No'am Adonai Eloheinu aleinu uma'aseh yadeinu konenah aleinu uma'aseh yadeinu konenehu. We are learning Ateret Mordechai, the kavanot (intentions) of parnasah (livelihood), and we are in the sefer on resh-tzadi-bet.
We begin with “Nashuv ledivrei Sha'ar HaKavanot,” dibur hamatchil pasuk (verse) sham: “Bi'er haRav kavanah shelishit be'inyan Pote'ach et yadecha (You open Your hand), vezeh leshono: kevar yada'ta mah shekatav haZohar beTikunim.” Here we will mention the introduction of the Tikunim: Pote'ach et yadecha, al tikrei (do not read) yadecha, from the word yad, “hand,” meaning that God opens His hands, but rather yodecha, from yud (the letter yud): open the yudin (the letter yud). What are those yudin? “Vehem shenei yudin shel Havayah-Adanut, ot rishonah ve'ot acharonah.” They are the first and last letters of Havayah and Adanut. The first letter of Havayah is a yud, and the last letter of Adanut is a yud.
So the pasuk is saying, “Pote'ach”—open it up; open the yudin. “Pote'ach et yodecha”—open it up so that you have Havayah-Adanut. Do you remember the old siddurim, when they used to write the shemot (Divine names) as yud-yud? Why did they write yud-yud? Because that is a way of writing Havayah-Adanut. The first yud stood for yud-keh-vav-keh, and the second yud stood for Adanut. Instead of giving you the whole name, they gave you two yudin. That is the way they wrote it.
He is saying that there is a kavanah when you say Pote'ach et yadecha: yodecha. “Uveineihem, uven otam bet yudin, yesh vav (the letter vav) otiyot.” There are six letters between those two yudin: alef, heh, dalet, vav, nun, and heh. “Kaminyan vav”—six letters, corresponding to vav. “Vetzurat vav hi nekudat patach.” The shape of the vav is the vowel point patach. We know that nekudot (vowel points) also have a gematriya (numerical value). The patach is like the letter vav, only horizontal. Instead of making a vav vertical, you make it a patach. Numerically, patach equals six. Pote'ach comes from patach. So “patach et yodecha” means: open the yudin, put a patach between them, put six letters between them, and that is a new kavanah in Pote'ach et yadecha.
“Omnam, az zeh vav otiyot vehu tzurat vav.” It is six letters, and it has the shape of a vav. “Mah zeh patach alef?” What is patach? It is a vav-shaped line: six letters, in the shape of a vav. “Vehu tzurat vav, patach echad”—perhaps one patach. “Vezehu pote'ach.” That is the pshat (plain meaning). What does pote'ach mean? Look at the letters: patach-vav. In Pote'ach, it means open up the vav. What vav? “Et yadecha”—et yodecha. That means open up the yudin with a vav in between, as mentioned in the introduction to the Tikunim.
Here he first explains that the introduction to the Tikunim contains two parts of the kavanah in Pote'ach et yadecha, and both deal with the name Havayah-Adanut. There are two kavanot. The first kavanah deals with the first yud and the last yud of the name; those two yudin are alluded to in yadecha, yodecha. The second kavanah deals with the six letters between those two yudin.
If we ask, “Where in Pote'ach et yadecha is there an allusion to the six?” the Rav answers that the vav is alluded to in the shape of the patach. The shape of the patach is a vav, and the shape of this vowel point is alluded to in Pote'ach, because pote'ach can be read as patach. So patach is a vav, and that is how we have this kavanah.
We return to Sha'ar HaKavanot, which says, “Vetzurat vav hi nekudat patach.” In Pri Etz Chayim it says, “Tzurat vav patach alef,” so we have to see what that means. It is understandable that the Rav means to explain that the shape of patach is a vav; that is what we wrote. The Rav Kiseh Melech, letter heh, explicitly writes this in his explanation of the introduction to the Tikunim. He says, “Nish'aru vav otiyot kazo”—six letters remain, alef, heh, and so on. They have the numerical value of vav, and the vav is alluded to in the shape of the vowel point patach, which is called rakia (firmament).
