Tikkunei Zohar: Seventy Faces of Torah

The First Instance of the Torah’s 70 Faces

The phrase שבעים פנים לתורה “the Torah has seventy faces” first appears in the medieval Midrash Numbers Rabbah, a composite work which can be dated to the 12^th century C.E,^[1] and not in the Talmud, as it is commonly traditionally attributed.^[2] The late midrash glosses a phrase that appears twelve times in the list of the donations from the twelve leaders of the tribes:

^{במדבר ז:יט} הִקְרִב אֶת קָרְבָּנוֹ קַעֲרַת כֶּסֶף אַחַת שְׁלֹשִׁים וּמֵאָה מִשְׁקָלָהּ מִזְרָק אֶחָד כֶּסֶף שִׁבְעִים שֶׁקֶל בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ...

^{Num 7:19} He presented as his offering: one silver bowl weighing 130 shekels and one silver crater of 70 shekels by the sanctuary weight…^[3]

On this latter phrase, the midrash writes:

^{במדבר רבה יג:טז} מִזְרָק אֶחָד כֶּסֶף – כְּנֶגֶד הַתּוֹרָה הַמְשׁוּלָה בְּיַיִן, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (משלי ט:ה): "וּשְׁתוּ בְּיַיִן מָסָכְתִּי." וּלְפִי שֶׁדֶּרֶךְ הַיַּיִן לִשְׁתּוֹת בְּמִזְרָק, כְּמָה דְתֵימָא (עמוס ו:ו): "הַשֹּׁתִים בְּמִזְרְקֵי יַיִן," לְכָךְ הֵבִיא מִזְרָק.

^{Num Rab 13:16} “One silver crater”—this corresponds to the Torah, which is compared to wine, as it says (Prov 9:5): “And drink the wine that I have mixed.” And since wine is generally drunk from craters, as it says (Amos 6:6), “They drink from the wine craters,” each brought a crater.

"שִׁבְעִים שֶׁקֶל בְּשֶׁקֶל הַקֹּדֶשׁ" – כְּשֵׁם שֶׁיַּיִן חֶשְׁבּוֹנוֹ שִׁבְעִים, כָּךְ יֵשׁ שִׁבְעִים פָּנִים בַּתּוֹרָה. לָמָּה נֶאֱמַר בַּקְּעָרָה אַחַת, כְּנֶגֶד הַתּוֹרָה הַצְּרִיכָה לִהְיוֹת אַחַת.

“70 shekels by the sanctuary weight”—Just as wine (yayin) is valued at seventy,^[4] so too, the Torah has seventy faces. Why does it say: “in one bowl?” This corresponds to the Torah that needs to be one.

The final point emphasizes the tension between advocating for multivocality on one hand, but the essential unity of the Torah on the other. The Torah is likened to wine with many faces (numerically, wine = 70), yet this multiplicity is unified within a single vessel, ultimately converging into an integrated whole.

Part 1

The Origin of the Seventy Faces of the Torah Concept

While the formulation “the Torah has seventy faces” is post-Talmudic, by no means does it reflect something entirely new. The notion of multiple meanings in the Torah is grounded in numerous rabbinic statements (see Appendix A), the earliest of which can be found in the Jerusalem Talmud’s claim that that the Torah can be interpreted in 49 ways (7x7).

Forty-Nine (7x7) Interpretations: Jerusalem Talmud

The passage begins with Rabbi Yannai’s statement that the Torah was written to be purposefully ambiguous:

^{ירושלמי סנהדרין ד:ב} אָמַר רִבִּי יַנַּאי: אִילּוּ נִיתְּנָה הַתּוֹרָה חֲתוּכָה לֹא הָיְתָה לָרֶגֶל עֲמִידָה.

^{j. Sanhedrin 4:2} Rabbi Yannai said: “If the Torah had been given with clear decisions attached, the leg would be unable to stand.”^[5]

The Talmud goes on to present the prooftext for Rabbi Yannai’s statement:

מַה טַעֲמָא? "וַיְדַבֵּר י"י אֶל מֹשֶׁה"—אָמַר לְפָנָיו: רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁלְּעוֹלָם, הוֹדִיעֵינִי הֵיאָךְ הִיא הַהֲלָכָה. אָמַר לוֹ: "אַחֲרֵי רַבִּים לְהַטּוֹת": רָבוּ הַמְזכִּין – זָכוּ, רָבוּ הַמְחַייְבִין – חִייְבוּ.

What’s the basis? “The LORD spoke to Moses”—[Moses] said to [God]: “Master of eternity, tell me what the halakha is.” [God] said to him: “side with the majority.” If more [judges] acquit, acquit; if more convict, convict. ^[6]

Notably, this midrash reads a biblical verse against its simple meaning, which is not to follow the majority when they are wrong:

^{שמות כג:ב} לֹא תִהְיֶה אַחֲרֵי רַבִּים לְרָעֹת וְלֹא תַעֲנֶה עַל רִב לִנְטֹת אַחֲרֵי רַבִּים לְהַטֹּת [תה"ש: משפט].

^{Exod 23:2} You shall not follow a majority in wrongdoing; when you bear witness in a lawsuit, you shall not side with the majority so as to pervert [LXX: justice].

