Shem HaMephorash

English

Alternative forms

Shem HaMeforash

Etymology

From Hebrew הַשֵּׁם הַמְפוֹרָשׁ (haššēm hamp̄ōrāš, literally “the explicit name”).

Proper noun

Shem HaMephorash

1. (Judaism, mysticism) One of the esoteric names of God within Kabballah, corresponding to the Tetragrammaton, often referring to a 72-worded variant in particular.
   • 1865, Christian David Ginsburg, The Kabbalah: Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature, page 100:

     Neither the divine name composed of twelve letters, nor the one of forty-two letters, ever obtained the title of Shem HaMephorash—this being the designation of the particular name, or the Tetragrammaton, as we have already propounded.

   • 1963, George Horowitz, The Spirit of Jewish Law:

     The death penalty was inflicted only upon the blasphemer who used the Ineffable Name, the Shem HaMephorash, YHWH, or its equivalent Adonai (“Our Lord”).

   • 2014, Avram Davidson, The Avram Davidson Treasury, →ISBN:

     And one time only he disobeyed the Rabbi Low, and Rabbi Low erased the Shem HaMephorash from the golem's forehead and the golem fell down like a dead one.

   • 2017, Brian Pivik, Gematria and the Tanakh, →ISBN, page 244:

     Shaah - To lay waste, devastate; 28th name of Shem HaMephorash