Now we have something else. He says that rakia corresponds to patach: Tiferet (beauty), which is a vav. Tiferet is the vav, exactly, “ki patach niftach umitpashet ve'eino agol”—because patach opens and spreads out and is not round. That is why it is called patach. Some of the nekudot, I suppose, are rounded, whereas patach is open and flat. A chirik (chirik vowel) is round; a sheva (sheva vowel) has circles, so those are round. A kamatz (kamatz vowel) is a patach with a circle underneath. They all have circles. Here, patach is straight and open, mefutach. He says, “Kav niftach umitpashet kazeh”—a line that opens and spreads out like this. We can now understand that the shape of patach is a line that opens and spreads out. Its shape is a vav when it is not standing but lying down. As we said, it is horizontal, not vertical, and its numerical value is six. These six vavs are the six letters between the two yudin.
Let us return to the introduction to the Tikunim, which is also written briefly in Sha'ar HaKavanot. To understand it well, we should quote what is written there. “Be'od raza nekudei”—he is explaining the secret of the nekudot. “Tzarikh le'achzara alaihu,” and he begins explaining the patach. He says, “Patach becheshbon otiyotav ihu yud.” What does that mean? With the numerical value of its letters, patach is a yud. To understand how patach is a yud, let us learn at a favorable time. Yafeh Sha'ah explains this in letter resh-mem-chet: patach is in mispar katan (reduced number).
Let us calculate mispar katan. Peh is 80, whose reduced number is eight. Tav is 400, so that is four, and chet is eight. Therefore, the mispar katan is 8 plus 4 plus 8, which is 20, corresponding to yud: yud-vav-dalet is 20. That is the secret. Patach corresponds to yud in mispar katan, which comes to 20. And yud, which comes to 20, corresponds to the two yudin of Havayah-Adanut combined. Why do I need a double yud? Why do I need yud-vav-dalet? The secret of yud-vav-dalet corresponds to the two yudin, ten and ten, in the outer letters of Havayah-Adanut. How do I allude to those two yudin? With yud-vav-dalet. That is already Havayah-Adanut combined: as will be explained further on in the introduction to the Tikunim.
Now we return to the continuation of the words of Zohar and Tikunim: “Ukhotiv, ‘Pote'ach et yadekha umasbi'a lekhol chai ratzon,’ ve'ukmuha.” Ve'ukmuha means that they explained it: al tikrei yadekha from the word yad, but yudekha from the letter yud. Those yudekha are the yud-yud of Havayah-Adanut. “Uva'an atar mitpatchin”—in what place does that patach open? The answer is, “Birki'a.” Where is it found? In a place called rakia, which is Tiferet.
Tiferet is the VaK (the six extremities: Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod (foundation)), corresponding to the letter vav in the sequence of ten. That is the patach: its shape is a vav, whose value is six, and it is “maftei'ach kalil.” That is the “umephatach kelil,” the six letters in the middle. In other words, the name without the first and last yud has six letters in the middle. The two yudin at the beginning and end, together with the rakia between them, which is Tiferet and the six letters, are yud-vav-yud. That is the contracted form: yud, the six letters as a vav, and yud—26. That is the secret of 26. Now you can look at Havayah-Adanut as 26, and therefore the numerical value of Havayah is worth considering. Look at that: who would have thought that Havayah-Adanut, which we always know as 91, could be configured in a way that equals 26?
Let us return to the overall discussion in Sha'ar HaKavanot, at the beginning of the dibur hamatchil pasuk. We understand that there are three kavanot in Pote'ach et yadecha. The first kavanah concerns rashei tevot (initial letters): Pote'ach et yadecha, peh-alef-yud, which is one of the 72 names. The second kavanah concerns the numerical value and gematriya of the rashei tevot of Pote'ach et yadecha. We said that its numerical value is the combined value of Havayah-Adanut. Peh-alef-yud equals 91, which is the value of Havayah-Adanut.
Then the Rav explained a third kavanah, according to Tikunei HaZohar: al tikrei yadecha ela yodecha. That is also a Havayah-Adanut. So all these are just from the first three words? That's unbelievable. So peh-alef-yud is Havayah-Adanut, but it is also alluded to in Pote'ach et yodecha. We should remember the words of Sha'ar HaKavanot: yodecha refers to the yud at the beginning and the yud at the end of the name. Pote'ach refers to patach-vav, whose shape is a spreading line; that is the vav, which comes to six. These are the six letters.