The Talmud continues with a midrash connecting three verses, claiming that any law should be open to 49 interpretations supporting both possible legal decisions, pure and impure. The number comes first from gematria (calculating the numerical value of words), then from a literal reading of “sevenfold”:

^{ירושלמי סנהדרין ד:ב} כְּדֵי שֶׁתְּהֵא הַתּוֹרָה נִדְרֶשֶׁת מ'ט' פָּנִים טָמֵא וּמ'ט' פָּנִים טָהוֹר, מִינְייָן ו'ד'ג'ל'ו' [עָלַי אַהֲבָה]. וְכֵן הוּא אוֹמֵר: אִמֲרוֹת י"י אֲמָרוֹת טְהוֹרוֹת כֶּסֶף צָרוּף בַּעֲלִיל לָאָרֶץ מְזוּקָּק שִׁבְעָתָיִם, וְאוֹמֵר: מֵישָׁרִים אֲהֵבוּךָ.

^{j. Sanhedrin 4:2} So that the Torah is interpreted in 49 ways towards impurity and 49 ways towards purity. Where do we know this from? (Song 2:4) “And his banner [upon me in love]” [in gematria=49]. And also it says (Ps 12:7) “The words of the LORD are pure words, silver purged in an earthen crucible, refined sevenfold” [7x7]. And it says (Song 1:4) “They love you justly” (=plural).

While this midrash does use the word פנים “faces,” and works with multiples of seven, the Talmud does not yet know of the claim that the Torah has seventy ways of being interpreted specifically.

The Torah in Seventy Languages

The earliest seeds for the medieval idea that the Torah has seventy interpretations, begins also with the claim that the Torah was given in seventy languages, because there are seventy nation and each were given the news of Torah.

Seventy serves as a typological number demonstrating an abundance of variety, as it does in the claim that God and Jerusalem have seventy names (Midrash Zuta on Song of Songs 1:1), or that the world has seventy nations (Gen 10); the latter is the source for the idea that there are seventy languages.^[7] In contrast to the Jerusalem Talmud passage, which asserts that learners themselves may derive both permissibility and prohibition from a single textual passage, the Babylonian Talmud has the divine voice itself, at the very defining moment of the revelation at Mount Sinai, speaking in seventy distinct “languages”:

^{בבלי שבת פח: [אוקספורד 366]} א"ר יוחנן: "מאי דכתיב (תהלים סח:יב) 'ייי יתן אומר המבשרות צבא רב'? כל דבור ודבור שיצא מפי ה[קדוש] ב[רוך] ה[וא] נתחלק לשבעים לשון."

^{b. Shabbat 88b} Rabbi Yohanan said: “What is the meaning of the verse (Ps 68:12) ‘The Lord gives a command; the women who bring the news are a great host (=all 70 nations).’ Each statement that left the mouth of the Blessed Holy One was distributed in seventy languages.”

דבי ר' ישמעאל תאנא: "[הלוא כה דברי כאש נאם ייי] וכפטיש יפוצץ סלע" (ירמיה כג:כט)—מה פטיש זה מתחלק לכמה ניצוצות אף כל דבור ודבור שיצא מפי ה[קדוש] ב[רוך] ה[וא] נתחלק לשבעים לשון.

The school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: “‘[Behold my words are like fire, says the LORD,] like a hammer that shatters stone’ (Jer 23:29)—Just as this hammer yields many sparks, so too each and every statement that left the mouth of the Blessed Holy One was distributed in seventy languages.”

The emphasis here is on the different ways in which a statement is perceived or understood. According to this interpretation, the Torah was not given in seventy languages so that the nations would know it, but rather in seventy distinct modes or forms, another meaning of the Hebrew lashon.^[8]

The post-Talmudic Midrash Otiyot de-Rabbi Akiva is the first to identify the seventy “languages” (leshonot) with “faces” (panim), stating that the Torah was given to Moses in seventy “face” of the seventy languages, which he studied on Mount Sinai:

^{אותיות דרבי עקיבא} וכולן (=גנזי חכמה) נפתחו לו למשה בסיני עד שלמדו בארבעים ימים כשהיה עומד בהר:

^{The Letters of Rabbi Akiva} All of the [gates of wisdom] were opened to Moses at Sinai, until he learned them during the forty days, when he was standing on the mountain:

תורה בשבעים פנים של שבעים לשון; נביאים בשבעים פנים של ע' לשון; כתובים בשבעים פנים של ע' לשון. הלכות בע' פנים של ע' לשון; שמועות בע' פנים של ע' לשון; הגדה בע' פנים של ע' לשון; הגדה בע' פנים של ע' לשון; תוספות בע' פנים של ע' לשון. ^[9]

Torah in seventy faces of seventy languages; Prophets in seventy faces of seventy languages; Writings in seventy faces of seventy languages; Laws in seventy faces of seventy languages; Teachings in seventy faces of seventy languages; Aggada in seventy faces of seventy languages; Additions in seventy faces of seventy languages.

The move from seventy languages to seventy faces presents a radical vision of the Torah’s multivocality.

Ibn Ezra’s: Making the Phrase Popular

Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167), a contemporary of the editor of Numbers Rabbah, uses the phrase “the Torah’s seventy faces” to explain why the sages often offer interpretations that are clearly against the simple meaning of the text:

^{אבן עזרא הקדמה} וידענו כי דרך הפשט לא נעלמה ממנו, כי הקל שבקלים ידענו, רק תפש דרך דרש, כי שבעים פנים לתורה.

