Master of the Voice קול

Written By Rochel Weiman
 

Inspired by Kedushas Levi, Yisro, "Bachodesh HaShlishi"
בחודש השלישי לצאת בני ישראל מארץ מצרים ביום הזה באו
מדבר סיני (שמוית יט, א)

“In the third month after the Israelites ‎having departed from the land of Egypt, (on the first of the ‎month), on this day, they came to the desert of Sinai.”

Even the most suffocatingly constricted experiences become saturated with the deepest light of expansivity - portals, all, to realms of infinite meaning. Perceiving life in this way, we affect a remarkable "yichud", connecting letters (final ה) to voice (ו), voice to thought (first ה), and thought to Hashem's Infinite Light (י), and new realms of perception are born into our experience of the human condition.

A closer ‎look at the word ‎סיני‎

reveals that it is a term used for expressing ‎the entire range of the Torah in all its ramifications. ...‎קול‎, “sound,” is a composite of ‎several components, i.e. fire, water and wind, (air).

When ‎speaking of ‎דבור אלוקים‎, “Hashems speech",

this is ‎something beyond man’s ability to define and analyze. The terms ‎קול, דבור‎, “sound” and “speech” respectively, are indistinguishable ‎when applied to G’d. The two commandments at Mount Sinai, ‎אנכי‎ and ‎לא יהיה לך‎, which the entire Jewish people heard with ‎their ears directly from G’d’s ‘mouth,’ actually combined within ‎them the entire Torah, something that the mouth of a mortal ‎person is certainly unable to express simultaneously. Our limited ‎powers of perception do not even enable us to express two ‎different subjects simultaneously, how much less so the entire ‎Torah. Studying the written Torah handed down to us by Moshe, ‎shows us that ‎something similar is true of the sayings of our sages in the ‎Talmud, i.e. every saying has more than one meaning, the reason ‎being that the root of all these sayings is based on the Torah.

* והא חזינן דתיבת סיני, הוא מורה על כוללות הכל ששם נכללו כל התורה והדיבורים. והנה ידוע דקול הוא בחינה כוללת מכמה בחינות מאש, ורוח, ומים. והנה דיבור אלהים אין לשער מה שיכול לכלול ואצלו יתברך אין חילוק בין קול לדיבור, כי יכול לכלול בדיבור כל הענינים כמו ששמענו בהר סיני אנכי ולא יהיה לך ושני דיבורים אלו כללו כל התורה מה שאין הפה יכול לדבר, אבל דיבור הגשמי אי אפשר לכלול זולת דיבור אחד.

אמנם כשאדם מאמין שכל הבלים והדיבורים היוצאים מפיו הם הכל כח וחיות הבורא ורוח ה' דיבר בו ואז כשמקשר הדיבור בקול והקול במחשבה בשורש הרוחני וחיות אלהות אז אף על פי שאין הדיבור יכול לכלול כמה דיבורים יכול הוא להיות מכמה ענינים וכמה שכליים והדיבור מתפוצץ לכמה חלקים כיון שהוא דיבור אלהים, כמו שאנו רואים בתורה כל דיבור של משה שכתוב בתורה כל תיבה כלול מכמה ענינים בדילין ומתפרשין לכמה גוונין לכן דברי התנאים ואמוראים כל דיבור כלול מכמה ענינים מחמת שהיה דיבורם נקשר בשורש וכוחות אלהות.

-Sefaria

Based on post by Rabbi Yaakov Klein

Speech consists of 2 distinct stages:

1. Production & Sound of the voice

2. Processing of the voice through the oratory faculties of the throat and mouth.

VOICE contains 3 elements:

  1. י Water (moisture),

  2. ה Fire (warmth)

  3. ו Air (breath)

ה Afar/ Earth: There are 5 ORATORY FACULTIES IN THE THROAT & MOUTH WHICH PRODUCE LETTERS which are combined in the element of Earth; they give the other, more spiritual and transient, elements the form they need to manifest in this world, taking pure and non-communicatory voice and turning it into meaningful language:

  1. ✨Throat

  2. ✨Tongue

  3. ✨Teeth

  4. ✨Lips

  5. ✨Palate

The elements of Water, Fire & Air are reflected in the first 3 letters of Hashem's Name, the first 3 legs of the Merkava:

  • ה Avraham / Water / kindness/unity

  • י Yitzchak / Fire / severity/fragmentation

  • ו Yaakov / Air / VOICE / compassion/nuanced synthesis.
    Thus, Yaakov (Tiferet), the synthesis of the first 2 elements is the 3rd, Master of the Voice - "Hakol kol Yaakov."

  • ה sofit: David / Earth / Speech:
    the numerical value 5 reflecting the five oratory faculties, and is channeled by the final leg of the Merkava, David HaMelech, whose legacy is largely one of speech. The physical world is the final letter ה - Olam Ha'Asiya. It is a realm of demarcation, fragmentation, distinction, and limit.

This is the deeper meaning of Hashem's having "spoken" the world into existence”. Taken alone, this realm is lifeless; an earthy corpse of materialistic rot. It is akin to a person mouthing letters without the investment of
intention / kavana into thought >
thought into voice, & >
voice into speech
It is a realm without meaning - a body without a soul.

The 3 realms beyond: Yetzira, Beriya, and Atzilus are realms of life, of animating spiritual essence. Working within it... our world comes to life in the most wondrous way.

  • ✨P'shat / the layer of the material world / lifeless letters / Asiya / Earth

  • ✨Remez / to discern the symbolism / Yetzira /Air / YAAKOV

  • ✨ D'rush/ spiritual meaning / Beriyah/Fire /YITZCHAK

  • ✨Sod /Divine energy / Atzilus/Water / AVRAHAM

    Even the most suffocatingly constricted experiences become saturated with the deepest light of expansivity - portals, all, to realms of infinite meaning. Perceiving life in this way, we affect a remarkable "yichud", connecting letters (final ה) to voice (ו), voice to thought (first ה), and thought to Hashem's Infinite Light (י), and new realms of perception are born into our experience of the human condition.

    YICHUD:
    ה last / letters >
    ו / voice >
    ה first / thought >
    י / kavana? / Hashem's Infinite Light

 
Rochel Weiman
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