Now let us explain what is similar and what is different between the second and third kavanot. At first glance, the second kavanah is also 91, and 91 is Havayah-Adanut. Then what? You do Pote'ach et yadecha in this way, but you reach the same conclusion: Havayah-Adanut. He wants to know what is similar and what is different.
We will begin with what these two kavanot have in common: both deal with the name Havayah-Adanut. Nevertheless, there is also a difference between them. In the second kavanah, which is the rashei tevot of Pote'ach et yadecha, peh-alef-yud, we focus on its numerical value, which is the combined value of Havayah-Adanut. It is the rashei tevot of all three words: Pote'ach et yadecha.
But the al tikrei deals only with two words: yadecha, yodecha, and Pote'ach. In the first kavanah we said Pote'ach et yadecha, so the word et is involved. In this third kavanah, set et aside. You are dealing with Pote'ach and yodecha; et is not part of the kavanah. The difference is how many words are involved. It is yadecha, yodecha, and Pote'ach, but the word et has no kavanah here.
There is another difference. In the kavanah of the rashei tevot peh-alef-yud, we deal only with the initial letters, not with the other letters. In the third kavanah, however, we deal with the complete words: yadecha, yodecha, Pote'ach, and patach, not only with the rashei tevot.
We should also note that in the second kavanah, whose subject is the rashei tevot peh-alef-yud, the focus is on the numerical value of peh-alef-yud, which is also the numerical value of Havayah-Adanut: 91. But in the third kavanah, al tikrei, we are not dealing with the numerical value or the gematriya. We are dealing with eight letters: two letters in yodecha, representing the yudin at the beginning and end of Havayah-Adanut, and six letters in Pote'ach-patach, representing the letters between the two yudin.
We will finish with another difference. You see how technical he is. He wants to find every single chiluk, because if you study it technically, you'll find chidushim in the chilukim. You're not just saying, “Okay, it's a similar kavanah.” No, he finds every difference. In the numerical value of the three words peh-alef-yud, we deal with eight letters; the name is complete. But in the al tikrei kavanah, we divide the letters of the name into two parts. It is six and two, not eight: yodecha is two, and Pote'ach-patach is six. So the name is divided into a different configuration. Yodecha refers to the two yudin at the beginning and end of the name; patach, or Pote'ach, refers to the six letters in the middle.
Later, according to the siddur of the Rashash, we will explain more differences between these two kavanot. I have gone at length here to explain the differences between the second and third kavanot so that we understand clearly that the other kavanot here refer to two distinct and separate kavanot, even though both deal with Havayah-Adanut.
Let us return to the siddur of the Rashash, at the dibur hamatchil patach. First, we should mention that in the siddur, the Rashash arranged all three kavanot of Pote'ach et yadecha. First is the rashei tevot peh-alef-yud, one of the 72 names. That is straightforward: peh-alef-yud, with no gematriya, just the rashei tevot; it is one of the 72 shemot. The second is the same rashei tevot, peh-alef-yud, that we mentioned in the first kavanah, but here it is the numerical value of the combination Havayah-Adanut.
Remember, in the second kavanah we are not treating peh-alef-yud as one of the 72 names. We went over that a lot. The first time, peh-alef-yud is from the 72 names. The second time, we are not going back to the 72 names. It happens to be that peh-alef-yud equals 91. It is not the holy name; it happens to work out that way. What do you say, Jack? Fix it or no? Nothing? You didn't see anything? What do we do? Was it unplugged? Beautiful. Thank you.
The third kavanah is that within Havayah-Adanut there are two yudin. Those are the yudin in the middle, as when you do the Zohar. This is the interpretation of yadecha as yudin: there are two yudin, and between them—that is, between the two yudin mentioned earlier—there are six letters, the numerical value of vav. This is the added vav written in Siddur haYere, at the end of page 71. It is also in the siddur of Rav Hadayah, who writes its shape. We discussed the shape of the vav at length earlier.
