The Ana Beko’ach prayer, formed by Rav Nehonia ben Ha Kana between the first and second century, is considered one of the most powerful prayers for connecting us to the power of creation.
The kabbalists explain that each time we recite the Ana Beko’ach, we return to the time of creation, and each time we meditate on a particular sequence, we return to the original uncorrupted energy that built the world. By performing the Ana Beko’ach meditation, we enrich our lives with unadulterated spiritual Light and cosmic energy.
The prayer is read in Hebrew, from right to left as follows:
"The Ana Beko’ach prayer is considered one of the most powerful prayers for connecting us to the power of creation."
The Ana Beko’ach is hidden within the first 42 letters of the book of Genesis, beginning with the word bereshit and ending with the word vavohoo. Referred to as the 42-letter name of God, the source of the efficacy of this prayer is indicated to us by where it is revealed in the Bible – at the very beginning, in the story of Creation itself.
The Ana Beko’ach is constructed of 7 lines that are related to the seven days of Creation, the Seven Sefirot, and of course, the seven days of the week. Each line is comprised of two three-letter sequences – 6 letters per line. With the exception of the second line – which spells Kra Satan, meaning to “tear out Satan” – none of the sequences spell actual words. According to the Zohar, the Hebrew letters represent a source code of all of physical reality. The Ana Beko’ach, or the 42-letter name of God, is considered to be the code that was used to create the process by which Creation happens.
As Rav Berg explains:
“The Ana Beko’ach contains 42 words that correspond directly to the 42 Hebrew letters of the Creative process. The Ana Beko’ach is divided into seven lines, which can be seen as DNA sequences since they represent origins of seven different types of energy, each stemming from one of the Seven Sefirot in the Tree of Life, from Chesed all the way down to Malchut.”
The Zohar reveals it this way :
"In the beginning, Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void (Heb. bohu)..." (Beresheet 1:1) UNTIL THE BET OF BOHU. FOR THESE 42 LETTERS ARE THE SECRET OF THE NAME OF MEM-BET (42). In this cycle OF THE LETTERS, it is the secret of "And the earth was without form and void," because of the letters Kuf-Resh-Ayin Sin-Tet-Nun, meaning BY THE STRENGTH OF THE SEVERE JUDGMENTS THAT IT CONTAINS. THERE BECOMES: "And darkness was on the face of the deep" (Ibid. 2) The Gimel brought forth Resh and the Dalet-Kuf AND THESE BECAME THE COMBINATIONS GIMEL=RESH, DALET=KUF. Until here, AFTER THERE EMERGED THE FOUR COMBINATIONS OF ALEPH=TAV, BET=SHIN, GIMEL=RESH, DALET=KUF, the letters rolled and struck one another to be established in the Tabernacle. THE REASON IS THAT THE PERMUTATION OF THE ATBASH CIPHER, CONTAINS ELEVEN COMBINATIONS: ALEPH=TAV; BET=SHIN; GIMEL=RESH; DALET=KUF; HEI=TZADIK; VAV=PEI; ZAYIN=AYIN; CHET=SAMECH; TET=NUN; YUD= MEM AND CAF=LAMED, WHICH ARE DIVIDED INTO THREE COLUMNS, RIGHT, LEFT AND CENTRAL. THE FIRST FOUR, ALEPH=TAV, BET=SHIN, GIMEL=RESH, DALET=KUF, ARE THE RIGHT COLUMN. THEREFORE, THEY ARE CONSIDERED AS ESTABLISHING THE TABERNACLE.”
The Kabbalists explain that the Ana Beko’ach was given to humanity to assist us to be the co-creators of reality. Each time we meditate using the 42-letter sequence, we have the potential to elevate our consciousness out of this, our current reality and re-launch creation. Kabbalists, Rav Nehonia added words to the 42 letters sequence, building a prayer that is in fact an acronym so that we could remember and use these letters as a prayer.
Using the Ana Beko’ach prayer with our focused consciousness, we can return to the seed of existence, and then re-establish, or reset our reality.
