72 names of God

What are the 72 names of God ?

I asked myself the question " What are the 72 names of God ? " and kind of regretted it. I regretted asking myself about another mysterious thing about the number 72 because I knew then that i would be consumed by the need to know the answer. So I went seeking of enlightenment about the 72 Jewish names of their deity.

The Hebrew bible is more modernly referred to as the Tanakh. It differs from the Old Testament of the Christians in the ordering of the sacred manuscripts that make up the pre-Christian era of religion in Eurasia and parts of Africa and elsewhere.

The first five books of the Tanakh are exactly the same as the OT. These are the books or the Torah.

1. Genesis
2. Exodus - the 72 names of God of Kabbalah are found in 14: 19-20 in this book
3. Leviticus
4. Numbers
5. Deuteronomy

The Torah is law.

The next section of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh contains the works of prophets.  The Nevaiim is what the Hebrew called this second section of the Tanakh. The Nevaiim is broken down into 3 sections. The first section contains the gospels of the former prophets. The second section is the gospel of the Latter Day Prophets. The third section of the Nevaiim is the Book of Twelve.

The Nevi'im of the Tanakh

1. Former Prophets
1. Joshua
2. Judges
3. Samuel
1. Sam 1
2. Sam 2
4. Kings
1. Kings 1
2. Kings 2
2. Latter Prophets
1. Isaiah
2. Jeremiah
3. Ezekiel
3. Book of Twelve
1. Hosea
2. Joel
3. Amos
4. Obediah
5. Johah
6. Micah
7. Nahum
8. Habakkuk
9. Zephaniah
10. Haggai
11. Zechariah
12. Malachi

The last part of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh is the Writings. The Hebrew called this section Kethuvim.

The books of the Kethuvim

1. Psalms
2. Proverbs
3. Job
4. Song of Songs
5. Ruth
6. Lamentation
7. Ecclesiastes
8. Esther
9. Daniel
10. Ezra
11. Nehemiah
12. Chronicles
1. Chronicles 1
2. Chronicles 2

Why did I need to know what the Hebrew Tanakh was in order to answer " What are the 72 names of God ?.

The Zohar is a book of commentaries on the Torah. The Zohar is part of the Kabbalah philosophy which jewishvirtuallibrary defines as "Jewish mysticism". Kabbalah.info states that the Zohar is a book of commentaries on the Torah and a guideline for advanced practitioners of Kabbalah who have already advanced along the path of spiritual enlightenment.

Shemhamephorash
Kabbalah

Kabbalah is tradition. It is nearly as old as the religion of Abraham the first Jew who lived in 1800 BC when Judaism starts to manifest itself. Abraham lives in the same period as the powerful and mystical priest king Melchizedek. He is the ruler of Salem, (Ur'Shalem - Ur'el - Ariel - Jer Ur'Shalem, Jerusalem ). Several hundred years later Saul is named King and the Jew is Salem/Jerusalem. Then David, then Solomon and the tribes of Judah are split from the tribes of the Israelites and go north to be eaten up by the Assyrians then the neo Babylonians and the Temple of Solomon on the Mound is no more.
Likely Kabbalah rises in parallel to the philosophy of Abraham and the philosophy of Melchizedek. Kabbalah evolves throughout the ages as a tradition of mystic practices which attempts to harmonize life and the afterlife to the nature of the Universe. Energy is a big thing in the world of the Kabbalist.

Having found out what Kabbalah was and how the Zohar made comments about the Tanakh's Torah and was studied and meditated upon by the Kabbalist to achieve higher levels of soul enlightenment we felt a little closer to answering the question " What are the 72 names of God ? "

The 72 names of God are not actual names we found out as we dug deeper. 

The 72 names of God are also known as the Shem-Hamphorash or Shem-Ha-Mephorasch or some variation of such. Each of the 72 Shemhamphorash is an energy channel which can be tapped into by a trained Kabbalist. To some, this type of playing with the mystical properties of nature is equal to practicing occult ritual. To the Kabbilist it is a method of enlightening the physical by connecting with the soul.

The Torah explicitly condemns occultism or the practice of using divine names for magical purposes that are self serving. Judaism has its own set of names for God and lesser spirits. The Kabbilist mystic has a much more extensive list. There be a major difference between the overman of Salem and the prophet Abraham who meet of the hill of Salem and the adjacent hill where the world of trade is being carried out in the souk by the Meditteranean. Salem's philosophies moves over water and travels the wind of time into the paradigm of distant tribes.

Who is right is opinion and a matter of interpretation of what is divine. 

Being a great Kabbalist is like being a great monk who knows certain secrets about the universe that the rest of us don't. There are great monks in Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Confucionism, Satanism and any other religious "ism". It seems anyone can tap into metaphysical energy fields if they so choose to. The problem with tapping into energies that are supernatural is that they can master us and control us faster than we can control them. Hence the temperament that leads to the exorcists altar. Be careful who you pray to for there is a always a broker trying to push the truth of someone around.

Kabbalist rituals are meant to tap into the paranormal energy of the universe. The Zorah is for use by advanced Kabbalists. Somehow in our modern age everyone other person seems to want to be a priest or priestess ( pick your flavour of Kool Aid and you too can drive the spirit of a religion or philosophy ).

So now we have an answer to " What are the 72 names of God ? ". But we only know the beginning of the story. 

Open Exodus ( the hebrew language one), the second book of the Torah, and you can locate the scriptural passages that are the foundation of the 72 letters within the name of the singular energy. The rest of the story of What are the 72 names of God is better told here. 

72 names of God and other numbers

    

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Resources

Christian OT and Jewish Tanakh

Kabbalah Center