Mayim & Shamayim

[Bruce Michael]

Dear All,

and darkness
was upon the face of the deep,
and the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters

It is interesting that the correspondence between water and heaven is made clear in the Hebrew language- Mayim and Shamayim.
We see that water "comes" from heaven - in a sense, it is "heaven" with two letters missing: Shamayim becomes Mayim -- which is to say, "water" is equivalent to "heaven" -- but without the latter's first and third letters. Put another way, water is "heaven" without whatever the letters shin and yud represent. Or conversely, "water" contains whatever the three letters it shares in common with "heaven" symbolize. Thus, the rain that falls from heaven, the "living water", the holy medium of spiritual transformation, is an extraction of heaven yet lacking its full essence.

The first verse in Genesis could be translated as:

" In the principle God creates the wet one and dryness"
The two elements of water and fire are reminiscent of the very first creation, Shamayim, the heavens - shamayim consisting of esh (fire) and mayim (water).


-Br.Bruce