Tongues and Miracles

Tongues and Miracles
By
James Scott Trimm



If you have been following along then you are ready for this new series as we count the omer toward Shavuot.

Recently while studying the book of Daniel I noticed something that I had missed before, Daniel is described as “Master of Magicians” (Dan. 4:6(9); 5:11), how can this be?

Daniel was an uncompromising prophet of YHWH. He refused to eat unkosher food from the King’s table (Dan. 1:8) and he put his life on the line in order to pray to Yahweh three times a day (Dan. 6:4-11). So why would he allow himself to be made “Master of Magicians”? Why did he not say “I refuse to be master of any such damned thing!”?

The Aramaic word commonly translated “Magicians” here is KHARTUMEY or in Hebrew KHARTUMIM. Nowhere in the Torah is this word used to describe a forbidden practice (although it is the same term used to describe Pharaoh’s “magicians” in Exodus 7). The term is commonly translated in English with our word “magician” which is built upon the root word “magic” which itself is derived from “Magi” referring to the false Magian religion of the Persians. But there is no association in the Aramaic between this word KHARTUM (“magician”) and the Magian religion.

Another part of this problem is the perception of the English word “magic” which has some ambiguity. The English word “magic” according to Webster’s dictionary means:

1. Any art that invokes supernatural powers.

2. An illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers.

But because it is derived from the root “Magi”, there is a tendency among some to read witchcraft into the word “magic” while others would distinguish “witchcraft” as “BLACK magic” as opposed to “white magic”. By dictionary definition of the words the working of miracles as described in the Scriptures could also be called “magic”.

This brings us to a root problem, the pagan origins of many English words. Words like: good, echo, luck, lucky, circle, circumvent, circumference, curriculum, circumcision, circus etc. originate from roots that are of pagan origin, but their meanings in English are not related to paganism.

Now this word is not listed among the forbidden practices in Torah (Deut. 18:10-13). In part 2 we will discuss these practices in the original Hebrew and contrast them with the ones Daniel was "master of" in the original Aramaic of Daniel 5:11.

“magician” KHARTUM – The term is taken from the Hebrew KHERET which was stylus used for engraving letters, thus some translate KHARTUM as “sacred scribe”, but a KHARTUM is more than just a “sacred scribe”. Scholars recognize that a KHARTUM was some type of “occultist” who made use of engraving letters, but beyond this they do not know what a KHARTUM was.

In fact a KHARTUM engraved the Hebrew letters and then permutated them in order to do things with them in this world. This permutation of Hebrew letters is known as TZERUF and is described by Paul as follows:

For he who speaks in a tongue
does not speak to the sons of men but to Eloah,
for no man understands a thing that he speaks;
yet in the spirit he speaks a mystery.
(1Cor. 14:2)

If I were to pray in a tongue, my spirit prays,
but my understanding is without fruit.
(1Cor. 14:14)

The Sefer Yetzirah describes the process of the formation of the world as follows:

Twenty-two Foundation letters: He engraved them,
He carved them, He permuted (TZIRUF) them,
He weighed them, He transformed them,
And with them, He depicted all that was formed
and all that would be formed.
(Sefer Yetzirah 2:2)

Aryeh Kaplan comments on this passage as follows:

First the letters are “engraved” out of nothingness.
Then they are “carved” out and separated. They are
then “permuted,” so that a given combination appears
in different sequences…. Each letter represents a
different type of information. Through the various
manipulations of the letters, God created all things….
This section can also be read in the imperative: “Engrave
them, carve them, permute them… When interpreted
in this manner, this section is teaching a technique…
The initiate must first depict the letters "engraving"
them in his mind. Then he must "carve" them out,
making them fill his entire consciousness. After this
he can permute them in various ways.
(Sefer Yetzirah; the Book of Creation in Theory and Practice; Revised Edition; by Aryeh Kaplan p. 100-101)

The Talmud describe this process this way:

Rab Judah said in the name of Rab: Bezalel knew how
to combine (TZIRUF) the letters by which the heavens
and earth were created. It is written here, And He hath filled
him with the spirit of God, in wisdom and in understanding,
and in knowledge (Ex. 35:31), and it is written elsewhere,
The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; by understanding
He established the heavens (Prov. 3:19), and it is also written,
By His knowledge the depths were broken up (Prov. 3:20).
(b.Ber. 55a)

The Zohar gives a more detailed explanation saying:

