Q&A: Who Is Dikarnusa?
Who Is Dikarnusa?
Question
Hello Rabbi Michi,
Who is Dikarnusa?
Best regards, Haim
Answer
It is someone whose name begins with dalet and ends with aleph. ๐
It is commonly assumed that this is one of the names of the Holy One, blessed be He. In some places, one can get the impression that it is some kind of angel.
Discussion on Answer
Now an idea has occurred to me, as a mere speculation. The above Talmud says โthe coin of sustenance,โ and Rashi explains: the angel appointed over sustenance. Since when is โisarโ a term of rulership? Perhaps โappointedโ means a tool in the hand of the Holy One, blessed be He (like โJoseph harnessed his chariotโ). But perhaps there is another possibility:
There are kings of Assyria in the Hebrew Bible: Shalmaneser and Tiglath-Pileser (they conquered Israel and part of Judah). And in royal names it is very common to incorporate the name of the local god. For example, Babylonian kings: Nebuchadnezzar begins with the divine name โNebo,โ and Belshazzar begins with the divine name โBelโ (as it says, โBel crouches, Nebo stoopsโ; and Nebuchadnezzar called Daniel โBelteshazzar,โ โaccording to the name of my godโ). Ethbaal king of Sidon, and โBaalโ was their god. And so too with most of the kings of Judah. It would seem, at least apparently, that โAsarโ was in Assyrian a designation for a king or an idol, like โElโ among some peoples.
Sorry for the flood, but something that had been sitting in the back of my mind for years suddenly stirred up thoughts in me about it.
I wrote above that I did not understand what is written in the prayer books, that the name โDikarnusaโ comes from the verse โand I will pour out for you blessing until there is no more needโ and from the verse โlift up upon us the light of Your face, Lord.โ And I proposed gematria upon gematria for how Dikarnusa comes out of the verse โand I will pour out for you blessing until there is no more need.โ But the second verse, โlift up upon us the light of Your face, Lord,โ could not be explained that way.
And now I see that if you take the words โlift up upon us the light of Your face,โ their initials are nun-ayin-alef-peh, and their final letters are heh-vav-resh-khaf, together giving a numerical value of 432, while Dikarnusa has a numerical value of 431, and with the kolel it is 432. It seems to me that the truth proves itself: this is what the kabbalists meant, that this name comes from those verses by way of these gematria methods, which are like a compass in the hand of the draftsman. And they chose these verses because for them Dikarnusa is appointed over livelihood, like the name Hatakh (which is also equal in numerical value as above, as written in the prayer books), and these verses deal with livelihood and with a special shining of the divine countenance, and also because one can gather from them the letters of Dikarnusa, as I wrote above.
An explanation regarding Dikarnusa.
In general, quite an interesting channel.
(I have a special interest in this name, because in my childhood I was asked to explain how Dikarnusa is derived from the verse โand I will pour out for you blessing until there is no more need,โ and from the verse โlift up upon us the light of Your face, Lord,โ as is written in prayer books, at least the Sephardic ones. And unless we say that the kabbalists simply gathered letters for themselves from โwithout enoughโ (โdaiโ) + โand I will pour outโ (โkarโ) + โlift up upon usโ (โnasaโ) = Dikarnusa, it is not clear how the verse yields the name. And I found that the full verse of โand I will pour out for youโ etc. has 29 words, and the initials have the numerical value 398, totaling 427, and together with the whole verse 428, which is the numerical value of Hatakh; and Hatakh with three letters is 431, which is the numerical value of Dikarnusa. And I do not think I have seen anyone explain it this way. As for the second verse, โlift up upon usโ etc., I was not able to explain it in this way. In any case, since then I have wondered to myself what the kabbalists found in this name, and I kept an eye out for it, and at some point I saw a solution, and as far as I remember it was from someone who came to mock Kabbalah, and I will present it.)
In the Babylonian Talmud, Pesachim 111b, it says: โThe coin of sustenanceโNakid is its name. The coin of povertyโNaval is its name.โ And Rashi explained: โThe coin of sustenanceโโthe angel appointed over livelihood. From here it is easy for the discerning person to conclude that Dikarnusa is an anagram of โasur nakid,โ and that is where the kabbalists invented it from.
And similarly, one can see in the segulah of Rabbi Shimshon of Ostropoli, which is read (at least by Sephardim) on Passover eve, how he goes along inventing names of angels for himself and making riddles out of them and then solving themโmarvel of marvelsโand who would believe him that he did not invent them for the sake of the solution (it is highly recommended to read this devious little โsegulah.โ I was a child and was enormously impressed by this segulah, wonders upon wonders. Until I grew up and the penny dropped, etc., and it was not pleasant. And see Abarbanel on Daniel chapter 11, and that is enough for the discerning.)