Temurah () is one of the three ancient methods used by

Kabbalists Kabbalah ( he, קַבָּלָה ''Qabbālā'', literally "reception, tradition") is an esoteric method, discipline and school of thought in Jewish mysticism. A traditional Kabbalist is called a Mekubbal ( ''Məqūbbāl'' "receiver"). The defin ...

to rearrange words and sentences in the Bible, in the belief that by this method they can derive the

esoteric Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas ...

substratum and deeper spiritual meaning of the words (the others are

Gematria Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher ...

and

Notarikon Notarikon ( he, נוטריקון ''Noṭriqōn'') is a Talmudic and Kabbalistic method of deriving a word, by using each of its initial (Hebrew: ) or final letters () to stand for another, to form a sentence or idea out of the words. Another var ...

). Temurah may be used to change letters in certain words to create a new meaning for a Biblical statement. The

Hebrew alphabet The Hebrew alphabet ( he, אָלֶף־בֵּית עִבְרִי, ), known variously by scholars as the Ktav Ashuri, Jewish script, square script and block script, is an abjad script used in the writing of the Hebrew language and other Jewi ...

is an ''

Abjad An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vow ...

'' or consonantary alphabet. Techniques that applied to English will mostly transform sense into a nonsensical series of letters are more feasible in Hebrew.Renaissance and Rebirth , Brian Ogren, Brill, p. 155, There are three simple forms of Temurah: *''

Atbash Atbash ( he, אתבש; also transliterated Atbaš) is a monoalphabetic substitution cipher originally used to encrypt the Hebrew alphabet. It can be modified for use with any known writing system with a standard collating order. Encryption Th ...

'': Replacing the first letter with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second with the next-to-last, and so on. :א‎=ת‎, ב‎=ש‎, ג‎=ר‎, etc. *''Avgad'': Replacing each letter with the preceding letter. :א‎→ב‎, ב‎→ג‎, ג‎→ד‎ *''Albam'': Replacing the first letter of the alphabet with the twelfth, the second with the thirteenth, and so on. :א‎=ל‎, ב‎=מ‎, ג‎=נ‎, etc.

References

Kabbalah Kabbalistic words and phrases Language and mysticism {{Kabbalah-stub he:צופן אתב"ש

See also

References