^{Ibn Ezra Introduction} And we know that the way of peshat was not hidden from them, for even the simplest of all know it, only [the interpreter] chose the way of derash, for the Torah has seventy faces.

Striving for rationality in his interpretation^[10], Ibn Ezra returns to this phrase later in his introduction, this time, ironically, to defend his writing a peshat commentary and not making use of rabbinic midrash in his interpretation of the narrative material:

^{אבן עזרא הקדמה} ובעבור הדרש דרך הפשט איננה סרה, כי שבעים פנים לתורה, רק בתורות ובמשפטים ובחקים, אם מצאנו שני טעמים לפסוקים, והטעם האחד כדברי המעתיקים, שהיו כולם צדיקים, נשען על אמתם בלי ספק בידים חזקים. ^[11]

^{Ibn Ezra Introduction} The way of peshat does not bend before derash , for the Torah has 70 faces, however, when it comes to laws, statutes and rules, if we find two ways to understand a verse, and one of the ways is in line with that of the Sages, for they were all pious, we will rely on the truth of their assertions, since without doubt they have strong arms.

As Ibn Ezra’s commentary was widely read—more than Numbers Rabbah—this is likely the passage that made this phrase famous in rabbinic literature. In practice, however, Ibn Ezra is merely justifying his engagement with the peshat, while disparaging derash.

For him, the adage “seventy faces to the Torah” does indeed describe a known phenomenon in the Jewish world, but one that lacks truly significant meaning. A century later, however, the Tikkunei Zohar attempts, for the first time, turns the phrase into a programmatic principle for an entire composition, devoted solely to seventy interpretations of a single word in the Torah.^[12]

Part 2

Tikkunei Zohar Offers Seventy Interpretations of Bereshit

Tikkunei Zohar, of unknown authorship, is one of the most influential pieces of kabbalistic literature. It has left its mark on the Kabbalah of Safed, the Hasidic masters, the writings of Moshe Haim Luzzatto, the school of the Vilna Gaon and more. As a freestanding text (first published in Mantua in 1558), the book has been published more than any other kabbalistic text, apparently more than the Sefer Yetzira, Sefer HaBahir, and the Zohar put together.^[13]

The Tikkunei Zohar’s general ideas—the immanence of God, the division of the universe into four worlds, its detailed exposition of divine names—all became part and parcel of kabbalistic tradition.^[14] It is likely on account of the tremendous influence the Tikkunei Zohar had in rabbinic tradition that the concept of the Torah’s seventy faces, which is the core of the book, became so dominant.

As far as we can discern, the body of work referred to as the Tikkunim literature crystallized in Spain in the generation following the composition of the Zohar, around the turn of the fourteenth century. The central composition was published as a discrete work under the name Tikkunei ha-Zohar; while others are scattered throughout printed editions of the Zohar, at times under the heading רעיה מהימנא Raya Meheimna (another composition in Hebrew).

Tikkunei ha-Zohar’s two introductions^[15] announce its structure as a written record or documentation of seventy interpretations that Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai offered for the word בְּרֵאשִׁית “when beginning/in the beginning,” the first word of the Torah:

^{תיקוני זהר, הקדמה אחרת יז ע"א} פתַח רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן וְאָמַר, "בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים", "סוֹד י־הוה לִירֵיאָיו וּבְרִיתוֹ לְהוֹדִיעָם" (תהלים כה:יד). סוֹ''ד אִלֵּין אִינוּן שַׁבְעִין אַנְפִּין, דְּאִתְפָּרַשׁ מִלַּת בְּרֵאשִׁית בְּהַאי פָּרָשָׁתָא.

^{Tikkunei Zohar, alternative intro} Rabbi Simon began and said: ‘In the beginning, God created’ (Gen 1:1) ‘The counsel/secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him; to them He makes known His covenant’ (Ps 25:14). ‘Secret (sod=70)’^[16]—these are the seventy faces with which the word bereshit can be interpreted in this parasha.

One can read this introduction as a standard opening (petichta) to a midrash that generates innovation through the juxtaposition of two different biblical verses (Genesis 1:1 and Psalms 25:14)—a known homiletical technique from early midrashic literature.^[17] Yet, a second interpretation of this opening passage suggests that the author advances a more radical thesis: that the esoteric dimension resides precisely in the very principle of the seventy faces itself.

This hypothesis finds substantive support in the author’s consistent portrayal of the seventy faces not merely as an exegetical tool or hermeneutical method, but as a constitutive principle of Judaism:

"וחונן לאדם דעת"—שהוא דת ע' כלומר דת הכוללת שבעים פנים.^[18]

“He grants humanity knowledge”—For it is a religion (dat) of seventy (ayin), meaning a religion that includes seventy faces.

This homily reflects the author’s conception that the secret (sod=70 in gematria) is the heart of Judaism, and it is revealed through the interpretive multiplicity of every word in the Torah.

The claim that the secret is embodied in the seventy faces of the Torah emphasizes the domain in which Jewish mysticism operates: the text itself. Rather than extraordinary or paranormal personal experiences, which often characterize mysticism in other religions and trends, here the domain of the secrets is realized through a profound rereading of the Torah.

