Illuminating the Inner Lamed Vovnik

http://ohr.edu/yhiy/article.php/2442


Ask!


For the week ending 31 December 2005 / 30 Kislev 5766

Illuminating the Inner Lamed Vovnik

by


Rabbi Yirmiyahu Ullman - www.rabbiullman.com









From: DaveDear Rabbi,

What is the difference between “Lamed Vovniks” (the thirty-six secret righteous Jews in each generation) and the generic “Tzadik nistar” (hidden righteous person)?

Dear Dave,



The thirty-six are referred to as “lamed vovniks” according to the numerical equivalent of the letters ‘lamed’ (thirty) and ‘vov’ (six). The idea is based on the verse Isaiah 30:18 which praises those who faithfully trust in Him - “Lo” in Hebrew - spelled lamed vov (Succah 45b).



Our Sage Abaye taught that there are at least thirty-six of these secret, righteous Jews in every generation who receive the Divine Presence. However, Rava counters with a source that suggests there are eighteen thousand hidden righteous Jews. The Talmud reconciles this apparent contradiction by stating that only thirty-six see the Divine Presence with completely illuminated vision (‘aspaklaria meira’) whereas all the others see with occluded vision (Sanhedrin 97b).



Perhaps this is the basis of the difference between “lamed vovniks” and other hidden righteous individuals. Another difference might be that the “lamed vovniks” cannot be discerned at all, whereas the others may be recognized by those who know them well.



Interestingly, another source reckons forty-five righteous Jews upon whose merit the world continues to exist - thirty in the Land of Israel and fifteen elsewhere. There are also thirty hidden righteous gentiles upon whose merit the nations subsist (Chullin 92a).



The Talmud teaches, “The Light that G-d created on the first day was a special, spiritual light with which Adam could see from one side of the world to the other. When G-d considered the misdeeds of the generations of the flood and of the tower of Babylon, He hid the light from mankind and preserved it for the future righteous” (Chagiga 12a). This light shone for thirty-six hours from midday Friday when Adam sinned through the departing of Shabbat at nightfall. The thirty-six hours that this primordial Divine Light shone served as a precedent for the thirty-six secret righteous Jews in each generation to behold the Divine Presence.



What about the rest of us, have we no glimpse of this hidden light? The answer is in the Chanukah menorah. As we light an additional light each night, we contemplate how G-d helped the forces of light overcome those of darkness: “You delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many to the few, the impure to the pure, the wicked in the righteous, and the wanton to those faithful to Your Torah”. Night after night, the darkness of exile is expelled with the light of redemption, until on the last night of Chanukah we have lit a total of thirty-six lights. This then is our opportunity to behold the Divine Presence emanating from the Chanukah menorah, enabling us to illuminate the little “lamed vovnik” within us.

Lamed Vavniks: The thirty-six righteous who sustain the world

http://ejmmm2007.blogspot.com/2009/03/lamed-vavniks-thirty-six-righteous-who.html

Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism


JEWISH MYTH, MAGIC, AND MYSTICISM is devoted to all aspects of Jewish esoteric traditions and occult lore. It is the official blog for the Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism. The JMMM has been recognized as one of the top 50 Jewish blogs on the internet in 2010

Friday, March 20, 2009

Lamed Vavniks: The thirty-six righteous who sustain the world

[One of the 36 hidden?]





A slight digression from my earlier entries on esoteric masters of the Talmud, but not much of one. Think of it as a byway on the theme. A congregant asked me about the Tzadikim Nistarim (Heb.) or Lamed Vovniks/"Thirty-Sixers" (Yiddish).

The Thirty-Six [Righteous] are the minimum number of utterly moral people in each generation that are necessary to sustain the world. The legend evidently evolved from an earlier tradition of interpreting the “thirty shekels of silver” mentioned in Zechariah 11:12 as an allegory for godly people; God ensures there will always be thirty righteous people in every generation.

It also may have roots in the story of Abraham's efforts to save Sodom (Gen. 18), where it becomes evident that any society must have a minimum number of decent people in order to survive (Gen. R. 49:3; Zohar I:105b; Tikkunei Zohar, 21).   http://sacred-texts.com/jud/mhl/mhl05.htm

In the earliest version of this idea in rabbinic literature, found in Gen. R. 49:3, there are forty-five, “fifteen in Babylon, thirty in the land of Israel.” There is no firm explanation for how the tradition settles upon the number thirty-six (Sanh. 97b). Perhaps it is symbolic of "abundant life": double the number eighteen, the number value of the word chai / "life." According to the “thirty-six” legend, most of the thirty-six are nisterim, unknown, anonymously doing their good work unnoticed by the world. A esoteric prooftext for the number is found in Isaiah 30:18 - "For the Eternal is a God of justice; fortunate are those who wait for Him." In Hebrew, the pronoun "for Him" has the numeric value of 36. Thus the verse is read as "...fortunate are those who wait - [the] 36"

(Thanks to the anonymous reader who called my attention to this Isa. verse)



The reward for their anonymous labors is that they are privileged to directly experience the Shekhinah. One of them in each generation is suitable to be the Messiah (Sanh. 97b; Chul. 45a; Gen. R. 35:2; Mid. Teh. 5:5; Zohar 2:151a).



The fine Holocaust novel by Andre Bart-Schwarz, The Last of the Just, employs this legend, but "christianizes" this Jewish tradition in that the book claims that the 36 are destined to suffer for the sake of sustaining the world. Suffering and myrtrdom is not a big element of the lamed-vavnik tradition





To learn more consult the: Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism: http://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Jewish-Myth-Magic-Mysticism/dp/0738709050

posted by Geoffrey Dennis at 12:30 PM