Samach - the PROP (Jesus and the Hebrew Alphabet)
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Samach begins the last group of SEVEN letters.
SAMECH means to "uphold, rest, support, lean upon, refresh
related Hebrew words are:
zsemech - "a branch or sprout" (Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. )
and samach - "to rejoice" (to be refreshed, upheld in the heart) Psa 33:21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.)
The SAMECH is the only Hebrew letter that "enclosed". It has a circular shape. It is sometimes referred to as a "clasping" hand. This is the 3rd "hand" letter. The difference being:
YOD - the WORKING hand
KAF - the BENT or COVERING palm of the hand
SAMECH - the CLASPING or UPHOLDING hand
The idea is that of "encircling" or "enclosing" a group of things, ideas, facts, people, or "holding on to" or "upholding" someone, something, or some idea.
To REMEMBER is to "uphold in the mind" or "bear in mind". This Hebrew word begins with a SAMECH. Many words beginning with a SAMECH reflect this idea of upholding or the idea of encircling or measuring. In the Hebrew mind, evidence, measurments or proof was seen as a group of facts or numbers with a circle drawn around them because these facts or number "UPHELD" (sameched) the truth. This is a very foreign way of thinking to us, but very common to the Hebrew.
The Hebrew word for BOOK (a legal record or document) was SEPHER.....sp SAMECH/PEY/RESH. It corresponds to the Greek word "BIBLOS", from which we get our word BIBLE. So if we were to call our Bible by the same Hebrew word, it would be called a SEPHER or the SEPHER KADOSH (Holy Bible/Book). The same word is still used in English today sp. cipher. It means secret writings, or a code.
One other similar idea imminating from the SAMECH is that of "COMING FULL CIRCLE" or returning to the beginning. This is similar to the idea of REMEMBERING. The SAMECH is very symbolic of COMMUNION. The partaking of the BREAD and WINE is about REMEBERING and UPHOLDING(strengthening). We "come full circle" or back to our first love when we remember Christ in Communion.
The first use of the word "SAMECH" in the Bible is when Isaac is describing the blessing he has given to Jacob(Israel). Gen 27:37 ....."and with corn(grain) and wine I have sustained(sameched) him." The word here translated "corn" is other places translated wheat...it simply means grain from which of course BREAD is meant in type. BREAD and WINE sustained him! This phrase is used over and over again in scripture when referring to the upholdin or sustaining of God's people. When you look to the ROOT of these to words, the root of "corn" comes from a word meaning "to increase or multiply"(strengthen) and the word "wine" comes from a root which means to "posess or inherit".
The first word to begin with the letter samech is SEPHER (BOOK)! Gen. 5:1 begins the story of the first Adam, which continues through the WHOLE OT......The BOOK(SEPHER) of the generations of Adam..........
The story of the the SECOND Adam, Christ begins in EXACTLY the same way, the only other time this exact phrase (the book of the generation of..........) is used in all of scripture!
Math 1:1.......The book(biblos) of the generations of Jesus Christ........One is the BOOK("upholding" the evidence, record, remembrance) of the first Adam and one is the BOOK ("upholding" the evidence, record, remembrance) of the second Adam!
Christ is the BRANCH, the "prop", that SAMECHs(Upholds) us and we recieve his strength and remember this in communion.
The letter SAMECH is also a "cipher" or code for YAH (Yah or Jah is the shortened form of YHWY used often in OT), God's personal name. Samech is the 15th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. The number fifteen would normally be written as a Yod(10) + Hey(5) for numbering purposes). BUT.....Yod-Hey spells JAH and the Jews would not use God's proper name for such a common use, so they ALWAYS write 15 as TET(9) + VAV(6) instead.
NOW....... in the creation story of Genesis 1, God's personal name of YHWH is never used. It is saved for God's covenant dealings with man. Only the name Elohim is used. Being the exacting God the He is, even the letter SAMECH which is symbolic for YHWH is not found AT ALL in the first chapter of Genesis! The VERY FIRST letter SAMECH is found in the word "hasabab" which means "the one that encompasss". It is in Gen. 2:11:
Gen 2:11 The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold;
Gen 2:12 And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.