The other preface presents us with the same program for the composition, namely, that the secrets of the Torah which Rabbi Shimon will proceed to explain in the sermons that follow are its seventy faces:

^{תיקוני זוהר, הקדמה} וְדָא אִתְקְרֵי תִקּוּנֵי הַזֹּהַר דְּאִינוּן שַׁבְעִין אַנְפִּין^[19] לְאוֹרַיְיתָא דְפַרִישׁ רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בַּר יוֹחָאִי בְּמִלַּת בְּרֵאשִׁית מִסִּתְרֵי אוֹרַיְיתָא.^[20]

^{Tikkunei Zohar, intro} This work is called Tikkunei Zohar for these are the seventy faces of the Torah with which Shimon bar Yochai interpreted the word bereshit from the Torah’s secrets.

Thus, kabbalistic interpretation through the way of the Torah’s seventy faces represents the realization of the Torah’s secret, esoteric dimensions.

Bereshit- in the Beginning

The choice to compose seventy interpretations of the very first word of the Torah alludes to the secret of beginnings: the beginning of the world, the beginning of the narrative, the inception of divine will, the secret of ma’aseh Bereshit as described in the Mishnah (Hagigah 2:1), and the first manifestation of the ineffable in reality—the transition from nothingness to being, in philosophical terms. At the same time, it expresses a more prosaic principle: in theory, every word of the Torah can likewise be examined through seventy faces.

To arrive at the extreme variability of reading, the book offers widely different reading strategies such as cutting the word to pieces, rearranging letters, gematria, acrostics, etc. To get a sense of the extreme variety, here are some of its re-readings of the term:

• ב' ראשית—“bet first” = two first (§2)
• ראש בית—“head of house” (§3)
• ברא שית—“created six” (§11, 17, 46, 47, 70)^[21]
• ירא שבת—“awe of Shabbat” (§9, 24)
• שיר תאב—“song of lust” (§10)
• ירא בשת—“fear of humiliation” (§7, 9)
• ש [שמים] ירא בית—“heaven fears the house” (§18)^[22]
• ברא שתי—“created two [Torahs]” (§31)^[23]
• בתשרי—“in Tishrei [the world was created]” (§35)
• אש ברית—“fire of the covenant” (§14)^[24]
• ברא איש—“created a man” (§42, 64)
• ברא תיש- "created a goat" referring to the ram [for the binding of Isaac]( §2 at the end)
• אתר יבש—“a dry area” (§43)^[25]

These readings are developed at length in homilies, some occupying only a few lines, while others extend to forty pages or more (such as Tikkun 21, 69, and 70).

Through wordplay with the letters of bereshit, these homiletical interpretations offer diverse readings that highlight the author’s central values: covenant, reverence, Shabbat, and the cosmic structure based on the sefirot, divine emanations. Seeing these concepts as embedded in the Torah’s first word emphasizes both their importance and the claim that everything is encoded from the beginning: God's covenant, divine awe, the Temple, and historical events like Isaac's binding are all encapsulated in this opening word.

The most common word to be carved out of the word בראשית may be בת bat “daughter,” formed by the central letters bet and tav, which allows the author to draw further associations such as בת זוג “lover,” בת עין “pupil [of the eye],” ^[26] בת קול “prophetic voice,” or בת שבע “daughter of seven (sefirot).” The word can also refer to the בת “daughter” of God, who is beloved by her father above all the sons.

We find this idea in a parallel source, playing on an earlier Talmudic dictum about daughters:

^{זוהר חדש, תיקונים [צא ע"א]} בראשית ברא אלקים האי קרא אתפשט לע' אנפין כמה דאוקמוה רבנן ע' אנפין לאורייתא בראשי"ת בת בתחלה אמאי אלא הכי אוקמוה רבנן דמתני' (בבלי בבא בתרא קמא.) "בת בתחלה סימן טוב לבנים."

^{Zohar Chadash, Tikkunim [p. 91a]} “In the beginning God created” this verse can be parsed in seventy ways (lit. “faces”), as the rabbis established, “The Torah has seventy faces.” [The rearranged letters of] ב-ראשי-ת can be understood “daughter” (=בת) “in the beginning” (ראשי), as the rabbis taught in the Talmud (b. Baba Batra 141a), “A daughter first is a good sign for sons.”

Tikkunei Zohar identifies this daughter as the Shekhinah “divine presence,”^[27] the embodiment of God in the world and the manifestation of God’s presence within reality. (In Hebrew, the root שׁ.כ.נ signifies “to dwell” or “to be present.”) Tikkunei Zohar further connects Shekhinah with Shabbat (ש-ב-ת), awe of heaven (י-ר-א), shame (ב-ש-ת), and covenant (ב-ר-י-ת). All these terms were already identified with Shekhinah in preexisting kabbalistic traditions, but they are emphasized here because of the word play with bereshit, which includes the letters for all of these.

Thus, the alternative introduction (quoted above) moves directly from the seventy faces of the Torah to קום רבי שמעון אפתח מילין קמי שכינתא “Rabbi Shimon got up and opened with words before the Shekhinah,”^[28] underscoring the idea that these seventy faces are, in fact, the very faces of the Divine.^[29]

The reading of the bet in Bereshit not as a temporal word (“in the beginning”) but as a prepositional word indicating purpose,^[30] allows the exegete to propose multiple meanings that address the question of “for what purpose did God create the world?” In this parsing, the word reshit then serves as the answer, i.e., “for the sake of the reshit.”

