CHAPTER SIX

VAV

(vahv)

SOUND: v or w

NUMERICAL VALUE: 6

Meanings

, the name of Vav, the sixth letter of the Aleph Beit, means “hook.” As a prefix to a noun, Vav means “and.”

In Biblical Hebrew, when used as a prefix to a verb, Vav serves a special function; it changes the tense of the verb from past to future or vice versa. In this role, Vav inverts time, connecting and transmuting past and future.

Vav equals the number six, the number of days in which the universe was created.

Application

Vav is an incredibly powerful letter of connection, of continuity, of unification through both time and space. When Vav connects with us, it is an opportunity to deepen our sense of unity and connection with all things.

One of the diseases of our time is feeling disconnected. Many of us lack a deep intimacy with the physical place where we live, the animals, plants, rivers, hills, rocks, and insects of our specific bioregions. We’re often disconnected from neighbors, family members, friends. We’re sometimes disconnected from our own bodies and our own emotions. We may feel disconnected from the realm of our ancestors. Often, we feel disconnected from God.

In fact, we spend much of our lives trying somehow to connect, to break down the walls of apparent separation. Vav, as one of the twenty-two letter energies with which the Holy created the universe, offers the encouragement that the power of connection is built deeply into the very structure of creation.

Vav’s energy of connection is embedded in the most sacred configuration of God’s name, , Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei. Vav shows us that, in fact, we may not be as separate as we feel. In fact, we may not be separate at all. This does not mean losing our individuality or uniqueness as sentient beings. It just means that we are not isolated and alone.

How do we foster a Vav-like sense of connection at the physical level? One way is to become conscious of the pull of gravity of our body center to the center of the earth. We are connected, center-to-center, belly-to-belly, with this spinning planet on which we live. We can take a few moments to bend our knees slightly, plant our feet firmly on the ground, and move our body center closer to the earth’s center. Then, we can feel the power of the earth entering up through our feet and legs all the way to our belly even as gravity hugs us down.

Our feet dwell down there at the mysterious edge, the border between us and the planet. They walk us through our lives, along the surface of the world, while our body’s core forms the Vav of connection with the core of the world, thus connecting us to everyone and everything else on this globe.

Even when we’re not aware of such a connection, we are indeed connected. In fact, it is possible to break down a sense of duality between us and the planet, and experience our walking as the earth itself walking, our breathing, or being breathed, as the planet breathing.

The act of eating is a profound act of uniting. The plants and animals and liquids we take into our bodies mysteriously become “us.” At the Passover table we unite with our ancestors when we taste the bitter herbs of affliction and the dryness of the unleavened matzah of the desert.

It was at a Passover seder that Jesus and his disciples ate the “Last Supper.” Jesus’ sharing of the matzah and the wine became the prototype for the sacrament of communion. Actually, every time we eat or drink or even breathe, we are partaking in communion, coming into union with the sun, the rain, the soil, the life force of plant or animal, the ancestors of that plant or animal, and also with the energies of the humans who raised the food, transported it, sold it, cooked it.

In acknowledgment of all this, observant Jews wash their hands and say a blessing each time before eating, and say prayers of thanks afterwards. Every act of eating or drinking is a miracle: a miracle of connection. Appreciating our food in this way, we feed our Vav awareness at the same time we nourish our bodies.

Through its energy of connection and unification, Vav helps heal a ruptured universe. Led by the sixteenth-century rabbi, Isaac Luria, the Kabbalists developed an idea known as “the shattering of the vessels.” In the beginning, God emanated divine light. In order for this light to be accessible to the finite world, it was poured into vessels corresponding to the ten Sefirot, or branches, of the Tree of Life. The vessels of the three highest branches were able to contain the light, but when it entered the lower branches, the great power of the divine light was too much for the vessels and they broke and the light was scattered.

Since that time, a fundamental responsibility of humans is to work at tikkun, repair of the vessels and the unification of the scattered and exiled shards of light. The appearance of the Messiah will mark the consummation of this ongoing process of restoration.

When the last vessel shattered, the Shechinah, the feminine, immanent aspect of the Divine, was driven into exile. Tikkun seeks to reunite the Shechinah, the Divine Bride, with the masculine, transcendent aspect of the Divine. The scholar Gershom Scholem writes that “in one way or other the true purpose of the Torah” is to lead the Shechinah back to union with God.¹ Rabbi Luria taught that the fulfillment of each of the 613 commandments should be accompanied with the declaration that the act was done for the sake of uniting the Holy One and the Shechinah.

The shattering of the vessels and the exile of the Shechinah parallel the fall from the Garden of Eden. With the shattering of the vessels, God’s very nature is split. The male and female parts of the Divine, the transcendent and immanent, are exiled from each other. No wonder we humans feel a void or separation within ourselves. No wonder there is such a gulf and such tension between men and women.

Vav forwards the process of tikkun. It embraces opposites. As the saying goes, “These and these are true.”

Ironically, one of these seeming opposites is that while the world is broken, at the same time there is nothing to repair! It just is what it is. Maybe tikkun is realizing, not just intellectually but vividly and viscerally, that all is okay, that it’s all going to be all right.

Vav gathers together the scattered sparks of divine light from the six corners of the universe and from past and future. By selecting Vav, one is called to be part of the great unifying process of tikkun. Each person has a key role to play in bringing together the sparks of divinity, of uniting the Bride and the Groom, healing the rift between woman and man. Vav inspires us to become agents of connection, of re-union to help usher in the messianic age in which exile is ended, the vessels of divine light are repaired, and wholeness and harmony reign.

Vav encourages us to find our special place in the process of restoring the light of creation. How will we help forward tikkun? This is our challenge and our destiny. Some people attempt tikkun olam, “repair of the world,” in a very practical way through political participation, environmental action, community involvement. Others approach the challenge of tikkun more mystically. Vav conveys the general quality of the process, namely connection and unification. Through our prayers and actions performed with kavanah, intention, we contribute, each in our unique way, to this cosmic repair job.

Vav’s Shadow

Getting “hooked” is one of the negative sides of Vav. Addictions of all sorts are a kind of over-connectedness. Are we addicted to novelty, to praise, to work, to stimulation, to our own personal melodramas?

Are we over-identified with another person? It’s wonderful to have a profound connection with someone, but how easily that connection can slip into an unhealthy codependence. There is a time for consensus and there is a time to take strong, unilateral action. Vav serves as a reminder to nurture and welcome our connections to others, while not neglecting to nurture our own unique individuality as well.

Personal Comments

Sometimes I wander about the city streets, and people seem so different from me. I feel cut off from them, cut off from the land, cut off from my ancestors, cut off from myself.

In moments of grace, though, Vav comes to my aid. Vav reminds me that at the roots we are connected, at the roots we are actually part of the same tree. Vav is upright like a tree. Trees connect heaven and earth. Vav connects you and me. The fruits of this tree are beauty and life. Vav prods me to look beneath the surface appearance and see the web of connection all around me. By connecting me to all things, Vav connects me to myself.

 

Summary for Vav

Numerical value:	6
Meanings:	Hook. And. Connection.
Application:	Connect to the earth through the feet.
	Feed our connection as we feed our bodies.
	Discover one’s path of tikkun, repair.
Shadow:	Getting hooked.
	Codependence.
Reflection:	What are some ways I can forward the process of connection, of re-union, of tikkun?
Suggested action:	For a few minutes today, sit quietly and watch your breath. As you do so, imagine yourself not so much breathing as being breathed. This is the ever-present activity of Ruach Ha-olam, Spirit of the World (one of the names of God).