The Name of God in 42 and 72 Letters

There are a number of forms of the "Name in 42 Letters," the most common being based on the seven days of creation or seven planetary spirits. See Uri Raz, Yashanet, Organelle, and Jeff Spiegel, who comments: "This is one of the most obscure names of G-d. Rashi comments that ‘this name was not given over to us’."
 
1 Sunday Saturn Shabatai ABG YThTz
2 Monday Jupiter Tsedeq KRO ShTN
3 Tuesday Mars Meadim NGD YKSh
4 Wednesday Sun Hhamah BTR TzThG
5 Thursday Mercury Kawkab ChKB TNO
6 Friday Venus Nogah YGL PZK
7 Saturday Moon Lavanah ShKU TzYTh
 
Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, Aronson, 1995, p.184   +   original planets
[R. Abraham Peretz, a disciple of Nathan of Gaza (a disciple of Sabbatai Zevi) quoting the early 15th century Byzantine text Sefer ha-Peliy'ah quoting R. Joesph Askenazi's Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah]


These are the words of Metatron to the holy Qanah called Sefer ha-Peliy'ah, who is a wondrous man and it is found in our hands in a manuscript and his words had been copied by Rabad in his Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah ... And these are the words of Metatron to the holy Qanah, and these are his [Qanah's] words: "He has appointed the letter Bet of life andbound a crown to it and formed [the planet] by it; Sabbatai in the world, and Sunday [41] in the year [i.e. in the dimension of time], and the right eye in the person, namely that He elevated the letter Bet so that it is the head on 'the power of the Keter 'Eliyon.' And he put in it the power of Hokhmah and formed in it the planet Sabbatai, which is beneath the [divine name] ABGYTTz, [42] and the latter gave wisdom to Sabbatai.
[41]   Sefer ha-Peliy'ah, from which the student of Nathan of Gaza has quoted, is attributed to a second-century Tannaitic figure, a revered mystic named R. Hehuniah ben ha-Qanah, who is described as engaging invarious mystical dialogues with Metatron, the hightest of the angels. Both the occurence of the name of this mystic and the fact that this book is conceived of as being revealed from above where bound to the authority of the discussion of Sabbatai/Saturn.

[42]   This is the first group of letters that constitutes the forty-two-letter name, each group of the six letters corresponding (according to Joseph Askenazi's Commentary of Sefer Yetzirah) to each of the seven planes.

Moshe Idel, Messianic Mystics, Yale, 1998, p.192


Nor were the inner or true meaning of these given over: Autiot-Yassod, Sephirot-Belimah, Nativot-Phayliot, and 32 Paths. Suares reveals the Name in 42 Letters in the first verse of the Sepher Yetsira, followed by its completion in the Name in 72 Letters, the Shemhamphorash. The Sepher Yetsira, a commentary on Bereshit / Genesis, begins:   "By thirty-two intermediaries, Wisdom Engraves [42+30 letters of God names and attributes] and projects Shem [the Name] in three spheres." The 42+30 letters are the names of the "active agent" in creation. Note that the 15 distinct autiot in the Name in 42 plus the 11 distinct autiot in the Name in 30 equals 26 letters.

Next come the names of the active agent (in the myth, "God"). They are given in nineteen equations, eleven of which are, strictly speaking, "The Name," and eight of which are attributes.

In the first eleven "names" fifteen Autiot are composed so as to become, with certain repetitions, forty-two signs.

In the eight which follow, eleven Autiot become thirty signs.

The forty-two signs of "Names" are the forty-two often mentioned by the cabalists. According to the Zohar all forms in the world come from the forty-two letters crowning the sacred Name. The world has been moulded by the letters of the sacred Name; thereform their role in the Name is the reverse of what they are in the world.

These forty-two, to which thirty are added, compose "The Name of seventy-two letters" which has given rise to numerous speculations about angels. This is not surprising as we have seen that the Autiot, mediating between intemporal and temporal, serve the function attributed to angels in deistic mythology. As to the assertion that the Autiot -- according to the Zohar -- have "a role the reverse of what they are in the world" (sic) we have just seen that when the symbolism is reducted to its essentials, it refers to the reality of Hhokmah, reflected consciousness.

The names transcibed into forty-two Autiot are: YAH, YHWH, TSEBAOT, ELOHI, ISRAEL, ELOHIM, HHAIM, WAMELEKH, OULAM EL and SHADDAI. When decoded they show as from within, the diminution of Energy operated by the ten Sephirot.

Carlo Suares, The Sepher Yetsira, p.64

   
Tseboat YHWH Yah Hhaqaq Hhokhmah    
 
Hhokmah carved (established or limited) Yah YHWY Tsebaot
 
El Shaddai Oulam Wemelekh Hha'im Elohim Israel Elohi
The Name in 42 Letters
Elohi Israel Elohim Hhaim Wemekekh Oulam El Schaddai
 
Weqodosh 'Ad Maroum Schokan Venesha Ram Vehhenoun Rahhoum
The Name in 72 Letters
merciful clement maginfied raised up (or respected) (who) lives (in) eternity (of) elevation and Holy (is)
Sepher Yetsira 1:1