To understand how and why this works, according to Kabbalah, requires a little explanation of Creation and the purpose of life.
While this is a lofty topic, much grander than any single article could tackle, thanks to the efforts of kabbalist, Rav Berg – who spent his entire life translating and developing teachings that made this wisdom clear to even to the uninitiated –today it is possible to make it comprehensible and even simple.
Kabbalah teaches us about the structure of the universe and how it operates, so that we can become clearer about our role in its operation and our purpose in life.
From the Tree of Life diagram we can see that there are 10 spheres: nine above and one at the very furthest point below. The last sphere is our universe, known as the world of Malchut, a dimension which has no Light of its own. This is also known as the reality of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Above Malchut, beyond the upper nine spheres, is the endless infinite Light force of the Creator – a force of goodness and love unfathomable and incomprehensible to the finite mind. The upper nine spheres are emanations full of the Creator’s Light—the highest levels of pure energy. This is also known as the Tree of Life reality.
Descending from energy to matter, from above downward, each level becomes denser until we reach the realm of physicality, or the world of matter. One above Malchut is the level of Yesod, which is the funnel that gathers the Light from the upper spheres of pure energy and releases it to Malchut. Yesod is like a straw. The suction that pulls all the Light from the upper dimensions through Yesod to Malchut is created by the consciousness of humanity. We draw all that Light down through the spiritual structure into the physical dimension with our desire. As we draw to us that which we desire, if our desire is clear and tuned to Light, we draw Light and are the cause for illuminating this world.
"Kabbalah is in many ways the science of spirituality."
In Rav Berg’s words:
“Remember, in the beginning, our conflicted souls rejected the Light of the Creator on the grounds that we could not accept that which we had not earned, thus creating bread of shame with its concealing prison of physicality. The Creator then bowed to our wishes and restricted the spiritual Light. Spiritual Light now comes in packets of physical energy, giving us an opportunity to release it. We do this by restriction. Then, in a marvelous act of co-creation, we earn the right, as co-creators, not only to receive all that the Creator wishes to give us, but to re-create ourselves as well.”
Much of the wisdom of Kabbalah relates to how to draw that Light from the upper spheres down to this world using a myriad of tools (some physical, some metaphysical) that can be used independently or together: Hebrew letters forming different sequences; windows in time; instruments like the shofar, the menorah and much more. Kabbalah is in many ways the science of spirituality. Although spirit is vague, abstract and elusive, Kabbalah is meticulous and precise. It is a technology that is thorough and exact, almost mathematical in its description of the means to achieve connection between that which is entirely physical and that which is energy.
The Bible, according to the kabbalists, is not a document that describes the history and creation of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religions and their laws. It is explained by the kabbalists that the Bible is a blueprint that outlines the structure and coding we need to know to do this work of being the reason, being the cause of the revelation of Light.
Sounds pretty simple — reconfigure my desires from all the things that tempt me and just focus on desiring Light, right? The caveat to the simplicity of this formula is that being in this physical world, we can find ourselves becoming consumed by it. So strong is the pull of all the distractions that exist here, the lack that we can experience here, that we can forget the way it feels to be fulfilled by the Light. The gravitational pull is so intense that we lose sight of all the Light we can bring down to ourselves and this world. The Creator supplies us with powerful tools like the Ana Beko’ach, providing wings that can lift us out of the realm of the mundane. The Zohar says, “Every Sefirah, MEANING EACH NAME from these seven names, POSSESSES six wings”, so that we can re-calibrate and remember our purpose.
Through the Ana Beko’ach, we elevate and can see from a different view. We rise and re-connect to the Tree of Life reality temporarily, to refresh and reset so that we can return back to our world and our work clear about our purpose.
"When the Ana Beko’ach is said, one should consciously visualize that first letter of every word pronounced, as it is the seed of everything."
