The essence of a thing is in its Hebrew name?

Question

According to Kabbalah, how do physical objects derive their life-force from their Hebrew name, if Hebrew doesn't have names for everything?

You could improve this question by providing a citation for the premise "physical objects derive their life-force from their Hebrew name." — Isaac Moses, Jul 05 '12 at 14:51
This is a territory I don't have experience with, but could it be there is a Hebrew name that give life-force but we may not be privy to it? Any name that we do not derive from the torah, albeit in Hebew, may not be that name that gives the life-force. — YDK, Jul 05 '12 at 14:59
Just because we don't know the name it doesn't mean it doesn't exist... — Hacham Gabriel, Jul 05 '12 at 15:01
It was a suggested question in someone's very very old comment, so I posted the question. — avi, Jul 05 '12 at 15:53
@HachamGabriel That is a very peculiar idea. And I really don't know how to make sense of it. — avi, Jul 05 '12 at 15:56
@avi, Please [edit] the provenance of your premise, whatever it is, into the question. — Isaac Moses, Jul 05 '12 at 19:49
@IsaacMoses do you have a way to search comments to find it again? — avi, Jul 05 '12 at 19:51
See Ben Ish Chai Parshas Pinchas(second year) who explains this idea. — sam, Jul 06 '12 at 23:07

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 05 '12 at 19:48

R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi writes in Shaar Hayichud VeHaemuna

It is written: "Forever, O G‑d, Your word stands firm in the heavens." The Baal Shem Tov, of blessed memory, has explained that “Your word” which you uttered, viz., “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters" these very words and letters through which the heavens were created stand firmly forever within the firmament of heaven and are forever clothed within all the heavens to give them life ... And so it is with all created things, in all the upper and lower worlds, and even this physical earth and the realm of the completely inanimate. ...

He continues

Now, although the name אבן (“stone”) is not mentioned in the Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, — how, then, can we say that letters of the Ten Utterances are enclothed within a stone? nevertheless, life-force flows to the stone from the Ten Utterances by means of combinations and substitutions of their letters, whereby an alef, for example, may take the place of a hei, since both letters are articulated by the same organ of speech, and so on, which are transposed in the “two hundred and thirty-one gates,” either in direct or reverse order, as is explained in Sefer Yetzirah,

and

The names [of all creatures] in the Holy Tongue are the very letters of speech which descend, degree by degree, from the Ten Utterances recorded in the Torah, by means of substitutions and transpositions of letters through the “two hundred and thirty-one gates,” until they reach a particular created thing and become invested in it, thereby giving it life.

I don't see how this answers the question. The question asks about things that have no name in Hebrew. This addresses things that have a name in Hebrew but whose name is not in the first chapter of B'reshis. — msh210, Jul 05 '12 at 20:53
@msh210 it also explains, that the idea that something gets it sustenance from it's Hebrew name is not entirely accurate. It gets sustenance from the original words of creation and the 231 gates, both forwards and backwards. Those 231(462) gates (2 letter combinations) don't always correspond to Hebrew words. — avi, Jul 07 '12 at 18:15

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 23:14

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As the Maharal explains (as a side point) in his introduction to Tiferes Yisrael, a house is not a house, and a chair is not a chair, for example. A house is made out of wood, just shapes together like a house.

To use this as an answer, there may be no Hebrew word for "television," but there is a Hebrew word for the components which make up a television.

answered Jul 06 '12 at 23:14

b a

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I'd be hard pressed to find all the biblical hebrew words which can describe the parts a television is made out of... – avi Jul 07 '12 at 18:07
@avi It makes more sense if you consider that the rishonim are of the opinion that everything can be broken up into the four elements. – b a Jul 08 '12 at 04:37
@b a I think the rishonim were also under the impression that Hebrew had a name/word for everything. (as it did back then) – avi Jul 08 '12 at 07:00
@avi I explained above in my answer that something is not really what it appears to be, but rather what it is made of. If you disagree, you're disagreeing with the Maharal. – b a Jul 08 '12 at 15:18
@b a I don't disagree. But a television is made out of silicon, electrical circuits, plastic, transistors and a bunch of other things people never dreamed of giving names to until recently. It was unheard of until 200 years ago, that something would be made out of anything other than basic building materials which all have hebrew names for them. – avi Jul 08 '12 at 18:18
@avi I'm saying that if you continue breaking up a TV, you will end up with combinations of the four elements. – b a Jul 08 '12 at 18:53
@avi What about a tomato or a potato? Those words didn't exist in Hebrew until the 1500s (likely later). Also mercantilism :) – Charles Koppelman Jul 20 '12 at 14:26
b a is right doesnt matter what man creates we are basically just taking what is already there and manipulating nature or what god has already created, nothing is ever really "new" its just recompiled old, and i guess language is the same, has the building blocks to create any word but the word isnt new in essence it really always "was" just recompiled. But to reinvent an existing word could lead to the sound patterns changing and therefore changing its effect on the universe, each word spoken is more powerful then we will accept as we misuse speech everyday. – david Jul 20 '12 at 09:36

The essence of a thing is in its Hebrew name?

2 Answers2