R. Eleazar began here with the verse, “Ask thee
a sign [Hebrew: OT “sign” or “letter”] of the Lord thy God,
ask it either in the depth or in the height above” (Isa. 7:11).
He said: ‘We have compared the former with the latter
generations, and found that the former were conversant with
a higher wisdom by which they knew how to combine
(TZIRUF) the letters that were given to Moses on Mount Sinai,
and even the sinners of Israel knew a deep wisdom contained
in the letters and the difference between higher and lower
letters, and how to do things with them in this world.
For every letter that was transmitted to Moses used to
ascend as a crown upon the heads of the holy celestial
Hayyoth, who with them flitted through the ether which is
under the refined and unknowable supernal ether. There
were large letters and small letters; the large letters came
from the most high and hidden Temple (hekhal) and the
smaller letters from another lower Temple; and both kinds
were transmitted to Moses on Sinai, along with their
hidden combinations.
(Zohar 3:2a)

Notice that the Zohar says “even the sinners of Israel knew a deep wisdom contained in the letters and the difference between higher and lower letters, and how to do things with them in this world.”

This is why Pharaoh’s magicians are also called KHARTUMIM (plural of KHARTUM) in the Hebrew of the Torah. They also made use of this knowledge to perform “magic”, but since YHWH was not behind them their “magic” was not as powerful as Moshe’s “miracles”. Like Daniel, Moshe had YHWH behind him, making him not just a KHARTUM but a RAB KHARTUMIM (“Master of Magicians”).

Daniel was a master of KHARTUMIM, he not only spoke in tongues, permuting (TZARAF) the Hebrew letters into various combinations and even performing miracles (KHAILA) with them through the empowerment of the Ruach HaKodesh.

The Talmud distinguishes supernatural acts performed by means of YHWH (i.e. “miracles”) from "sorcery" as follows:

Abaye said: The laws of sorcerers are like those of the Sabbath: certain actions are punished by stoning, some are exempt from punishment, yet forbidden, whilst others are entirely permitted. Thus: if one actually performs magic, he is stoned; if he merely creates an illusion, he is exempt, yet it is forbidden; whilst what is entirely permitted? — Such as was performed by R. Hanina and R. Oshaia, who spent every Sabbath eve in studying the Halacha of Yetzirah (Ways of Formation), by means of which they created a third-grown calf and ate it.
(b.San. 67b)

Part of this is repeated from Babylonian Talmud 65b:

R. Hanina and R. Oshaia spent every Sabbath eve in studying
the Sefer Yetzirah (‘Book of Creation’), by means of which
they created a third-grown calf and ate it.
(b.San. 65b)

From this it is clarified that the class of operation spoken of is that described in the Sefer Yetzirah, that is through TZARFAT, the permutations of letters (or “tongues”).


TONGUES AND MIRACLES

The manifestation of tongues then, may activate the manifestation of “Power” (KHAILA) (1Cor. 12:10) (which the Greek translates “working of miracles”. The Aramaic word here is KHAILA, which means, “power, miracles, authority”. This is the very Aramaic word, which the Peshitta Tanak uses to translate Hebrew GEVURAH in 1Chron. 29:11 (the Tanak text from which the lower seven sefirot are derived) and is obviously associated with the sefirah called GEVURAH.

The gematria (numerical value) of (KHAILA) is 49 (7 x 7). This is the same as the gematria of the MAT ”the rod” of Aaron and Moses, which was so closely related to many of their “miracles”.

Khaila includes the power to perform “miracles”:

And Eloah was doing great miracles (KHAILA)
by the hand of Paul.
(Acts 19:11)

And the power to exercise authority over spirits and shedim (demons):

And Yeshua called his twelve and gave them power (KHAILA) and authority over all the spirits and shedim and to heal sickness.
(Luke 9:1)

The word Khaila in Aramaic can also denote “courage” and may therefore also indicate the strength to endure trials, tribulation and torture. Thus Khaila can also refer to a supernatural ability to endure these tortures, like the martyrs of 2nd and 4th Maccabees.. As such Khaila is especially associated with the Armor of Elohom.

Acts 1:8 says:

But when the Ruach HaKodesh comes upon you, you will receive power (KHAILA) …

Paul tells us that the effecting of Khaila comes from “the hearing of faith” (Gal. 3:5) because this gift flows from the gift of faith, a gift which itself manifests itself in Torah observance.

Khaila is often exercised (like healing) through the evocation of the “Names of Power” or as discussed herein through the gift of tongues.