The Voice of God is Upon the Waters: a look at water in the Talmud, the Torah and Kabbalah
With 60% of our bodies being composed from water and 71% of our planet being covered in water, clearly water is a critical factor in life.
Water is composed of two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen: H2O. In Biblical Hebrew water is called mayim, מים, which is also two parts “mem” (מ) to one part “yud” (י).
The second verse in the Bible says: “…and the Divine Presence hovered upon the surface of the waters.” This is followed by the famous “Let there be light”, followed by the next event which tells about a firmament inside the water which separated the upper waters from the lower waters.
The Hebrew letter “yud” is unique among the letters because it hovers over the baseline. Its numerical value 10 is equated with the 10 Sefirot. The Sefirot (from the Kabbala) are considered the schematic of Creation which in turn are considered the Divine Presence which “hovered upon the water” and brought the appearance of light.
The “mem”, being the middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is associated with the center and stability. The letter’s sound being onomatopoeia of humming, mem is regarded by the Jewish Sages as a vibration, wave or frequency.
The yud comes from above and splits the vibration/wave constituted by the mem in to two mems, like the splitting of the upper and lower waters.
If we break apart the word for water, we have the first “mem” with the first “yud” and then the second “yud” with the second “mem”. In the latter case the “yud” and “mem” combine to spell the word for sea, ים, just like the narrative of the Bible says: “God gathered in the lower waters and called them seas”.
In the first case the letters “mem” and “yud” spell the Hebrew word for Who, מי. Who is one of God’s highest names since its numerical value equals 50, known in the Kabbalah as the 50th Gate of Wisdom where opposites transform into oneness.
The numerical value of water in Hebrew is 90 which correlate to the Hebrew letter “tzaddi”, צ, and a reference to a holy person. This is because a holy person, like rain, brings life and Divine Kindness from above to even the lowliest places on earth.
When the holy person needs to purify, s/he immerses in a Mikveh which consists of 40 units of water corresponding to the numerical value of “mem”.
When the world needed purification it rained for 40 days and 40 nights. When the Israelites erred in the desert they had to be encapsulated in a period of 40 years in order to be purified. If a person wishes to purify bad character traits and turn them into positive ones, s/he should practice the new habits for 40 days when then they will have become part of one.
The Talmud quotes R. Eliezer as saying that all the water in the world comes from the Atlantic Ocean where the clouds sweeten the salt before it is released as rain. According to R. Yehoshua all the water in the world comes from heaven. The Talmud goes on to explain the cycle of evaporation and condensation.
However, of the four rivers mentioned in the Torah as coming out of the Garden of Eden, the Euphrates River runs on a higher altitude than the others and this makes it the source of all water on earth. The Talmud says its water reaches mountain springs through underground channels that work their way up like a ladder.
In Talmudic times it was estimated that a person used approximately 25 liquid meters of water a day. When assessing the water needs of a city this is very important information.
For example when discussing water rights, the Talmud says that if one city has enough water for its own and another city’s survival, but not for its own laundry, then the first city should keep the water for laundry. This is because a dirty person could easily develop skin boils, for which there is a cure whereas dirty clothes can lead to dementia which is incurable.
In the End of Days, says the (Green) Prophet, God will bring forth a freshwater spring from Jerusalem whose waters will heal all illnesses.