The patach is the nekudat Chochmah (wisdom). We know that patach is the sefirah of Chochmah. As we say in “Atah chonen”: the Havayot, “Baruch Atah Hashem Chonen Hada'at.” Under Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei here is patach. You also have patach when we read, for example, in the Zohar Hakadosh, “Patach Eliyahu Hanavi zachur latov.” That is Chochmah, because we are trying to access the Chochmah of Eliyahu Hanavi. There is an allusion in their opening with patach. Patach comes from Chochmah. It is also called yesh. That is why the other sefirot open up. The kamatz is Keter, which is closed up.
But here he has a problem for himself: he just told you that the vav is Tiferet, and now he is telling you that the vav is patach, which is Chochmah. We already explained at length that this third kavanah contains two different teachings. From the word yadecha, interpreted as yud-yadecha, we learn about the two yudin at the beginning and end of Havayah-Adanut. From the word Pote'ach, we learn about the six letters between those two yudin. Those six are learned from the shape of patach, whose numerical value is vav, and it alludes to the six letters between the two yudin.
Now we come to Sidura de-Rashash. In its continuation, he adds to the words of the introductions to Tikunei HaZohar and explains the kavanah to have regarding the two yudin of the name and the six letters. We did not know there was a kavanah here. We thought you just had to think about two letters and six letters. The Rashash is now adding what you should think about regarding the two letters and the six.
The kavanah is to draw shefa (divine flow) from the yud of Havayah, which is Chochmah of Za. Its subject is the yud at the beginning of the combination of the eight letters, which is Chochmah, through the vav, whose subject is the six letters between the two yudin. These six are alluded to in patach, which is Tiferet and includes VaK, leading to the last yud of Adanut, which is Yesod of Nukva.
It is a journey. We have gone by express train. The idea is to get from the Chochmah of Za—that is the yud, since we always say Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei: yud is Chochmah, heh is Binah (understanding), vav is VaK, and the final heh is Nukva. We travel from the yud, Chochmah, down through Chesed, Tiferet, and all of Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. Then we arrive at the final yud, the yud of Adanut. Adanut is the Nukva. Which part of the Nukva do we reach? The Yesod of the Nukva.
So look at it: you went from Chochmah of Za all the way down to Nukva de-Yesod de-Nukva. That is the flight path of Havayah-Adanut. This is Pote'ach et yadecha. He says, “Lamadnu she-yud de-Havayah inyanah Chochmah de-Za”—we learned that the yud of Havayah refers to Chochmah of Za. From there shefa is drawn. That is where the shefa comes from. You have to reach Chochmah of Za, because that is where the action is. How is it drawn? Through the vav, the six letters, which are Tiferet and VaK, to the yud of Adanut, which is Yesod.
So the two yudin are Chochmah of Za and Yesod of Nukva, and the vav in the middle is Tiferet, including VaK. Through it, the shefa is drawn from Chochmah of Za to Yesod. The waypoints here are Chochmah of Za and Yesod of Nukva, but the shefa has to travel through Tiferet, which is VaK.
Now we can understand that in this third kavanah, the name Havayah-Adanut is divided into the two yudin separately and the six letters separately. The shefa is drawn from the first yud, and we want to deliver it to the last yud. How is the shefa drawn down? Through the six letters between them.
In the second kavanah, no: it is one name, Havayah-Adanut, which unites ZON—Abba ve-Imma, as mentioned at length earlier. We said earlier, ach be-ach. Havayah is Za and Adanut is the Nukva, and they form a zivug (union), at least in the first Pote'ach et yadecha, ach be-ach. That is a different kavanah. One is a zivug of Havayah-Adanut, and the other is a transfer of shefa from Chochmah down to Yesod de-Nukva.
According to the words of the Rashash, we can note another difference between the two kavanot in Pote'ach et yadecha, even though both deal with Havayah-Adanut. In the second kavanah, which concerns the first combination of peh-alef-yud as the gematriya of Havayah-Adanut, the four letters of Havayah appear to belong to ZON, while the four letters of Adanut belong to the Nukva. You can understand this from the printed siddur of the Rashash, page 12, column bet, on the left. Next to Havayah-Adanut, he wrote ZON.
