בַּאֲמִירַת אָנָּא בְּכֹחַ צָרִיךְ לִרְאוֹת — אוֹ לְצַיֵּר בְּמַחֲשָׁבָה — הַשֵּׁמוֹת, שֶׁהֵם הָרָאשֵׁי תֵּיבוֹת, אֲבָל לֹא לְאָמְרָם.

When reciting the prayer beginning Ana BeCho’ach, one should look at — or visualize — the Divine Names formed by the initial letters of the words, but they should not be articulated.1

To Fill In the Background

Thisprayer was composed by R. Nechuniah ben HaKanah, the author of Sefer HaBahir, one of the earliest extant Kabbalisticworks. The prayer accompanies one’s ascent to higher spiritual levels, for the initial letters of its 42 words comprise the Divine Name of 42 letters.2 The 42 words also correspond to the 42 stages in our forefathers’ trek through the wilderness3 as they made their way out of Egypt and set their sights on Eretz Yisrael.

“In every generation and every day, a person is obligated to regard himself as if he had that day come out of Egypt.”4 Our forefathers’ trek through the wilderness isparalleled by every Jew as he wrests himself free from the bondage of his own spiritual, intellectual and psychological Egypt, and advances in the course of his lifetime to unfettered self-fulfillment in his own Promised Land.