVH-YHVH-YHVH (יהוה יהוה יהוה). Wilhelm Bacher and Adolphe Franck suggest that the 12-letter name was Chokmah-Tevunah-Da'at (חכמה תבונה דעת), but the doctrine of the Sefirot originated in the 13th century, roughly a thousand years after the 12-letter name was first described.Template:Sfnp A. Haffer suggests that it is אל יהוה אלהינו (El YHVH Elohenu) from Deut. 6:4.

Wilhelm Bacher and Adolphe Franck suggest that the 42-letter name was the full 10 Sefirot, but the Sefirot did not yet exist in Talmudic times.Template:Sfnp J. Goldberger argues that the 42-letter name was derived by gematriya, representing either אהיה אהיה or אלוה. Ignatz Stern wrote that it represents the names listed by Sifra d'Tziuta Ch. 4,Template:Efn winning the support of Ginsburg,Template:Sfnp but this passage is not even as old as the Zohar. Robert Eisler derives it from Ex. 34:6.Template:Efn A. Haffer suggests that it is יהוה אחד ברוך שם כבוד מלכותו לעולם ועד.

According to Maimonides and Rashi, the 42-letter name is unknown,Template:Sfnp but Hayy ben Sherira says it is the acronym of the medieval piyyut Ana b'Koach, and Joshua Trachtenberg argues that Hayy's tradition may legitimately represent the Talmudic intent.Template:Sfnp By the start of the Rishonic period, the term "Shem haMephorash" could also be used for the 42-letter name and this interpretation was retrojected into the Mishnah, although even Hayy did not claim to know its pronunciation. According to Hayy,

Though the letters of the 42-letter name are known, the pronunciation has not been [successfully] transmitted. Some say that it begins אַבְגִיתַץ ʾabgîtaṣ while others say that it begins אַבַגְיְתַץ ʾabagyǝtaṣ, and some say that it concludes שְׁקוּצִית šǝqûṣît while other say that it concludes שַׁקְוַצִית šaqwaṣît,Template:Efn and there are many more disputes besides which none can resolve.

Solomon ibn Adret (1235-1310) records that:

Different places have different pronunciations [of the 42-letter name]. Some pronounce it as fourteen words composed of three letters each, while others pronounce it as seven words composed of six letters each. The scholars of this land [Spain] follow the latter method, and such is the tradition received from Hayy, but I heard that the scholars of Ashkenaz pronounce it as fourteen three-letter words. There are also differences between the letters of our version and those of Ashkenaz [...] as to what you say, that each three-letter word is pronounced shewa-patah, there is one word pronounced shewa-shuruq, which is the thirteenth: the shin with a shewa and the waw with a shuruq.Template:Efn

Piyyutim which used this 42-letter name as their acrostic were popular among the Hasidei Ashkenaz, and many different poems were composed based on different versions of the name. The only one of these to survive in Jewish liturgy is Ana b'Koach.

22-letter name

Cairo Geniza amulets (Oxford e.107:10, T-S K 1.127) contain the name א◌ׄנ◌ׄק◌ׄת◌ׄם◌ׄ פסתם פספסים ודיונסים. A similar amulet is included in the back of Sefer Raziel HaMalakh,Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp containing ,Template:Sfnp which the commentary describes as "the 22-letter name." Its origins are unknown, with no connection to Hebrew or Aramaic being found, and no agreement on any particular Greek or Zoroastrian origin.Template:Sfnp Nathan Hannover was responsible for introducing it into popular Priestly Blessing liturgy, and also composed poems on the model of Ana b'Koach using the 22-letter name as his acrostic.

72-letter name

In Judaic Kabbalah

The 72-fold name is highly important to Sefer Raziel HaMalakh.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp It is derived from Exodus 14:19–21,Template:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp read boustrophedonicallyTemplate:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp to produce 72 names of three letters. This method was explained by Rashi,Template:Sfnp (b. Sukkah 45a),Template:Sfnp as well as in Sefer HaBahir (c. 1150~1200).Template:Sfnp Kabbalist legends state that the 72-fold name was used by Moses to cross the Red Sea, and that it could grant later holy men the power to cast out demons, heal the sick, prevent natural disasters, and even kill enemies.Template:Sfnp

According to G. Lloyd Jones, Template:Quote

Liber Semamphoras (aka Semamphoras, Semyforas) is the title of a Latin translation of an occult or magical text of Jewish provenance attributed to Solomon.Template:Sfnp It was attested in 1260 by Roger Bacon,Template:Sfnp who complained about the linguistic corruption that had occurred in translating Liber Semamphoras into Latin from Hebrew.Template:Sfnp It is heavily indebted to Sefer HaRazim through its Latin versions, Liber Sepher Razielis idest Liber Secretorum seu Liber Salomonis, and seemingly replaced the more explicitly magical text Liber magice in the Razielis.Template:Sfnp

In Christian Kabbalah

Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522) considered these 72 names, made pronounceable by the addition of suffixes such as 'El' or 'Yah', to be the names of angels, individuated products of God's will.Template:Sfnp Reuchlin refers to and lists the 72 Angels of the Shem Hamephorash in his 1517 book De Arte Cabalistica.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp According to Bernd Roling,

Reuchlin's cosmology in turn influenced Heinrich Cornelius AgrippaTemplate:Sfnp (1486–1535) and Athanasius KircherTemplate:Sfnp (1602–1680).

