My entire life, I have had a fixation with King David. He is the single historical character at the top of the list of who I would meet if I could. I even dressed up as him for our wax museum exhibit in school when I was around 11.
And with Hoshana Rabba coming up, David has been occupying my thoughts again. David is the Ushpizin associated with Hoshana Rabba, the seventh and final guest of Sukkot.
And one thing I have always wondered is: what does the name David even mean?
Every character in the Torah that I can think of has a name with a somewhat obvious meaning behind it. Avraham means the father of nations, Moshe means taken from the waters, and Israel means to grapple with gods and men (and be victorious).
But David was never obvious to me.
The same Hebrew letters can be read as Dod, which means beloved one. And I guess that is enough explanation. But to me, the name as pronounced still strikes me as a standout, enough to make me wonder about its deeper meaning.
So I had a thought a few months ago, which I fleshed out into the idea I want to share with you.
The rejected stone
The story of David is the quintessential hero’s journey.
David was a simple shepherd boy. According to a Midrashic tradition about David’s childhood, his family kept him apart, and questions surrounding his legitimacy caused him to be treated as an outcast. When Shmuel comes to anoint one of the sons of Jesse, David was not even brought forth, as he wasn’t seen by his family as worthy of consideration.
Irrelevant.
Later, in Psalms, he would write:
אֶבֶן מָאֲסוּ הַבּוֹנִים הָיְתָה לְרֹאשׁ פִּנָּה
The rejected stone became the cornerstone.
The overlooked youngest son who became King of Israel and fathered its only legitimate dynasty until Moshiach (the Messiah) himself.
He began with very little, but built himself up throughout his life. Through trust and belief in G-d and through his own trials and tribulations.
He became the hero of his own journey, and in the process, the hero of his people, Israel.
The King of Israel.
Malchut
Now I’m gonna share a bit of a Kabbalistic idea I had. I think David’s name conceals the story of who he was, as well as the hero’s journey he came to represent.
David has always been associated with the archetype of the King. Malchut (Kingship), which is the last of the Kabbalistic ten Sefirot.
In brief:
Sefirot are the different ways or qualities through which G-d’s energy and presence are expressed in the world.
Malchut is the final sefirah. It means “kingship” and is about receiving everything that came before it and bringing it into reality.
Malchut is an empty vessel, a recipient. It receives from all the loftier sefirot.
But its emptiness is not a deficiency.
It is precisely what allows it to receive.
Though humble and empty, Malchut becomes the key step in bringing creation into being. Everything that came before it can finally be received and brought into reality.
Pirkei Avot states:
“Malchut is acquired through thirty levels.”
Thirty levels. Thirty dimensions of kingship.
David began his story at the bottom. As an empty vessel, with not much recognizable greatness within.
But David was the perfect vessel.
Truly given over to the search for G-d. He was a seeker who wanted nothing more than a relationship with his Creator. He was a poet who would go to the fields to shepherd and compose songs of yearning and love to G-d. All he wanted was that connection, and he placed his full trust in Him.
Not even a giant could meddle with or insult the depth of existence that he sought.
And because of that love and commitment, David was able to receive.
In his search, he was the vessel for G-d. Perfectly fit for His light.
So year after year of his life, he incorporated more of that light. He developed his potential, grew into himself. He searched for greater connection, and as he got closer, he grew.
I believe each year of his life, David internalized one of those 30 levels required for malchut to be complete, his kingly potential to be revealed.
And then, at the age of thirty no less, he finally fulfilled his development to become the King of Israel.
The perfect channel for G-d into this World.
David’s name
So what does this have to do with his name?
To understand this, let’s look at G-d’s name.
Pay attention to the composition of the principal Name of G-d, YHVH, the Tetragrammaton, as it is known.
It is made up of four letters:
Yud: י
Hei: ה
Vav: ו
Hei: ה
But hidden within those four letters is something interesting.
The letter Yud appears three times.
Can you spot all three?
Jewish mystical thought describes the letter Hei as being composed of a Daled with a Yud beneath it. That means there are, in a sense, three Yuds within the Name: the first Yud, plus the two Yuds hidden within the two Hei’s.
And here is where I want to suggest a connection of my own.
If you remove those three Yuds from G-d’s name, you are left with the letters:
Daled, Vav, Daled.
David.
Each Yud has a numerical value (gematria) of 10.
Three Yuds.
Thirty.
And Pirkei Avot tells us that malchut is acquired through thirty levels.
So perhaps David’s name itself contains the story.
David, the neglected stone. The empty vessel, who through his own toil and search eventually internalized those levels and became the full version of himself.
A channel for G-d’s full name with all its Yuds.
Our hero’s journey
David is our story.
Our hero’s journey.
We too come into this World in some way empty. But we must recognize that emptiness for what it truly is.
It is nothing but the space necessary for us to fill it with the light only we can draw down.
Our G-dly potential realized.
The three Yuds of our own process.
Perhaps then, the parts of ourselves that feel empty are not really empty at all. The things we lack, the parts still unfinished, the places where we have not yet become who we know we can be.
Maybe those are not flaws in the story.
Maybe they are the space the story requires.
Because a vessel that is already full has no room to receive.
David’s emptiness was not the opposite of his kingship.
It was the space in which his kingship could eventually emerge.
And thus, we are gifted with a wonderful journey of life.
Our very own hero’s journey.
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Goosebumps!!! Unbelievable and breathtaking
You’re also a gingyyyyy