When I first looked this up, I though "now, what does this have to do with the symbolism of the SAMECH. Nothing here about remembering, or communion, or upholding. BUT............the HS prompted me to wander about the bdellium and the onyx stone. NOTHING is in scripture without cause and this seemed like such an obscure fact, after all, why do we need to know that the land had bdellium and the onyx stone. So I looked to see where these words (bdellium and onyx stone) were found elsewhere in scripture. Well, sure enough, they were connected to the BREAD and WINE! The manna(God's "bread" of the wilderness that SUSTAINED His people) is described as the color of bdellium! AND the onyx stones that were on the shoulder of the high priest's ephod were engraved with the names of the children of Israel. Engraving is symbolic of REMEBERING and the onyx stones used on the shoulders of the ephod were(as described by Josephus) SARDonyx, which is BLOOD red and STRIPED!
www.theimage.com/gemstone...rtz32.html
The Breastplate of the High Priest
from the Temple Institute page
After many years of exhaustive research, the scholars of the Temple Institute have come to a final and conclusive identification of the twelve stones of the breastplate of the High Priest, and the garment is now being created. Pictured here are the stones, set in golden settings and engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The garment is woven and the stones are attached with golden thread.....
........
The two "Remembrance Stones" that go on the shoulders of the ephod of the High Priest. The Bible calls these two stones "remembrance stones:"
"And you shall place the two stones on the two shoulders of the ephod as remembrance stones for the Children of Israel. And Aaron shall carry their names before G-d on his two shoulders as a remembrance." (Ex. 28:12)
The sages explain the meaning of this expression. When the High Priest entered into the holy place dressed in the ephod, the Holy One saw all the tribes of Israel inscribed before Him and He was moved to have mercy on His people.
Another two square gold settings were fixed on the High Priest's shoulders, directly under the sardonyx stones.
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
onyx stones
The meaning of the word shoham is not easily determined. It has been variously rendered a beryl, emerald, prasius, sapphire, sardius, ruby, carnelian, onyx, and sardonyx. It may signify both the onyx and sardonyx. The latter stone is a mixture of the chalcedony and carnelian, sometimes in strata, and at other times blended together, and is found striped with white and red strata, or layers. It is generally allowed that there is no real difference, except in hardness, between the carnelian, chalcedony, agate, sardonyx, and onyx. The onyx is of a darkish horny colour, resembling the nail or hoof, from which circumstance it has its name [(onyx).] It has often a plate of a blueish white or red in it, and when on one or both sides of this white there appears a plate of a reddish colour, the jewellers call the stone a sardonyx.
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Samach begins the last group of SEVEN letters.
SAMECH means to "uphold, rest, support, lean upon, refresh
related Hebrew words are:
zsemech - "a branch or sprout" (Jer 23:5 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. )
and samach - "to rejoice" (to be refreshed, upheld in the heart) Psa 33:21 For our heart shall rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.)
The SAMECH is the only Hebrew letter that "enclosed". It has a circular shape. It is sometimes referred to as a "clasping" hand. This is the 3rd "hand" letter. The difference being:
YOD - the WORKING hand
KAF - the BENT or COVERING palm of the hand
SAMECH - the CLASPING or UPHOLDING hand
The idea is that of "encircling" or "enclosing" a group of things, ideas, facts, people, or "holding on to" or "upholding" someone, something, or some idea.
To REMEMBER is to "uphold in the mind" or "bear in mind". This Hebrew word begins with a SAMECH. Many words beginning with a SAMECH reflect this idea of upholding or the idea of encircling or measuring. In the Hebrew mind, evidence, measurments or proof was seen as a group of facts or numbers with a circle drawn around them because these facts or number "UPHELD" (sameched) the truth. This is a very foreign way of thinking to us, but very common to the Hebrew.
The Hebrew word for BOOK (a legal record or document) was SEPHER.....sp SAMECH/PEY/RESH. It corresponds to the Greek word "BIBLOS", from which we get our word BIBLE. So if we were to call our Bible by the same Hebrew word, it would be called a SEPHER or the SEPHER KADOSH (Holy Bible/Book). The same word is still used in English today sp. cipher. It means secret writings, or a code.
One other similar idea imminating from the SAMECH is that of "COMING FULL CIRCLE" or returning to the beginning. This is similar to the idea of REMEMBERING. The SAMECH is very symbolic of COMMUNION. The partaking of the BREAD and WINE is about REMEBERING and UPHOLDING(strengthening). We "come full circle" or back to our first love when we remember Christ in Communion.
The first use of the word "SAMECH" in the Bible is when Isaac is describing the blessing he has given to Jacob(Israel). Gen 27:37 ....."and with corn(grain) and wine I have sustained(sameched) him." The word here translated "corn" is other places translated wheat...it simply means grain from which of course BREAD is meant in type. BREAD and WINE sustained him! This phrase is used over and over again in scripture when referring to the upholdin or sustaining of God's people. When you look to the ROOT of these to words, the root of "corn" comes from a word meaning "to increase or multiply"(strengthen) and the word "wine" comes from a root which means to "posess or inherit".