In 1686, Andreas Luppius published Semiphoras und Schemhamphoras, a German translation of the earlier Latin text, Liber Semiphoras (see previous section), which Luppius augmented heavily with passages from Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia and other sources.Template:Sfnp

In Hermetic Qabalah and Goetia

Blaise de Vigenère (1523–1596), following Reuchlin,Template:Sfnp featured the 72 angels in his writings.Template:Sfnp De Vigenère's material on the Shemhamphorash was later copied and expanded by Thomas Rudd (1583?–1656),Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp who proposed that it was a key (but often missing) component to the magical practices in the Lesser Key of Solomon,Template:Sfnp as a balancing force against the evil spirits of the Ars GoetiaTemplate:Sfnp or in isolation.Template:Sfnp Skinner and Rankine explain that de Vigenère and Rudd adopted these triliteral words with '-el' or '-yah' (both Hebrew for "god") added to them as the names of the 72 angels that are able to bind the 72 evil spirits also described in The Lesser Key of Solomon (c. mid-17th century).Template:Efn

Blaise de Vigenère's manuscripts were also used by Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854–1918) in his works for the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.Template:Sfnp Mathers describes the descent of power from Tetragrammaton through 24 thrones of the Elders of the Apocalypse, each with a crown of three rays:

Reuchlin's angels of the Shem HaMephorash

Angel Template:Sfnp Template:Nobold	Biblical verse Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp Template:No bold	Demon ruled Template:Sfnp Template:Nobold
1. Vehuiah		Bael
2. Ielial		Agares
3. Sitael		Vassago
4. Elemiah		Gamigin
5. Mahasiah		Marbas
6. Iehahel		Valefar
7. Achaiah		Aamon
8. Cahethel		Barbatos
9. Haziel		Paimon
10. Aladiah		Buer
11. Laviah		Gusion
12. Hahaiah		Sitri
13. Iezalel		Beleth
14. Mebahel		Leraje
15. Hariel		Eligor
16. Hakamiah		Zepar
17. Loviah		Botis
18. Caliel		Bathin
19. Levuiah		Saleos
20. Pahaliah		Purson
21. Nelchael		Morax
22. Ieiaiel		Ipos
23. Melahel		Aim
24. Haiviah		Naberus
25. Nithhaiah		Glasya-Labolas
26. Haaiah		Bune
27. Ierathel		Ronove
28. Saeehiah		Berith
29. Reiaiel		Astaroth
30. Omael		Forneus
31. Lecabel		Foras
32. Vasariah		Asmodeus
33. Iehuiah		Gaap
34. Lehahiah		Furfur
35. Chavakiah		Marchosias
36. Manadel		Stolas
37. Haniel		Phenex
38. Haamiah		Halphas
39. Rehael		Malphas
40. Ieiazel		Raum
41. Hahahel		Focalor
42. Michael		Vepar
43. Veualiah		Sabnock
44. Ielahiah		Shax
45. Sealiah		Vine
46. Ariel		Bifrons
47. Asaliah		Vual
48. Mihael		Haagenti
49. Vehuel		Crocell
50. Daniel		Furcas
51. Hahasiah		Balam
52. Imamiah		Allocer
53. Nanael		Caim
54. Nithael		Murmur
55. Mebahaiah		Orobas
56. Poiel		Gremory
57. Nemamiah		Ose
58. Ieialel		Auns
59. Harahel		Orias
60. Mizrael		Vapula
61. Vmabel		Zagan
62. Iahhael		Valac
63. Anavel		Andras
64. Mehiel		Flauros
65. Damabiah		Andrealphus
66. Mavakel		Cimeries
67. Eiael		Amduscias
68. Habuiah		Belial
69. Roehel		Decarabia
70. Yabamiah		Seere
71. Haiaiel		Dantalion
72. Mumiah		Andromalius

In folklore and literature

Shem HaMephorash figures in the legend of the golem, an animated anthropomorphic being in Jewish folklore that was created entirely from inanimate matter (usually clay). The earthen figure was then animated by placing a piece of parchment with the name of God in its mouth.Template:Sfnp Jorge Luis Borges refers to this legend in his poem The Golem and in his essay The Golem. The Shem haMephorash also appears in Borges's stories Three versions of Judas and The Circular Ruins.Template:SfnpTemplate:Sfnp

A contemporary book on Hermetic Qabalah which discuss the subject is Lon Milo DuQuette's The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Ben Clifford.Template:Sfnp

See also

• Magic and religion

Further reading

• Book 3, part II, chapter 25 features the seventy two angels of the "Schemhamphorae." This was later copied by Francis Barrett in his book The Magus, in Chapter 21.
• This pseudepigraphal work features an appendix titled "Semiphoras and Schemhamphoras".
• A commentary on the Tarot, Shemhamphorash, and Goetia.
• Refers to and expands upon Kircher's treatment of the 72-fold name (tying each angel to a different language's word for God), particularly in Chapter III.
• Discusses a possible relationship between Michelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel and the Shemhamphorash.