Table of contents hide 1 The Number 3 in the Hebrew Culture 2 The 3 at the Kabalistic level 3 The 3 and its relation to Metaphysics 4 The Number 3 in religion
Since ancient times, numbers have attracted the attention of many sages of all cultures, and not a few have attributed qualities and "secrets" to numbers, but why? First, numbers are ideal essences that extend to the objects we experience, so they do not have a reality, but an ideality . Second, the numbers are intangible constituents of the real, this is very attractive for abstract thinking and feeling; However, the number three (3) is proof of this.
The Number 3 in the Hebrew Culture
Already the ancient Hebrews, used 3 systems of interpretation for sacred texts, in order to access and integrate aspects of reality [1], being the gematry of a mathematical nature. In addition, for the Hebrews there are 3 base letters: alep (א) men (מ) and shin (ש), each corresponding to the elements: air, water and fire, respectively. What also refers to the faculties of the soul, namely: the vegetative, emotional and mental faculty.
On the other hand, the number three (3); designates the first three days of creation according to the sacred Zohar, when God ideally creates the souls of the 3 great patriarchs: Abraham (represented by the energy of jessed, goodness), Isaac (whose energy is of gevura, strength or Rigor ) and Jacob (tiferet- the heart, the beauty). It is said that the 3 preexisted in the mind of the great architect of the universe, and then became incarnated as great prophets and sages in the world to come. Hence the number 3 is the foundation of mercy, harmony and equality on this plane.
The 3 at kabalistic level
Number 3 refers to the pillars of the spiritual world (keter, jochmah and binah). In this way, number 3 is necessary for kabalist meditations and to be able to access the plane of jocmah, establishing 3 lines of attributes, to embody them from the divine plane, the soul plane, to the material plane . That is why it is said that the human being has three types of vibrations: the Electric, the magnetism and the gravity that allude to the Central Nervous System, The heart, and the Liver (along with the v Scera) respectively [2] . In addition, the number three also refers to the 3 mitzvot (or commandments) of Judaism:
- Studying the kabbalah, this forms the soul of the torus or the esoteric part of the tanach.
- Procreate and generate offspring and
- Comply with the covenant of God and Abraham, reflected in the fact of the practice of circumcision of the children or children at 8 days old.
On the other hand, it is said that divinity intervened with three names for the creation of the physical world: Shaday ( ): when the world is controlled by the demons. Secondly Tzevaot ( ) which refers to the armies, rigor and order of the angels about the chaos. And thirdly, when the demons of the earth disappear; God intervenes with the name Elohim ( ). The latter is the condition that makes everything possible as soon as there is for the apprehension of the human being, since it alludes to the combination of the soul and the body (or a duality number 2 ) that is relieved in unity ( number 1 ), -2 + 1 = 3- hence some religions establish trinities, with the same substance.
The 3 and its relationship with Metaphysics
Similarly, for philosophers the number three intervenes in 3 degrees of metaphysical abstraction, and as they are accessed, they penetrate deeper into reality. The first corresponds to the physis, here the individual matter (or accident) is dispensed with and the mobile entity is studied, it is widely used for factual sciences, such as physics and chemistry. In the 2nd grade, sensitive matter is dispensed with and the quantum entity (quantity, numbers) is studied here, mathematics is found, and in 3rd grade, all matter is dispensed with and the cause of the transcendental entity is attempted to be studied. .
These degrees have produced various systems of thought. For example, for some ancient positions framed within objective idealism, such as Anaxagoras, Pythagoreanism, neo-Pythagoreanism, or Platonism; the numbers existed independently of human thought, being the nous (or universal mind), the unity of all essences and numbers. Likewise, the old dialectic (like the one of plato or plotino) consisted of three moments that are summarized in: Thesis, Antithesis and synthesis, or the Hegelian dialectic in 1) Affirmation, Denial, and Denial of the negation, to produce new moments.
Contrary to the aforementioned objective idealism (which is realism in the background), birth of transcendental idealism, and the numbers remind me of a priori character , that is, they are elements that are not found in the empirical world, but which are the sine qua condition non of them, and provide the change; because arithmetic is the basis of time; and time is the a priori condition of every possible experience for human consciousness.
So that from the tamporality the intensive magnitudes or qualities of the categorical entity are determined; that is why numbers share or participate in the same gnoseological dimension as virtues or defects; (or also the same love -according to Plato-, who shares the dimension of dianoia next to the numbers), hence the empirical self; Do not see the number 3 walking down the street, or to justice-beauty or truth, having a soda. But they are seen through things and actions. In other words: I see 3 men, I see three chairs, three fingers, or a good, bad, fair or unfair man, etc… [3]
Likewise, for metaphysics it could be said that there are three captures of the BEING, which start from a unit and then become blurred in the occurrence of entities, facts and of understanding itself. Such are:
- Eternity that transcends time as well as the succession of a before and after, so the qualitative-quantitative change does not take place, since it did; an entity would pass from the state of being to non-being ad infinitum, this dimension is proper to God.
- The Aevum (or evo) that refers to the time experienced by the angelic understanding, this is according to Fortea (2012): "the succession of acts of understanding and will in a spiritual being" (p.26). Y
- The material or vulgar time we all experience, also perceived by 3 experiences: Past, present and future and by the movements of the solar system's stars.
Number 3 in religion
On the other hand, the number three is manifested in the attributes of divinity: omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence . As in the virtues of Wisdom, strength and beauty, which sustain the straight conduct of actions as a reflection of the truth (or God). The divinity is therefore; represented by three personalities that are one, as is the most holy trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit . Or also for the Hindu religion the figures of Brhama, Shiva and Vishnu or even for the ancient Egyptians, the divinity is embodied in three important figures, Isis, Osiris and horus .
Finally, the number three with its triadic symbolism, traditionally conforms the number of the sky, represented by religions such as divinity, -or also in the Oedipal novel-, being ultimately an active and generating number, which invites the person not to disintegrate in the outside, ergo in the plurality, but to embody it; within the "self" (or unit).
Author: Kevin Samir Parra Rueda, editor in the big family of hermandadblanca.org
More information at:
- Ferrater, J. (1964). Dictionary of Philosophy . (5th ed.). Buenos Aires, Argentina: South American Editorial.
- Fortea, J. (2012). Summa Daemoniaca Treaty of demonology and handbook of exorcists . Zaragoza, Spain: Editorial Dos Latidos.
- Gonz lez, A. (1967). Metaphysical treatise: Ontology. (2nd ed.). Madrid, Spain: Gredos, SA
- Kabalah Mashiah (Producer). (2013, June 04). Kabbalah: Secrets of the Zohar class 10 Bereshit [YouTube program]. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SDc6c2Vcpo&index=10&list=PLJMifOLgCzqXqs1HCd-n4m6YQleyzNL2v [Accessed: 2018, December 7].
- Kant, Immanuel (1787). Criticism of pure reason . (2nd ed.). Mexico: Taurus. Sixth reprint 2006.
References to footnote:
[1] These are the temurah, the gematr and the notaricon.
[2] This is a clear allusion to the rational psychology of Plato and Arist teles, for whom the soul was composed of three faculties. According to Plain, he understood: the rational Soul (symbolized by gold), Irascible (silver) and concupiscible (Bronze). But more elaborate is the stance of the great Estagirita who affirmed: the rational soul, animal and plant soul
[3] Hence, the theological entity proper to the third metaphysical abstraction is not known in itself, but through its effects on the sensitive world, and this also explains that many sages have given, a symbol to these abstract questions, for example the famous Pythagorean tetractys to numbers. Or to the virtues (from the Judeo-Cristiao approach) angels and for the demons vices.
