B"H
Abstract
of
Hidden
Theophoric Names and Angelology in the
"War Scroll"
The
"War Scroll", 1Q33 (1QM[ilhamah] = 1QWar Scroll [Rule]), is
perhaps the most ignominious, and certainly the least understood, of the Dead
Sea Scrolls .The "War Scroll" is a mistitling foisted upon the scroll
by those who edited and attempted to translate it, despite their ignorance of
the depths of the Holy Language. This author takes exception with the Gentile
and Jewish researchers alike who are not initiates in the depths of the Hebrew
language in their assuming that they know what they do not and who
irresponsibly go to press with their conclusions, to much fanfare, leaving
immeasurable moral/spiritual and Jewish cultural damage in their wake. It will
require decades for Jewish researchers who are truly fluent in Hebrew and
familiar with Jewish sources to repair the damage that has been done to the
correct understanding of the scrolls. Needing funds as they do, Jewish
researchers cannot exclude Gentile interests from the enormous and enormously
costly enterprise of editing and researching the Scrolls, some Jewish
researchers are not of a mind to do so, and so the damage is ongoing.
Not
knowing that the word מלחמה is an anagram/perfect permutation1
for the word מחמלה,
the expression חמלה לי
and the word חלפה
(see Col. XVI, Verse 12), as well as a חלוף for the heart
rending prayer
כפר נא על כל הדורות,
the Gentile researchers were led astray by the little of the Holy Tongue that
their eyes can see and arrived at spurious conclusions about that which is
written in the scrolls. They yclept the scroll, so lovingly and painstakingly
composed and constructed for the sake of bringing peace to the world, סרך המלחמה.
This work comes to redeem the honor of the scroll and ransom it from those who
keep it imprisoned in Gentile mind-set.
1 By perfect
permutation the author intends a result of the performance of a חלוף or חלופים
that is an anagram the value of which is exactly equal to the original letter,
word, expression, sentence etc. that the חלוף or חלופים
was/were performed on. If the חלוף or חלופים was/were
performed on letters, words, phrases, etc., that are not themselves nor do they
contain any letters that have a סופית form, the anagram will always be a perfect
permutation. If however, we perform a חלוף or חלופים
on letters that do have a סופית form, or on words, phrases etc., that
contain a letter or letters that have a סופית form, and thus
the value of the letter or letters may change if it/they is/are placed at the
end of a word (and sometimes elsewhere in a word, as we find in the hapax
legomenon the word לםרבה, which begins Chapter 9, Verse 6 of the
Book of ישעיהו,
and is found quite often in the Dead Sea scrolls), the resulting anagram will
be either a perfect or an imperfect permutation. An imperfect permutation is the result
of performing a חלוף or חלופים in which a
regular letter or regular letters have become a סופית or סופיות
or a סופית
or סופיות
have become a regular letter or regular letters after the חלוף or חלופים
was/were
performed, and thus the value of the resulting value of the anagram is not that
of the original letter, word, expression, sentence, etc.
There
are Names of Angels that are written quite explicitly, and repeatedly mentioned
in the "War Scroll". What, then, is the intent of the author of a
work which posits that there are also hidden theophoric Names and Names
of Angels in the War Scroll?
בע"ה,
we will prove that not only are there hidden Holy Names in the War Scroll, we
will demonstrate a more accurate understanding of what the appellation מלאך means
than the definition proposed by the Ramba"m and other Pharisaic/Rabbinic
commentators.
Most
importantly, we will demonstrate that far from being a call to an
eschatological war and a description of that war, the "War Scroll"
is, in fact, a meditation on Holy Names for the purpose of protecting
כנסת ישראל
from the impending disaster that they had brought upon themselves as a result
of interpreting תורה in a compromising manner and contaminating
בית המקדש השני.
It
should always be borne in mind that היחד was founded and
led by
בני צדוק
and that they lived in accordance with the understanding of תורה of בית צדוק
as passed down generation to generation since the time of the first כהן ראש אהרן.
The task of כהנים
in this world, most especially that of הכהן הראש,
is to love peace and pursue peace. How can it be said that היחד were
warmongers or that they, G-d forbid, relished the idea of their brethren being
slain en masse? Truly, such interpretation of the scroll is in the eye of the
interpreter, not in what the Holy Language says. It was, moreover, the task of הכהנים
to bring about expiation for עם ישראל and for the Nations. היחד never desisted
from this task, even when they could not touch the Temple physically, they
called to the Jewish Soul relentlessly and with much personal exertion.
Having
had to separate themselves from המקדש because of the impurities that were
introduced into המקדש by the Pharisees and the Hellenized
Sadducees in Yerushalayim, both of whom colluded with the Gentile government
each to their own extent to the detriment of the Jewish People and who
monopolized the Temple Service by brute force and bribery; the כהנים
who founded היחד,
and continued to serve as the moral and spiritual mentors of the society, were
unable to perform the physical aspects of העבודה. However, they were able to perform the חלופים,
i.e., the internal, moral/spiritual aspect of העבודה, and they did -
masterfully.