Let us remember that this kavanah explains the union of ZON when they are ach be-ach, as we learned. But in the third kavanah, al tikrei, the shefa is drawn from the yud, Chochmah of Za, through the vav of Tiferet, which includes the VaK of Za, to the yud of Adanut, which is Yesod of Nukva. So here we divided the word completely differently. Before, we had Havayah-Adanut: Havayah is Za, Adanut is Nukva, and it is a zivug. Here, the yud is Za, and the alef is also Za. The second letter, from Adanut, is really Za. Which part of Za? The VaK of Za. The first seven letters are still in Za; only at the eighth letter do you reach the Nukva. In the other kavanah, it is four and four. Here, six letters are still in Za: you go from Chochmah to the six of VaK, and then end up in Nukva.
It seems that three letters of Adanut, alef-dalet-nun, also belong to the vav of Tiferet, which includes the VaK of Za, and do not belong to the Nukva. If we add these three letters to the four letters of Havayah of Za, we understand that Za has seven letters. In this kavanah, Za has seven letters; in the first kavanah, Za has only four. The Nukva has only one letter, whereas in the first kavanah it had four. That is the final yud, Yesod of Nukva. May Hashem enlighten our eyes, with Hashem's help.
We should also note that in the second kavanah, where Havayah is Za and Adanut is Nukva, the first heh of Havayah appears to be Binah of Za, the vav of Havayah is Tiferet of Za, and the final heh of Havayah is Malchut of Za. As we always say, yud is Chochmah, heh is Binah, vav is VaK, and heh is Malchut. But in the third kavanah, which is the drawing of shefa, it seems that the three letters of Havayah—yud-kei-vav-kei—are all Tiferet of Za. The yud is Chochmah, and then the heh-vav-heh are the rest, so we are putting all those into the VaK. That is their function.
Let us return to the words of the siddur of the Rashash. There are some iyunim (points for study) here. What does it say? “Uveineihem shesh otiyot mispar vav,” and then he writes, “Patach, nekudat Chochmah, vezehu Pote'ach.” Let us see what the Rashash wrote here: patach, nekudat Chochmah. It is nekudah de-Chochmah. That is nice.
First, we should explain that patach as nekudat Chochmah (wisdom) is indeed discussed in several places: Etz Chayim, Sha'ar HaShemot, and Tikunim. Now let us return to the Rashash's words and note what he wrote at the beginning: “Uveineihem shesh otiyot mispar vav.” Immediately afterward he wrote, “Patach, nekudat Chochmah.” From the Rashash's first statement, “Uveineihem shesh otiyot mispar vav,” it is clear that this comes from the words of the introduction to the Tikunim. There it explains that patach is rakia, Tiferet, and that it is the key that includes the six letters in the middle, between the two yudin. From this we learned that patach is vav, rakia.
So you have convinced me, Rashash: the vav is VaK, VaK corresponds to rakia, and that is the six. But then how does he come along and tell me that patach is Chochmah? This is not a problem only for this kavanah; it is a general question. We know that patach is Chochmah, and we know that it is also a vav. Correct. But now we have to deal with the Rashash telling us both in the same breath. You are telling me that it is VaK, so it is VaK, not Chochmah. How did the six, which is Tiferet, become patach, corresponding to the vav, which is Chochmah?
He is using both. Unless—I'm not going to answer, but unless you say that this is what it does: it connects to Chochmah to bring the shefa down to Yesod of Nukva. So that is a relative term. We can call it what it is, Tiferet, but we can also refer to the source from which it draws. If it draws from Chochmah, we call it that. That is how we usually answer these things, but let us see what the Rav says. Scratch whatever I just said from the record; it is an unofficial answer.
He says, “Ah, but we have a problem.” Let us return to the Rashash's words and note what he wrote at the beginning: “Uveineihem shesh otiyot mispar vav, patach nekudat Chochmah.” From the Rashash's first statement, “Uveineihem shesh otiyot mispar vav,” we understand that this comes from the introduction to the Tikunim. The Tikunim explain that patach is rakia, Tiferet, and that it is the key containing the six letters in the middle, between the two yudin. From this we said that patach is vav: rakia, Tiferet, including VaK. If so, we should ask: how, immediately afterward, does the Rashash write in the siddur, “Patach, nekudat Chochmah”? According to the Tikunim, patach means rakia, the six letters, Tiferet, and not Chochmah.