The author identifies this reshit with the bat, the Shekhinah, the feminine divine presence, toward which the kabbalist directs consciousness and intentions. This entity also represents Israel, for whom the world was created—they are the reshit the “first, main, or head” people, for whose sake God created the world. The end is inherent in the beginning.

What Is a Tikkun?

In contemporary Hebrew, the term tikkun is used primarily to denote the repair or reassembly of something that has broken, and in the Mishnah, it signifies the rectification of social and moral order (tikkun olam). In the Zohar, tikkun has a spectrum of meanings: adornment or decoration,^[31] arraying, garbing, installing, healing restoring and more. Most often it refers to the ordering of the upper world, but also of what exists in its most beautiful form.

While tikkun serves as “chapter” in this context, the term’s usage also reflects the Zoharic understanding that midrashic readings possess power beyond their aesthetic and poetic qualities. According to this conception, every such reading corrects or establishes (le-takken) reality itself, suggesting that one might transform the world through speaking words of Torah.^[32]

This understanding illuminates various ritual practices of late-night study:

• Tikkun Leil Shavuot—represents the rectification and adornment of the bride;^[33]
• Tikkun Chatzot functions to restore shattered worlds;
• Tikkun Tu BiShvat aims to repair the fabric of cosmic reality.^[34]

The Zoharic literature thus presents a vision where words of new Torah possess world-transforming power. In line with that, Tikkunei Zohar’s seventy ways of interpretation each serve to repair and deepen the inner wisdom of the Zohar, which is the profound wisdom of the Torah.

The Number 70

The number seventy underscores the foundational principle of the multiplicity of the Torah, where Bereshit, as the opening of the sacred text, serves as a model for every other word to follow. Because the book does not actually provide seventy distinct interpretations (some overlaps exist between its chapters, and some chapters offer more than one reading),^[35] it looks as if the number seventy is best understood typologically, as in seventy years, seventy nations, seventy languages, seventy names of God, and the like.

More than that, the number seventy is given a Kabbalistic meaning, linked to the seven lower divine emanations of building (sefirot ha-binyan), which constitute the divine world. The seventy faces of the Torah thus represent the entire divine realm, with each sefirah corresponding to ten faces. They are not merely modes of textual study, as in the Midrash, but a specific expression of the higher divine world.

In Kabbalah, where all is transformed into secret knowledge, even a conventional number embodies transcendent meaning, and studying the text in seventy ways becomes a deeply religious act. The concept of the seventy faces of the Torah is so central to the Tikkunei Zohar that it is seen as the very essence of Judaism.

The number “seventy” does not, however, signify infinity—a concept the author never employs. Rather, it designates a closed method of interpretation comprising seventy possibilities, and is specifically associated, as we shall see, with exegesis on the level of sod (mystical interpretation), following the fourfold PaRDeS hermeneutic.^[36]

Panim “Faces”

How are we to understand the word “faces” in this context? (See Appendix B.) Some have interpreted it as a simple metaphor for different aspects of the Torah, its expressions, or modes of understanding. Others have attributed more far-reaching meanings, seeing in “faces” a notion of revelation and exposure—for example, Moses’ request and God’s refusal:

^{שמות לג:כ} וַיֹּאמֶר לֹא תוּכַל לִרְאֹת אֶת פָּנָי כִּי לֹא יִרְאַנִי הָאָדָם וָחָי.

^{Exod 33:20} And [God] said: “You cannot see My face, for no one may see Me and live.”

We see it also in the Priestly blessing:

^{במדבר ו:כה} יָאֵר יְ־הוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וִיחֻנֶּךָּ. ^ו:כו יִשָּׂא יְ־הוָה פָּנָיו אֵלֶיךָ וְיָשֵׂם לְךָ שָׁלוֹם.

^{Num 6:25} May YHWH shine his face toward you and favor you! ^6:26 May YHWH lift up his face toward you and grant you shalom!

Another layer of meaning is found in the biblical expression “face to face” (panim be-panim), which denotes intimate revelation and closeness—between God and Moses (Exodus 33:11), between the cherubim (Exodus 25:22), and in other contexts.

Yet others understood “faces,” if not as expressions of revelation or prophecy, as a metaphor for relationship and affection and even, as in the Hebrew expressions פנים מאירות “illuminated faces” or להראות פנים “to show favor,” and sometimes even as erotic, פה אל פה “mouth to mouth.” According to these interpretations, the Torah is not merely to be studied intellectually in seventy ways; rather, the homiletical process creates a personal and intimate relationship with the text. Identifying the Torah with the divine on one hand,^[37] and with the feminine on the other,^[38] shapes the interpretive engagement and frames it as more than a purely intellectual activity.

Faces (Anpin) in Kabbalah

It is also important to recall the central status of face in Kabbalah.^[39] Already in the Zohar, the principal designations of divinity are אריך אנפין “the Long-Faced One” and זעיר אנפין “the Short-Faced One,” with all of reality revolving around the radiance of the divine face. The long-faced aspect embodies overflowing mercy, while the short-faced aspect represents anger and judgment. Against this background, the notion of seventy faces of the Torah can be understood as the revelation of the divine faces,^[40] or as expressions thereof, and even as moments of love and intimate connection.

