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Tsiriuph

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

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(צירי ), or anagram, is a Cabalistic rule according to which various words are formed through the change of any word into others by the transposition of the component letters. Thus בראשית, "in the beginning," has been anagramatized ברית אש, "a covenant of fire," to accord with Deuteronomy 33:2, "from his right hand went a fiery law for them." ‘ In a Cabalistic book entitled תיקונים upwards of seventy combinations of this single word are formed by R. Simeon benJochai. The Cabalists say that because the Hebrew letters are spiritual, and simple figures, they can therefore be construed in different ways; but this can be done in any language. Thus Herbert anagramatized the Virgin Mary into Army, as seen in the following two lines:

"How well her name an Army doth present, In whom the Lord of hosts did pitch his tent!" (B.P.)