The answer is that the Rashash understood from the words of the Tikunim that patach can refer both to yud, Chochmah, and to vav, Tiferet. At the beginning of the words of the Tikunim, it says, “Patach becheshbon otiyotav ot yud.” Remember? We said patach in mispar katan is 20, and mispar katan equals yud. How can that be? We know that yud is Chochmah. The Rashash understood that patach can be both: patach in mispar katan takes you to yud; patach itself, as a line, is vav, which is VaK.
We already wrote, according to the Rav Sha'ar Haratzon, letter resh-mem-heh, that the idea is mispar katan, which is 20, corresponding to a full yud. From this we understand that the first teaching in the Tikunim deals with patach whose letters' numerical value, in mispar katan, equals yud. That yud refers to Chochmah, which is the meaning of patach according to mispar katan. But later, patach becomes a vav, which is Tiferet and corresponds to VaK. Do you understand what we said? If someone asks you what patach is, you tell him: it depends; it could be Chochmah or Tiferet. Gevaldik, a chidush!
It seems that from these two teachings of the Tikunim, the Rashash understood that patach is, first, Chochmah, which is the mispar katan of yud, and second, also Tiferet. It seems, accordingly, that the Rashash understood the kavanah here to be that from Chochmah of Za, alluded to in patach whose letters' mispar katan is yud, one should continue drawing shefa onward through the six letters.
So basically, you are drawing from patach to patach—a double patach, like the Rabbi said. You draw from patach, whose gematriya in mispar katan is yud, Chochmah. And where do you draw it to? To patach, which is a vav, VaK, Tiferet. As we learned, Baruch Hashem, everything is fine. And where are you taking it? To Yesod of Nukva. Forward, forward, rabotai.
Now let us return to the second and third kavanot in the pasuk, Pote'ach et yadecha, as discussed above. These two kavanot both deal with the same name, Havayah-Adanut. Nevertheless, in the second kavanah, the name Havayah-Adanut means the union of ZON: Havayah, Adanut, ZON, ach be-ach. But in the third kavanah, the name Havayah-Adanut is divided into two yudin, as mentioned at length earlier.
It seems straightforward that the best thing would have been to arrange the name Havayah-Adanut twice in the siddur for these two kavanot, because otherwise you are going to get mixed up and will not know whether you are dealing with Havayah-Adanut or with Tiferet and Chochmah: once for the second kavanah, where it means ZON, and once more for the third kavanah of Pote'ach et yadecha, yodecha. For the third kavanah, it would be appropriate to draw the name as yud-yud, to make the two yudin stand out.
The way I would do it is to make the yudin large in the second kavanah, as they are in our siddur. If you look at our siddur, that is actually how they do it: the two yudin are large at the extremities, with the six letters between them. Chacham Mordechai is saying that the better way would have been to write Havayah-Adanut twice. In the first one, do not make the two yudin large, because I am not focusing on the two yudin with the six letters in between. I am focusing simply on Havayah-Adanut, ZON ach be-ach. It is just the regular name. Once you see the two yudin at the extremities highlighted, that is the third kavanah. In the second kavanah, you do not need to separate the two from the six; write them straight. Then write the name again for the other kavanah, to make the two yudin stand out.
Nevertheless, we should know that the different siddurim arranged the name Havayah-Adanut only once. Their intention was for us to use one name for two kavanot. So if you have one of those siddurim with Havayah-Adanut written once, you have to put “times two” in parentheses, because you will need it for kavanah number two and kavanah number three. In the old days, they conserved ink and paper because everything was expensive. They wrote it once and assumed you knew what to do with it; they were not going to write it twice. But if you have ink and enough paper and can afford it, and you want to make it clear for amateurs like us, in bright letters like the moon, then you should write it that way.
Now we will explain that, when the one name Havayah-Adanut is used for two kavanot, there is a difference among the siddurim. We are not talking about Kol Ya'akov, right? In the siddur of the Rashash, they arranged the name Havayah-Adanut only for the second kavanah. That is where they arranged the name Havayah, which is ZON. If you look at the siddur of the Rashash, it says Havayah-Adanut as it is, and next to it says ZON. That is the second kavanah. But for the third kavanah, they wrote in the siddur only Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva. They just gave you the coordinates: Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva.