The term panim also signifies the divine countenance and the human yearning to encounter it, expressed in Psalms:

^{תהלים כד:ו} זֶה דּוֹר (דרשו) [דֹּרְשָׁיו] מְבַקְשֵׁי פָנֶיךָ יַעֲקֹב סֶלָה.

^{Psalms 24:6} This is the generation of those who seek Him, who seek Your face, O Jacob.

Seeking the divine face underlines the mystical call to engage intimately with the divine presence, reflecting both revelation and concealment. It is therefore not surprising that the author of Tikkunei Zohar chooses as his project the study of the seventy faces of the Torah, entailing a profound and comprehensive religious, intellectual, and emotional engagement with the divine.

Moshe Idel notes how kabbalah, in its development of the sefirot concept, adopted the rather Platonic idea that “one basic spiritual unit becomes diversified when descending into the lower worlds.”^[41] The seventy faces can be fit into this rubric as well, except that, unlike the notion that the sefirot in this world are diminished, pale, and faint representations of the higher ideal, the seventy faces are embellishments of the Torah, elevating it to new heights.

Each new interpretation generates a new reality which glorifies God, and in which God rejoices.^[42] Thus, what came to symbolize anti-dogmatism and to express the open theology of the Jewish world became, for Tikkunei Zohar, an important theological principle.

Because the Torah resides with Israel in exile, and is subordinated to other nations and religions that claimed dominion over the truth, homiletical activity is redemptive in nature.^[43] The Torah, described in exile as silent and enslaved, is revived with every new “face” it receives, and each interpretation contributes to ending exile. A notable phrase in this literature—one that helped secure the book’s popularity and even spurred its printing prior to the Zohar—declares:

דְּאִיהוּ הַאי סֵפֶר הַזֹּהַר, יִפְּקוּן בֵּיהּ מִן גָּלוּתָא בְּרַחֲמֵי.

In this book Israel will be taken out of exile.^[44]

Part 3

Beyond the Seventy Faces

With the completion of a work reading the word bereshit in seventy different ways, Tikkunei Zohar opened the gates of interpretation for endless similar projects.

The Ashkenazi-Polish kabbalist R. Nathan Spira of Krakow (ca. 1585–1633), in his מגלה עמוקות (Megaleh Amukot “Revealer of Depths”), offers 252 meanings for the word ואתחנן “and I pleaded” (Deut 3:23), the word’s number in gematria. In another (lost) work of his, R. Spira offers 84 interpretations of the small aleph in ויקר^א “and he called,” on the opening word of Leviticus.^[45]

A century later, Ramchal (R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, 1707–1746) took the specific project of Tikkunei Zohar further when, at 24 years old, he wrote Tikkunim Chadashim (new tikkuns), offering seventy interpretations of לעיני כל ישראל “before the eyes of all the Israelites,” the final words of the Torah.^[46] All of these attempts seek to realize the idea of multiplicity of faces in the Torah, condensed in a single word, as treated by our author.

Writing in Aramaic, maintaining the protagonists of the Zohar—Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the Trustworthy Shepherd (הרעיא מהימנא), Elijah the prophet and others—and building the homilies in the Zoharic style, Ramcha"l offers the mirror image of the Tikkunei Zohar, to bookend the project.

Internalizing the Seventy Faces of the Torah

In Chasidic thought, the concept of the Torah’s seventy faces turns inwards, to speak about the multiplicity of ways individuals understand or relate to Torah. For example, Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, offers a wordplay homily between ש.נ.ה “years” and “different”:

^{ליקוטי מוהר"ן קמה:לה} כי יש שבעים פנים לתורה והם בחינת שבעים שנים כי כל אחד משונה מחברו.

^{Likkutei Moharan 145:35} For the Torah has seventy faces, and this is akin to [a person’s average lifespan of] seventy years (shanim), for each year is different (meshuneh) from the other.

In other words, Torah study (shinun)^[47] has seventy faces because a person changes year to year, and therefore, the meaning of the Torah changes for that person along with it. Certain teachings strike a chord in one way for a younger person, and another way for an older person. Spiritual growth also allows for deeper and variegated understandings of any given word or text.

Not Everyone Is Ready

R. Nachman goes further and says that in addition to homilies, it is key to tell stories about ancient times, for people who are not even yet ready to enter into the seventy interpretations. These individuals are described as spiritually “asleep” and distant from the Torah:

^{ליקוטי מוהר"ן קמא:ס} אֲבָל יֵשׁ שֶׁנָּפַל מִכָּל הַשִּׁבְעִים פָּנִים, עַד שֶׁאִי אֶפְשָׁר לְעוֹרְרוֹ בְּשׁוּם פָּנִים, כִּי אִם עַל־יְדֵי סִפּוּרֵי מַעֲשִׂיּוֹת שֶׁל שָׁנִים קַדְמוֹנִיּוֹת, שֶׁכָּל הַשִּׁבְעִים פָּנִים, שִׁבְעִים שָׁנִים, מְקַבְּלִין חִיּוּת מִשָּׁם.