The first word to begin with the letter samech is SEPHER (BOOK)! Gen. 5:1 begins the story of the first Adam, which continues through the WHOLE OT......The BOOK(SEPHER) of the generations of Adam..........
The story of the the SECOND Adam, Christ begins in EXACTLY the same way, the only other time this exact phrase (the book of the generation of..........) is used in all of scripture!
Math 1:1.......The book(biblos) of the generations of Jesus Christ........One is the BOOK("upholding" the evidence, record, remembrance) of the first Adam and one is the BOOK ("upholding" the evidence, record, remembrance) of the second Adam!
Christ is the BRANCH, the "prop", that SAMECHs(Upholds) us and we recieve his strength and remember this in communion.
The letter SAMECH is also a "cipher" or code for YAH (Yah or Jah is the shortened form of YHWY used often in OT), God's personal name. Samech is the 15th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. The number fifteen would normally be written as a Yod(10) + Hey(5) for numbering purposes). BUT.....Yod-Hey spells JAH and the Jews would not use God's proper name for such a common use, so they ALWAYS write 15 as TET(9) + VAV(6) instead.
NOW....... in the creation story of Genesis 1, God's personal name of YHWH is never used. It is saved for God's covenant dealings with man. Only the name Elohim is used. Being the exacting God the He is, even the letter SAMECH which is symbolic for YHWH is not found AT ALL in the first chapter of Genesis! The VERY FIRST letter SAMECH is found in the word "hasabab" which means "the one that encompasss". It is in Gen. 2:11:
Gen 2:11 The name of the first [is] Pison: that [is] it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where [there is] gold;
Gen 2:12 And the gold of that land [is] good: there [is] bdellium and the onyx stone.
When I first looked this up, I though "now, what does this have to do with the symbolism of the SAMECH. Nothing here about remembering, or communion, or upholding. BUT............the HS prompted me to wander about the bdellium and the onyx stone. NOTHING is in scripture without cause and this seemed like such an obscure fact, after all, why do we need to know that the land had bdellium and the onyx stone. So I looked to see where these words (bdellium and onyx stone) were found elsewhere in scripture. Well, sure enough, they were connected to the BREAD and WINE! The manna(God's "bread" of the wilderness that SUSTAINED His people) is described as the color of bdellium! AND the onyx stones that were on the shoulder of the high priest's ephod were engraved with the names of the children of Israel. Engraving is symbolic of REMEBERING and the onyx stones used on the shoulders of the ephod were(as described by Josephus) SARDonyx, which is BLOOD red and STRIPED!
www.theimage.com/gemstone...rtz32.html
The Breastplate of the High Priest
from the Temple Institute page
After many years of exhaustive research, the scholars of the Temple Institute have come to a final and conclusive identification of the twelve stones of the breastplate of the High Priest, and the garment is now being created. Pictured here are the stones, set in golden settings and engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The garment is woven and the stones are attached with golden thread.....
........
The two "Remembrance Stones" that go on the shoulders of the ephod of the High Priest. The Bible calls these two stones "remembrance stones:"
"And you shall place the two stones on the two shoulders of the ephod as remembrance stones for the Children of Israel. And Aaron shall carry their names before G-d on his two shoulders as a remembrance." (Ex. 28:12)
The sages explain the meaning of this expression. When the High Priest entered into the holy place dressed in the ephod, the Holy One saw all the tribes of Israel inscribed before Him and He was moved to have mercy on His people.
Another two square gold settings were fixed on the High Priest's shoulders, directly under the sardonyx stones.
From the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:
onyx stones
The meaning of the word shoham is not easily determined. It has been variously rendered a beryl, emerald, prasius, sapphire, sardius, ruby, carnelian, onyx, and sardonyx. It may signify both the onyx and sardonyx. The latter stone is a mixture of the chalcedony and carnelian, sometimes in strata, and at other times blended together, and is found striped with white and red strata, or layers. It is generally allowed that there is no real difference, except in hardness, between the carnelian, chalcedony, agate, sardonyx, and onyx. The onyx is of a darkish horny colour, resembling the nail or hoof, from which circumstance it has its name [(onyx).] It has often a plate of a blueish white or red in it, and when on one or both sides of this white there appears a plate of a reddish colour, the jewellers call the stone a sardonyx.