Their intention was that Chochmah de-Za refers to the first yud at the beginning of the name Havayah, written in the siddur on the line above; VaK is the six letters in the middle of the name, also written on the line above; and Yesod de-Nukva refers to the final yud of the name, also written on the line above. So the Rashash wrote the name once and told you how to use it with two different kavanot. That means that when you see the third kavanah, you have to go back and read the line above to find Havayah-Adanut, so that you can apply it.
Before we continue and explain the different arrangement in Siddur haYare, let us first discuss the arrangement of these kavanot in Birkat Hamazon (Grace after Meals), in Or Halevanah, page 133. At the end of the first blessing, all three kavanot connected to the pasuk Pote'ach et yadecha are arranged. First he arranged the first kavanah, concerning the rashei tevot peh-alef-yud. This kavanah deals with one of the 72 names, Vayisa Vayavo Vayet in parashat Beshalach. Then he wrote Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva. He put the third kavanah first. Beneath that kavanah, he wrote the gematriya Havayah-Adanut ZON, which is the second kavanah.
Here we should explain that even though the order of the kavanot is different in the printed siddur of the Rashash, where Havayah-Adanut appears first and Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva comes afterward and beneath it, the order in Or Halevanah is different: Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva is written first, on the line above. Nevertheless, there is no fundamental difference between the two arrangements. In both siddurim, Havayah-Adanut belongs to the second kavanah. Its subject is the gematriya and ZON. The printed siddur of the Rashash simply arranged the third kavanah underneath the second.
The Rashash intended that the Havayah-Adanut in the second kavanah could also be used for the third. In that third kavanah, where Chochmah de-Za and the other letters are written, you use the name from the second kavanah. So perhaps the Rashash was making it easier. He was saying, “Listen, I have given you the name here, and you can use it for this one, too.” It is not that the order is essential: you can have two and then three, or three and then two; the order does not matter.
Even though in Or Halevanah he arranged Chochmah de-Za, VaK, Yesod de-Nukva on the line above, in line with the gematriya Havayah-Adanut ZON, his intention was nevertheless that for this third kavanah we use the name Havayah-Adanut ZON on the line below. So here you use the third kavanah and look down. I think he wrote the third kavanah, then the second, and then Havayah underneath. In that case, the third kavanah requires you to look down and use the bottom line. According to the Rashash, for the third kavanah you look up; according to Or Halevanah, you look down to where they put Havayah-Adanut.
The main thing we should understand is that in both siddurim the gematriya Havayah-Adanut ZON is the second kavanah. The third kavanah is arranged above or below that name. That is just the way the information is structured and how you use it. If they wrote the name twice, we would not have to look up or down.
Now let us explain the arrangement in Siddur haYare. We mentioned earlier that, in its introduction too, the three kavanot of peh-alef-yud are arranged in order, as in Sha'ar HaKavanot. There too he first arranged the kavanah of the numerical value of the combination Havayah-Adanut, as in the Rashash; that is the second kavanah. Only afterward did he arrange the third kavanah, which begins with the two yudin.
Later in Siddur haYare, he wrote Pote'ach et yadecha, and on the left he wrote the rashei tevot peh-alef-yud. Then he wrote gematriya Havayah va'Adnut. We should understand clearly that in this line the Rav haYare arranged the first kavanah, whose subject is peh-alef-yud, one of the 72 names, and then added and arranged the second kavanah, which is the gematriya Havayah-Adanut. What did he tell us about the first kavanah? He told us that peh-alef-yud is the gematriya Havayah-Adanut, and that it is one of the 72 names. Then he added the second kavanah, which is also the gematriya Havayah-Adanut.
Nevertheless, the name Havayah va'Adnut de-ZON, which also belongs to the second kavanah, was arranged by the Yare at the end of the page. There he placed the name Havayah va'Adnut in large letters and wrote ZON beneath it. That completes the second kavanah. He wrote Havayah va'Adnut, but did not write ZON next to it; at the bottom he wrote Havayah va'Adnut ve-ZON. Why did he not write the kavanah next to it? He began the second kavanah early.