Like the lyrics to the popular song From a Distance, the Ana Beko’ach allows us to hover just above the distance and see the world for all it truly is: “From a distance you look like my friend, even though we are at war. From a distance I just cannot comprehend what all this fighting is for. From a distance, there is harmony, and it echoes through the land. It’s the voice of hope. It’s the voice of peace. It’s the voice of every man. From a distance, we are instruments marching in a common band, playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace. They are the songs of every man. God is watching us from a distance.”
At the level of God’s emanations, there is no time, no space, and no motion. It is the seed level. It is our own purest state. It is the point before the effects of our actions. It is the seven days of Creation, wherein each day is constructed with a perfect consciousness. In fact, Rav Berg teaches that each three-letter sequence of the Ana Beko’ach begins with a single first letter that serves as the seed of what the full word will manifest, as the apple seed contains root, trunk, and branch of the tree to come. Each line, or sequence, contains six words with six first letters. 6 times 7 equaling 42, which corresponds directly to the 42 first letters found in the prayer and in the portion of Genesis. So important are these first letters, says Rav Berg, that when the Ana Beko’ach is said, one should consciously visualize that first letter of every word pronounced, as it is the seed of everything.
We see the number 42 in the bible again in the biblical portion of Masei. There we find a lengthy description of the journey of the Israelites after they left Egypt, telling us the story of the 42 stops they made in the desert.
Rav Berg explains it like this:
“Why would the Bible take 132 verses to tell us where in the wilderness the Israelites traveled? What are we meant to achieve by reading about the 42 different encampments? This reading teaches us about the code of the Ana Beko’ach, the 42-letter name of God...
What the Bible wants to teach us is a concept revealed in the Zohar which science recognizes; it is the process of Quantum – when yesterday, today, and tomorrow are one. Everyone understands this innately – if you can see tomorrow, chaos cannot rule your life. Quantum says that everything is one. The Ana Beko’ach elevates us above the entire physical reality where time, space, and motion do not exist.
Kabbalist Rav Isaac Luria explains that those 42 stops described in the portion of Masei are in fact the 42 processes that a soul undergoes on its journey in this world. Each stop is a stage in our spiritual evolution. He describes it not only as the blueprint for the creative process, but moreso it is the blueprint of the process of the soul. The Ari explains that each time we meditate and fully engage our consciousness in the Ana Beko’ach prayer, we are taking our soul through its 42-stage process bringing us ever closer to our own correction. Assisting us to go from the world of Asiyah, the world of action, to the world of Yetzira, the world of formation.
"With the Ana Beko’ach , we can go back to the time before the Creation."
Although while in our physical bodies it is very difficult to retain or sustain this level of ascension, with the use of the Ana Beko’ach, the possibility exists for us that each time we experience the Ana Beko’ach with greater consciousness we retain more of that elevation, thereby returning to this world with a more expanded and exalted consciousness that can experience both this physical world in our body, but at the same time be connected to the Light of the upper dimensions. The Ana Beko’ach allows us to live in this world without being consumed by it. Like the burning bush that Moses experienced, the fire illuminated the bush, but it did not consume it.
To conclude, Rav Berg puts it all together:
“There are some who do not take the Ana Beko’ach as seriously as it was intended to be taken, which is not to say they do not use it, only that they do not use it to its full potential. It is an interface between the Light force of God and that which was created -- meaning this entire universe.
Through such technology, we interface two worlds.
The seven verses of the Ana Beko’ach are the method by which God created every aspect of this universe, and what we would like to capture is to reconnect to that Flawless Universe. In the portion of Masei is the final portion of the Book of Bamidbar, containing every conceivable form of chaos that humankind can suffer. God devised a system whereby we can have some chance to go back -- before the sin of Adam, before the world of corruption, before the usual snares that challenge us in this physical world.
The only world that was affected by Adam and Eve eating from the Tree of Knowledge is the physical reality. The Bible appeared in order to give us a physical system -- the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, which are a channel we can use to connect to that incorporeal world.
With the Ana Beko’ach , we can go back to the time before the Creation, before the world was polluted by negativity and by so doing we are our own creators -- we are a part of God. If God is able to create, and we are part of God, then we are able to create and govern our lives.”
