Wikipedia
Temurah is one of the three ancient methods used by Kabbalists to rearrange words and sentences in the Bible, in the belief that by this method they can derive the esoteric substratum and deeper spiritual meaning of the words. (The others are Gematria and Notarikon.) Temurah may be used to change letters in certain words to create a new meaning for a Biblical statement. The Hebrew alphabet is an Abjad or consonantary alphabet. Techniques that applied to English will mostly transform sense into a nonsensical series of letters are more feasible in Hebrew.
There are three simple forms of Temurah:
- Atbash: Replacing the first letter with the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the second with the next-to-last, and so on.
- Avgad: Replacing each letter with the preceding letter.
- Albam: Replacing the first letter of the alphabet with the twelfth, the second with the thirteenth, and so on.
Temurah may refer to:
- Temurah (Kabbalah), a method, used by the Kabbalists to rearrange words and sentences in the Bible;
- Temurah (Halacha), the prohibition against attempting to switch the sanctity of one animal for another;
- Temurah (Talmud), the Talmudic tractate dealing with the laws of Temurah (Halacha);
- Midrash Temurah , one of the smaller midrashim, consisting of three chapters.
Tractate Temurah is a tractate of the Babylonian Talmud, the greater part of which is an elaboration of the Law laid down in Leviticus 27:10 regarding dedication of an animal for sacrifice.
In Jewish Law, temurah (, literally: "exchange") is the prohibition against attempting to switch the sanctity of an animal that has been sanctified for the Temple in Jerusalem with another non-sanctified animal. It is explicitly stated in . According to the law, both animals become sanctified, and the person who attempted the transfer is punished with lashes.
This prohibition of exchange was counted by Maimonides as comprising 3 of the 613 commandments. The three commandments are:
- Not to substitute another beast for one set apart for sacrifice
- The new animal, in addition to the substituted one, retains consecration
- Not to change consecrated animals from one type of offering to another
These are explained in the Babylonian Talmud in the tractate temurah, in order of Kodshim. Like many tractates in the order of Kodshim, Temurah was not often learned by many Talmud scholars. Its reopening was included in the general Kodshim Renaissance brought about by the Brisk yeshivas.
Usage examples of "temurah".
They would use the notarikon, the gematria, the temurah, treating the disks like the Torah, and therefore would require as much time as had passed since the writing of the Sefer Yesirah.
In that case he would have had to apply the notarikon to the temurah, to invent an acrostic to remember the word.