^{Likkutei Moharan 141:60} But there are those who have fallen below all seventy faces, such that it is impossible to awaken them in any way, except for with stories of things that took place in ancient times, for all seventy faces, seventy years, receive vitality and splendor from there.

Ironically, the saying “the Torah has seventy faces,” which first appears in Midrash Numbers Rabbah to present the ultimate interpretive radicalism, expressing the existence of countless meanings to the Torah, is transformed in the 18th century into a phrase expressing a type of vibrant completely individual learning.

In the teachings of R. Naḥman, the medieval dictum of the ‘seventy faces of the Torah’ is given renewed significance through an emphasis on the very term faces. Whereas the phrase traditionally denotes a multiplicity of possible interpretations, R. Naḥman underscores the living and radiant countenance of the Torah and of religion more broadly, which must remain accessible to all who turn to it.

“Falling from all the faces of the Torah” (נופלים... מכל השבעים פנים של תורה) signifies the loss of meaning—perceiving the Torah as obsolete or unattractive. In this light, the Torah’s presence in the world, and its manifestation in lived experience, should be inviting and luminous. With panim expressing awakening and inspiration as opposed to פנים נפולות “fallen face,” sadness and sorrow.

In R. Naḥman’s view, the polyvalence of the Torah is not merely exegetical but existential: it reflects the ability of its “faces” to continue radiating vitality across generations, precisely in a time when secularization and the spread of Enlightenment ideas posed significant challenges to his religious leadership.

Rabbi Nachman’s solution to the danger of “falling away” from the seventy faces of the Torah (Likkutei Moharan I, Torah 60) is storytelling itself. Beginning in 1806 in Uman, he composed and recited his Sippurei Ma‘asiyot (“Tales”), which disclose the Torah’s faces indirectly. Instead of relying on the sacred text and its exegetical frameworks, these tales employ seemingly neutral narratives populated by universal figures—such as a king, a queen, a princess, or the “mountain of gold.”

Precisely because they are detached from the idiom of the Torah, the stories penetrate more deeply into the listener’s consciousness. Paradoxically, it is through their very distance from explicit Torah language that they generate a renewed discovery of the seventy faces of the Torah.

Appendix A

Multiple Interpretations in the Sages

One of the earliest statements that there is more to the Torah than immediately obvious is found in the Mishnah:

^{משנה אבות ה:כב} בֶּן בַּג בַּג אוֹמֵר: "הֲפֹךְ בָּהּ וַהֲפֹךְ בָּהּ, דְּכֹלָּא בָהּ..."

^{m. Abot 5:22} Ben Bag Bag says: “Delve into it over and over, since everything is in it…”

In a famous Talmudic story, Moses finds God adding crowns—decorative elements atop certain letters, known as תגין (taggin)—and doesn’t understand why. God explains that they are there for Rabbi Akiva, an important sage from the time of the Mishnah, who will find hidden laws in these decorated words:

^{בבלי מנחות כט:} אמ[ר] רב יהודה אמ[ר] רב: בשעה שעלה משה למרום מצאו להק[דוש] בר[וך] הו[א] שהוא קושיר כתרים לאותיות. אמר לפניו: "ריבונו שלעולם! מי מעכיב על ידך?" אמר לו: "אדם אחד יש שעתיד להיות בסוף כמה דרות, ועקיבא בן יוסף שמו, שעתיד לדרוש על כל קוצין וקוצין תילי תילין שלהלכות."

^{b. Menachot 29b} Rav Yehuda said in the name of Rav: “When Moses when up to heaven [to receive the Torah], he found the blessed Holy One drawing crowns upon the letters. [Moses] said before him: “Master of Eternity! Who is causing this delay?” [God] said: “There is one man who will is destined to live generations from now, Akiva son of Joseph is his name, and he will derive from each and every stroke mounds upon mounds of halakhot.”

Do Not Read (אל תיקרי)

Another method of deriving new meaning is when the Talmud takes a word written one way in the Bible and suggests אל תקרי אלא “don’t read it that way but this way…” For example, to discourage learning Torah with an ignoramus, Rabbi Ḥiyya (2nd cent. C.E.) switches the reading of the letter shin to sin—written exactly the same—then adds a silent aleph:

^{בבלי פסחים מט:} תאני ר' חייא: "כל העוסק בתורה בפני עם הארץ כאילו בועל ארוסתו בפניו, שנאמר (דברים לג:ד): 'תּוֹרָה צִוָּה לָנוּ מֹשֶׁה מוֹרָשָׁה' אל תקרי 'מוֹרָשָׁה' אלא 'מְאוֺרָשָׂה.'"

^{b. Pesachim 49b} Rabbi Ḥiyya taught: “Anyone who is involved in Torah study before the face of an ignoramus, it is as if he’s had relations with his fiancé before him, as it says (Deut 33:4): ‘When Moses charged us with the Torah as the heritage…” Don’t read morashah (heritage) but meʾorasah (betrothed).”

A better known “do not read” example is the set of interpretations the Talmud offers in connection to the divine writing engraved on the tablets:

^{בבלי עירובין נד.} אמר ר' אלעזר: "מאי דכתיב (שמות לב:טז) 'חרות על הלוחות'? אילמלי לא נשתברו הלוחות לא נשתכחה תורה מישראל."

