Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah)

Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance · Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah)

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About Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 defuses an anthropomorphism into letters. Asked what "the LORD is a man of war (ish)" (Exodus 15:3) can mean, Rabbi Amorai answers through the three letters of ish (איש) -- alef, yod, shin -- figured as a king's three finest "dwellings," each with its own name, which the king gathers into "one name" and "one house" for his son. Each letter is a grade: Alef is the head (the first, later Keter); Yod is second to it (the yod of the divine name, Ḥokhmah); and Shin "includes the whole world" -- because teshuvah (repentance) is written with a shin, and return is the domain of Binah, the world-encompassing upper Mother. The divine "Man" of the Song at the Sea is thus read as the configuration of the three highest grades.

This is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction; the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) remains under copyright.

Sefer ha-Bahir 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

Sefer ha-Bahir · The Book of Brilliance

ספר הבהיר · כו

canonical late 12th c., Provence (ascribed to the 1st c. tanna) Hebrew Anonymous (attributed to R. Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah) tr. Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted, provisional)

An anthropomorphism read as letters: “the LORD is a man (ish) of war” (Exodus 15:3) unfolded through the three letters of ish — alef, yod, shin — as a king’s three finest dwellings, gathered into “one name” and “one house.” Alef is the head, Yod second to it, and Shin “includes the whole world,” because teshuvah (repentance) is written with a shin.

This is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim from the Hebrew Wikisource transcription; the standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) is under copyright.

אמר ר’ אמוראי מאי דכתיב (שמות ט”ו ג) ה’ איש מלחמה, אמר ליה מר רחומאי ברבי לא תבעי לך מילתא דפשיטא, שמע לי ואמלכינך, א”ל למה”ד למלך שהיה לו דירות נאות ושם שם לכל אחד ואחד מהם וכולן זו טובה מזו, אמר אתן לבני דירה זו ששמה אל”ף, גם זו טובה ששמה יו”ד גם זו טובה ששמה שי”ן, מה עשה אספן כל השלשה ועשה מהם שם אחד ועשה מהם בית אחד, א”ל עד מתי תסתום דבריך, א”ל בני אל”ף ראש, יו”ד שני לה, שי”ן כולל כל העולם, ולמה שי”ן כולל כל העולם מפני שכתוב בה תשובה:

Rabbi Amorai said: what is written (Exodus 15:3), ‘the LORD is a man of war (ish milchamah)’? Mar Rechumai the elder said to him: do not ask about a plain matter — listen to me and I will advise you. He said to him: a parable — to what is it comparable? To a king who had fine dwellings, and to each and every one of them he gave a name, and all of them were good, one better than the other. He said: I will give my son this dwelling, whose name is Alef; also this good one, whose name is Yod; also this good one, whose name is Shin. What did he do? He gathered the three of them, and made from them one name, and made from them one house (bayit). He said to him: how long will you seal up your words? He said to him: my son — Alef is the head, Yod is second to it, Shin includes the whole world. And why does Shin include the whole world? Because ‘teshuvah (repentance)’ is written with it.

Provisional draft (pending scholarly review)

An orientation

This edition sets the verbatim Hebrew beside a fresh English rendering and a critical apparatus: a running commentary on the passage, notes on the controlled vocabulary and the rendering chosen for each term, and cross-references to the lexicon and to related sections. It is a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor.

Apparatus

the LORD is a man of war: the letters of Ish

Rabbi Amorai reads Exodus 15:3 (‘the LORD is a man of war’) not as anthropomorphism but as letters: the three letters of ish (איש, ‘man’) — alef, yod, shin — are the king’s three finest ‘dwellings,’ gathered into ‘one name’ and ‘one house.’ Each is a grade: Alef is the head (the first, later Keter), Yod is second to it (the yod of the divine name, Ḥokhmah), and Shin includes the whole world (Binah). The divine ‘Man’ of Exodus 15:3 is thus the configuration of the three highest grades — the Bahir’s letter-mysticism applied to the anthropos-name, defusing the anthropomorphism into structure.

why shin includes the whole world: teshuvah

The reason given for shin’s all-inclusion: ‘teshuvah (repentance)’ is written with a shin. In the Kabbalah teshuvah (return) is the domain of Binah — the world-encompassing upper Mother, the ‘world to come,’ the source of the return that sustains the world — and the three-pronged shin figures this all-including grade. To say the shin ‘includes the whole world’ is to read the letter as Binah, the place to which all returns.

Tradition: jewish-mysticism
Language: Hebrew
Period: late 12th c., Provence (ascribed to the 1st c. tanna)
Attribution: Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah)
Translator: Hekhal Targum Project (machine-assisted draft; pending scholarly review)
License: Underlying Bahir text public domain by age; digital Hebrew transcription from Hebrew Wikisource (CC-BY-SA) via Sefaria, credited; English rendering and apparatus CC-BY-SA-4.0
Provenance: The Sefer ha-Bahir is a late-12th-century work, in the public domain by age. The Hebrew is reproduced verbatim from the Hebrew Wikisource transcription (CC-BY-SA), retrieved via Sefaria and credited accordingly. This English rendering and its apparatus are a provisional scholarly draft, released openly for correction and not yet reviewed by a credentialed editor. The standard modern English translation (Kaplan, 1979) remains under copyright.

@misc{hekhal-texts-sefer-ha-bahir-26-targum-2026,
  author       = {{Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah)}},
  title        = {{Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {{Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition}},
  url          = {https://hekhal.org/texts/sefer-ha-bahir-26-targum},
  urldate      = {[date accessed]}
}

Author: Anonymous (attributed to Rabbi Neḥunya ben ha-Kanah)
Title: Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)
In: Hekhal: An Open Reference for Esoteric Tradition
Last revised: May 2, 2026
URL: hekhal.org/texts/sefer-ha-bahir-26-targum

Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

About Sefer ha-Bahir § 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

Sefer ha-Bahir 26 -- the LORD is a man of war (the letters of Ish)

the LORD is a man of war: the letters of Ish

why shin includes the whole world: teshuvah

keter

chokhmah

binah

Further reading