Tziruf / Permutations
In Tikkunei Zohar 9b it states that for each Hebrew month, there is a different permutation (“tziruf“) of the holy name YHVH.
There are a total of 12 unique ways that the four letters with two repeated can be arranged (i.e. YHVH, YHHV, YVHH, HVHY, HVYH, HHVY, VHYH, VHHY, VYHH, HYHV, HYVH, HHYV) and each month has its unique combination.
Here’s some more from Reb Zalman on tziruf:
“In addition to the tziruf where every month has a different combination, it also goes hour by hour. During the day there are twelve combinations of yod heh vav heh and during the night, twelve combinations of aleph daled nun yud.
“When they took the Alter Rebbe and put him in a jail, he was placed in a chamber where there was no light coming in. One day, the officer of the jail asked, ‘Do you know what time it is,’ and, although he had no watch, the Rebbe answered, ‘Yes. exactly.’ The oficer asked, ‘How do you know such a thing,’ and the Rebbe answered, ‘I know, because I’m in touch with the tziruf of the divine name.'”
Another story:
“A visitor came to see the Alter Rebbe and the Rebbe had to step out for a moment.
“The visitor was excited about a super duper chronometer he had brought with him, a watch he had recently obtained during a visit to St. Petersburg and which really held time with great precision. Seeing the Rebbe’s watch sitting on the table, he reached over and adjusted it to match the chronometer, changing it by four minutes from its setting.
“The rebbe came back into the room and when he saw his watch he said, ‘It’s wrong. What did you do?’
“The man showed him proudly his chronometer.
“The Rebbe spoke: ‘You and your chronometer. I know what time it is.’
“So the hassidim all wanted to know, ‘If he knows the time without it, why does does he need to have his watch?’
“The answer was to be able to go back and pay attention to gashmius / the physical world. Because if you look at the tziruf of the divine name you just go off in the blue yonder.”
I asked Reb Zalman about a Tziruf based upon days of the month, and he replied:
“You have to figure like this: If this is the month of Iyar, it is Yod Heh Heh vav. So it goes like this:
“The first week is the old Yang, the second week is the old Yin, the third week is the young Yin and the last week is the young Yang.”
Gabbai Seth Fishman, BLOG Editor