^{b. Eruvin 54a} Rabbi Elazar said: “Why does scripture mean by (Exod 32:16) ‘engraved on the tablets’? If the tablets hadn’t been broken, the Torah would not have been forgotten by Israel.”

רב אחא בר יעקב אמר: "אף אין כל אומה ולשון שולטת בהן, שנאמר: 'חרות' אל תיקרי חַרוּת אלא חֵירוּת."

Rav Aḥa bar Jacob said: “So too, would no nation or dialect be able to rule over them, as it says חרות don’t read ḥarut (engraved) but rather ḥeyrut (freedom).”

By reading the pataḥ sound as if it were a tzeri, the phrase suddenly says that freedom was on the tablets.

Acrostics (נוטריקון)

^{בבלי שבת קה. [וטיקן 108]} ר' יוחנן דידיה א[מר]: "אנכ"י=אנא נפשי כתבית יהבית."

^{b. Shabbat 105a} Rabbi Yohanan said: “The word ʾanokhi stands for ‘I Myself Writing Gave).”

רבנן אמרי: "אמירה נעימה כתיבה יהיבה."

The Rabbis say: “a Pleasant Statement Written Given.”

איכ[א] דא[מרי]: "יהיבה כתיבה נאמן אמרה."

There are those who say (doing the acrostic backwards): “Given Written Faithful Stated.”

Because the Torah is an expression of the divine personality, with the Torah itself serving merely as a revelation of its mysteries and hidden aspects, this level of interpretive plasticity is indicative of a reading culture that was open to a text being multivocal in an almost limitless way.

Appendix B

Seventy Faces, Seventy Branches

Already in the Zohar itself, the concept of seventy “faces” אנפין (ʾanpin) was reinterpreted to also mean seventy “branches” ענפין (ʿanpin), by switching the opening guttural aleph for ayin, both of which are pronounced similar in Hebrew.^[48] This imagery builds on the description of wisdom or torah as a tree of life:

^{משלי ג:יח} עֵץ חַיִּים הִיא לַמַּחֲזִיקִים בָּהּ....

^{Prov 3:18} She is a tree of life to those who grasp her….

In the Zohar literature, this image is teased out in the depiction of an axis mundi [the axis of the world], a tree that connects earth with heaven, teaming with life: fruit, birds, animals, like vision in Daniel which the Zohar often quotes:

^{דניאל ד:ז} ...חָזֵה הֲוֵית וַאֲלוּ אִילָן בְּגוֹא אַרְעָא וְרוּמֵהּ שַׂגִּיא. ^ד:ח רְבָה אִילָנָא וּתְקִף וְרוּמֵהּ יִמְטֵא לִשְׁמַיָּא וַחֲזוֹתֵהּ לְסוֹף כָּל אַרְעָא. ^ד:ט עָפְיֵהּ שַׁפִּיר וְאִנְבֵּהּ שַׂגִּיא וּמָזוֹן לְכֹלָּא בֵהּ תְּחֹתוֹהִי תַּטְלֵל חֵיוַת בָּרָא וּבְעַנְפוֹהִי (ידרון) [יְדוּרָן] צִפֲּרֵי שְׁמַיָּא וּמִנֵּהּ יִתְּזִין כָּל בִּשְׂרָא.

^{Dan 4:7} …I saw a tree of great height in the midst of the earth; ^4:8 The tree grew and became mighty; its top reached heaven, and it was visible to the ends of the earth. ^4:9 Its foliage was beautiful and its fruit abundant; there was food for all in it. Beneath it the beasts of the field found shade, and the birds of the sky dwelt on its branches; all creatures fed on it.

The image appears in the Zohar’s depiction of the giving of the Torah:

^{זוהר שמות, יתרו (ב.פג ע"ב)} ובשעתא דהוה נפיק ההוא מלה אתחזי חד, וכד הוה מתגלפא באתרוי אתחזון בההוא מלה שבעין ענפין דסלקין בגוה.

^{Zohar Exod, Yitro (2.83b)} When the divine word was given, [each word] seemed like one [thing]. But when it was carved in its place, it was seen that the word had seventy branches entering into it.

In other words, each word—like the word bereshit in Tikkunei Zohar—has seventy meanings, and this was conveyed with the visual imagery of seventy branches connecting to each divine word at Sini which was carved into stone.

The Zohar even uses the two words together in its reading of Ecclesiastes 3:21:

^{זוהר בראשית (א.נד ע"א)} האי קרא כמה גוונין אית ביה והכי הוא כל מלוי דאורייתא כמה גוונין בכל חד וחד וכלהו יאות והכי אינון

^{Zohar Gen 1.54a} This verse has many meanings (lit. “colors”), and this is the case that all the words of the Torah have many meanings in each and every one, and all of them are beautiful, thus they are.

וכל אורייתא מתפרשא בשבעין אנפין לקביל שבעין סטרין ושבעים ענפין והכי הוא בכל מלה דאורייתא וכל מאי דנפיק מכל מלה ומלה כמה גוונין אתפרשן מניה לכל סטרין.

And all of the Torah can be explained in seventy faces, corresponding to seventy sides and seventy branches, and this is true of every word of the Torah. In addition, anything derived from each and every word, several meanings can be derived from them [too], in all directions. Thus, the very concept of multivalence is multivalent!