HEBREW WORD STUDY  – A WEARY SOUL – NEPHESH AVEPH נפש  עיף Nun Pei Shin   Ayin Yod Pei

Jeremiah 31:25: “For I have satiated the weary soul.”

“Sometimes exhausted with toil and endeavor, I wish I could sleep forever and ever. But then this reflection my longings allay, I shall be doing it one of these days.”  Piet Hein

Satiated the weary soul. I am not too sure what it means to satiate a weary soul nor am I sure what a weary soul is but somehow that is exactly the way I feel. But for the sake of accuracy, I will examine just what a weary soul is and how it is satiated. 

The word weary in Hebrew is ayeph which has the idea of weariness (big help), as a heavyweight, it is, however, a picture of leather straps which have become so dried out that they are no longer flexible.  You need to saturate or harvest from the root word ravah so they will become flexible.   

This morning I tried to get out of bed but it was so hard. I was so burdened by the troubles of the day that lay ahead of me. I found during the night that Ayin Yod and Pei which spell  Ayeph (weariness) had come to wake me up but they were so weary that they fell right on top of me and passed out.  The Ayin in Ayeph (weariness) was made of heavy iron and he had leather straps that were tightened around my legs like cuffs. The next letter of Ayeph (weariness) is the Yod who was also made of iron and he had collapsed around my neck and just hung around my neck by his leather straps. The last letter Pei was a block of iron who had passed out from weariness and landed right on my back, somehow his dry leather straps were tightened around me and kept me from bending (Ayin, Yod, Pei – weariness). Each letter weighed at least a hundred pounds and its weight made it so difficult to get up that I could not even shave or brush my teeth. “Come on guys, give me a break” I pleaded. “I have to move wheelchairs into my disability bus this morning. Can’t you just loosen your grip” “Oh, but it is in great pain that I am” moaned Ayin, “So sorry,” grunted Yod, “Too pooped out. My get up and go has got up and gone.” sighed Pei “You could at least say something original.” I said disgustedly. Pei ignored my swipe and continued: “The enemy came last night and tightened our leather straps around you and I am just too exhausted to loosen the straps. I am afraid I am just stuck on you until, yawn, I get more sleep. “Same with me” muttered Yod.”  “Here too” said Pei as he struggled to remove the strap from around my back but just gave up with a sigh.  

I knew the only way to get Pei off my back, as well as his friends Ayin and Yod, was to somehow crawl through my Looking Glass and see if there was anything in Esoteric Land to get these leather straps loosened and thus removed Ayin, Yod and Pei (weariness).  I crawled toward my Looking Glass hanging from my Daleth as Ayeph (weariness) encouraged me with a “Heave, hoo! Heave ho! Didn’t the doctor tell you to lose weight?” Crossing beyond the Daleth and through my Looking Glass I found things were even worse, I was in a desert. It was hot, worse than yesterday where it was 94 degrees with a feel of 100 degrees. I felt the leather straps getting drying and tighter. The leather strap that had Pei strapped to my back was wrapped around my chest and his leather strap was getting dryer and dryer from the heat and thus tighter and tighter. Now Ayeph (weariness) was making it hard to even breathe. 

“Ayin” I pleaded, “You represent insight, tell me which direction to head. “I’ll try,” gasped Ayin, “But I am only a shadow and all I see are your problems. However, take a right – no, wait a minute, that leads to your financial problems, try the left – oops wait a minute that leads to health problems, why don’t you try….”   “Forget it,” I said, “Yod; you are just hanging around my neck.  You are supposed to be a messenger from heaven, is there any way you can provide some direction? “Yod sadly replied: “Normally, I would help you to see the world to come, but when I am part of the word weariness I can only see the bad results of your problems. 

In desperation, I turned to Pei and asked: “Pei, you are a mouth and a voice, I need you to say something that will encourage me here.”  Alas, Pei, as part of weariness, could only speak of the dangers that my problems were presenting. “Fine bunch of Hebrew letters you guys turn out to be,” I say dejectedly, “But what can I expect from an Ayin, Yod and Pei, who team themselves up to form the word Ayeph which not only means weariness but also dwelling on your problems (Ayin), seeing only bad results from these problems in the future (Yod) and speaking of all the negative results of these problems (Pei).

Suddenly, along our path, we come across Davar which represents Words spoken from the heart of God. Davar immediately paused and bent down to minister to me. Davar pulled out a canteen filled with Scripture and I drank in Jeremiah 31:25, “For I have satiated the weary soul.” and said that I need to find Ravah (satiated) who was located at the next Oasis.     

Feeling revived from Davar’s refreshment, it still took all my strength to make it to the next Oasis but once there I found that Ravah (satiated or saturate) was waiting for us. Ravah is spelled with a Resh (which represents the Holy Spirit and looks like a pipe with the top bent over dipping into the waters.  The next letter, Vav, represents a connection between heaven and earth and serves as an extension pipe to the Resh. The final letter Hei (representing God’s presence) was connected to the Vav and began to spin around like a sprinkler saturating us with the fresh, cooling refreshing water of the presence of God. As the leather straps became saturated they expanded enough to loosen their hold and before long Ayin Yod and Pei managed to work themselves free, thus freeing me from Ayeph (weariness).

Being released from weariness and feeling the fresh presence of God like a cool spray of water, I felt immediately refreshed.  I looked over at Ayin Yod Pei Ayeph (weariness) and found that Ayin was no longer located at the front of the word Ayeph (weariness) but had located himself at the end of the word. Their new order was now Yod, Pei, Ayin and as they were also refreshed they began to shine very brightly. I then realized that Yod, Pei, and Ayin spelled the word Yapha’ which means to shine.  “What is it with this shining business?” I asked my companions. Yod said he was no longer a shadow but now represented a message from heaven and that now that he was released from the word Ayeph (weariness) he could tell me that a message from heaven was given to him to declaring that all my troubles would bring me closer to God.  Pei said that his shadow has been released and he could only speak of the good things that God had in store for me and Ayin, shinning the brightest after his shadow left said that his insight has shown him how my present situation would lead me to God’s perfect will. 

As Yapha’ (shining) and I joyfully journeyed back through my Looking Glass Ayin paused to ask a favor. “Next time you see me leading the Yod and Pei (Ayeph – weariness), kindly move me to the rear so we become Yapha’ (shine) and you can wake up to brightness and not weariness. Oh, and by the way those wheelchairs you are pushing today, the people in those chairs are a lot more Aveph weary than you, would you mind sharing us as Yapha’ to them?”

“That I shall, that I shall. Ayin old friend, that I shall.”