What the Yare arranged on the right side of the name Havayah va'Adnut was Chochmah de-Za. Above the name he wrote: to draw shefa from the yud of Havayah, which is Chochmah de-Za, through the vav of Tiferet, including VaK, to the yud of Adnut, which is Yesod. Here the third kavanah is explained. We should understand that this third kavanah uses the name Havayah-Adnut belonging to the second kavanah. You have to look at how he wrote it in the siddur.
The reader will understand that the arrangement is the same in the siddur of Rav Hedaya. There too, he first arranged the second kavanah, which is the gematriya Havayah-Adanut. In that siddur, he did not immediately arrange the end of this second kavanah, which is the name Havayah-Adanut. He began the kavanah but did not write the name. Then, in the third kavanah, he put everything. In other words, in Rabbi Hedaya's siddur he wrote peh-alef-yud, which is the gematriya Havayah-Adnut, but did not write Havayah-Adnut itself. Then he wrote the third kavanah, going from Chochmah to VaK. He wrote Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei, and underneath it wrote that it is the gematriya peh-alef-yud—gematriya 91. It is funny how he structured it: he began the second kavanah on line two without writing Havayah-Adnut. When he got to the third line, he wrote Havayah-Adnut once so that everything would be there.
So the bottom line is that he first arranged the third kavanah, drawing shefa. Nevertheless, in this siddur too, the third kavanah uses the name Havayah-Adnut belonging to the second kavanah. He is struggling with the fact that if you look at all the siddurim, they wrote Havayah-Adnut only once, and he is trying to make sense of it. The Rashash says you have to look above; according to Ohel Levanah, you have to look below. In these other siddurim of the Yare, everything is at the bottom. Everybody reaches the same conclusion; you are just trying to make sense of how the siddurim are arranged.
If you really wanted to make a new siddur for total amateurs, you would write it like this. For Pote'ach et yadecha, number one: yechaven peh-alef-yud, which is one of the 72 names and is gematriya peh-alef-yud. That is a beautiful kavanah, and everybody has it.
Then, on line two, you would write: “Ve'od yechaven she-peh-alef-yud”—the ordinary peh-alef-yud, the rashei tevot of Pote'ach et yadecha. It has nothing to do with the holy name; it happens, unbelievably, to equal 91: Havayah-Adanut. What is 91? It is Havayah-Adanut, the union of Za and Nukva, ach be-ach. Havayah is Za, and Adanut is the Nukva. That is in the first Pote'ach et yadecha, as we learned. It is still Adam HaRishon (the first human), before the nesirah (separation). He has not yet prayed the Amidah (standing prayer). If you have not prayed the Amidah, you cannot turn him around to bring the shefa down, so we have to be ach be-ach.
Number three: “Ve'od yechaven she-Pote'ach et yadecha, al tikrei yadecha ela yodecha.” Now I have two yudin, two large yudin. “Ve'al tikrei Pote'ach ela patach”: patach is a vav, which is the rakia, Tiferet, and VaK. It is also Chochmah, because Pote'ach in mispar katan is 20, which is the gematriya of two yudin, yud-vav-dalet. So I am intending to draw from the first yud, which is Chochmah, through the six letters, which are the VaK of Za, to the yud, which is Yesod of Nukva. The shefa comes to Chochmah and comes right down. Those are the three kavanot.
The amazing thing is that we are able to do all that in 1.4 seconds when we pray Shacharit (morning prayer), ratzon. Really, we should have a pause. We should have a shot clock, a 30-second shot clock for Pote'ach et yadecha. Otherwise, it is hard to have all these kavanot in the time the chazan (prayer leader) gives us. It is really hard to have them. Too bad we do not know who the chazanim are for the first and second parts. They are sitting right over there. I am including myself. The Rebbe does take time; he did it slowly.
The point is that, unless we do it like they divide up Tehillim (Psalms), we have to divide up the kavanot: “You do this one, I'll do that one, and we'll do it together.” Ad kan azarunu rachamecha Hashem (Thus far Your mercies have helped us, Hashem). Baruch...