Far
from being an eschatological document written by a group that had become
increasingly separatist, disenfranchised and extreme, as is commonly thought, ר"ל,
the "War Scroll" is actually a last-ditch effort on the part of היחד to save
the Jewish People from disaster. Beneath what appears to be the text to those
who merely skim the surface of the text are profound prayers and invocations of
Divine Names for the sake of trying to protect the Jewish People.
For
instance: in Column XIV, Verse 14 we find the contiguous words:
כיא גדולה מ[חשבת כבו]דכה ורזי
נפלאותיכה במרומי[כה
Before
discovering the theophoric Names in the above words, let it be understood that
the praises of ישראל
to ה יתברך
in their prayers are mirrored by the praises of ה יתברך of ישראל.
The above passage is not only a praise of HaShem, it is meant to remind ישראל
of her greatness as a People. The Jews had forgotten that they are an aspect of
HaShem in creation and to what purpose they, as a People, had come into
creation. The words above were meant to
arouse them from their slumber and delusions and bring them back.
Within
the words above we find the overlapping theophoric Names:
אהיה, י-ה, הויה, א-ל, א-לה, א-לוה,
א-להימ, א-דני, מיכאל, גדליהו, רפאל, רזיאל, אוריאל, פניאל, פנואל, דניאל, נוריאל
If
we accept the reconstruction of the text, we can add the Names:
שד-י, גבריאל, ומישאל
to the list of theophoric Names to be found in the passage
above as well.
Lest
it be thought that the passage above was chosen because it alone contains many
theophoric Names, but that this is atypical of the "War Scroll" as a
whole, I invite the reader to reread the scroll with an open mind and
heart.
The
theophoric names in the "War Scroll" are written into the text on
various levels of conspicuity. In Column III, Verse 9 the name רזיאל
is quite apparent in the form of the expression רזי אל. Discovering the
name רזיאל
in the passage from Column XIV, Verse 14 shown above requires greater attention
and ability to discern names woven into the text. Still greater attention to
the internal structure of the text and knowledge of גימטריאות is
required to see that the name רזיאל is equal to the Name א-ל taken eight
times. The value 248, the value of the name
רזיאל,
equals the value of the Name א-ל, which is 31,
times 8.
If
it is true that the name רזיאל is equal to the Name א-ל taken eight
times, then it is necessarily true that the word רזי, equaling 217,
is equal to the Name א-ל, which equals 31 x 7. The word רזי is equal
to the following:
רזי = 217 = מכפר על עון = 1216 = 217
= ישראל מכפרים על הגוים =
2215 = 217 = הזהר = יוצא מההיכל =
אטהר אתם = שמחת בנותי =
ברירתם החפשית = יכפרו על עצמם =
מלכותכן = שבצי את האות א' =
Among
the infinity of חלופים for the Name א-ל one is
particularly significant in regard to the "War Scroll":
א-ל = 31 = תחית עם ישראל = 2029 = 31
Saying
the word רזי
and invoking the name רזיאל is praying for
תחית עם ישראל
seven (שבע) and eight (שמנה) times
respectively. A few חלופים for the name רזיאל are:
רזיאל = 248 = אוריאל = חמר = רחמ =
מעגלי התגמולים = 1247 =
248 = מפענח
It
should be noted that the name of the number שבע is itself equal
to
31 x 12, or the Name א-ל taken 12 times. The name of the number שמֹנה is an anagram/perfect
permutation of the word נשמה.
The words שמנה and נשמה are equal to the
expression יודע כפרה.
חלופים
for the name א-היה
found in the passage above reveal similar intentions:
א-היה = 21 = קדושים = 1020 = 21 =
לכפר למענך
רפאל = 311 = הכפור = שם קדשו = 1310
= 311 =
עצרת כל הצדיקים מכל זמן ומכל מקום =
3308 = 311
We
see from the חלופים
demonstrated that the matter of כפרה figures prominently in the "War
Scroll". We see that in addition to the many times that the Name א-ל is
written apparently in the scroll, there are many times
that the Name א-ל
appears in the form of words the values of which are multiples of the value of
the Name א-ל.
We have seen that a חלוף for the Name א-ל is תחית עם ישראל.
Truly,
it was the intention of the author/s of the "War Scroll" to bring
about expiation for ישראל and to protect their lives, not to bring
war upon them.
My
work elucidating many more examples will be ready for public viewing sometime
next year, אי"ה.
I
will have accomplished my task when this majestic scroll is renamed
סרכ השלום.
סרכ = 280 = עיר
שלום = 936 = שם א-לה = עולם צדק א-לה
=
לב כל בית ישראל עולם צדק = 1935 =
936 = א-לה כל כ"ז אותיות =
א-לה יחודים כל עם ישראל = א-לה יחוד
כל האדם עם ישראל
Doreen
Ellen Bell-Dotan,
קיץ ה'תשס"ד
DoreenDotan@gmail.com