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(continued)
Unique Language
Biblical Hebrew, also known as "Lashon Kodesh" (The Holy Tongue) is a unique language. It is the only language whose letters communicate meaning independent of the words they form.
In most languages letters don't have independent value. They don’t communicate any meaning. A letter is a symbol that indicates a sound (much like a musical note) and is only valuable when paired with other letters to form a word. Even then, it is the word that communicates meaning, not the letters.
In English, for example, the letters E-A-R of "ear" have no intrinsic meaning. They mean nothing when they stand alone, and still mean nothing when they stand together. There is nothing about ear, the word or the thing it describes, that is connected to the shape or name of the letters E, A or R. Similarly, no one will say that an "era" is somehow connected to an "ear" simply because they share the same letters.
Letters simply don't speak for themselves. They must be grouped together before the newly formed words can begin to communicate meaning. As the expert on words, Merriam Webster, spells out clearly: "Word: a speech sound or series of speech sounds that symbolizes and communicates a meaning usually without being divisible into smaller units capable of independent use".1
Jewish scholars have... in fact pondered, explored, and revealed, the meaning of each individual Hebrew letter.
Meaningful Letters
But for thousands of years, Jewish scholars have done just that. They in fact pondered, explored, and studied, the meaning of each individual Hebrew letter. Countless writings - from the Kabalistic formulas found in Sefer Yetzirah2 to the simple meaning of each letter’s name (and shape) found in the Talmud3 - make it clear that each Hebrew letter communicates its own meaning, aside from the words it joins to form.
Jewish literature attributes so much meaning to the letters that whole words can be interchanged simply because they share the same letters. For example, the Hebrew word Mishnah (Mem, Shin, Nun, Hey), and the word for soul, Neshamah (Nun, Shin, Mem, Hey) are seen to be related because of their common letters.4 Letters also belong to "families", and within a single word family letters can be exchanged to disclose another meaning to that word. For example, the first two letters of the word Mitzvah, Mem and Tzadik (of Mem, Tzadik, Vav, Hey), can be replaced with their pairs Yud and Hey respectively.5 This would spell out G-d's name, Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey.
Each letter also contains a numerical value, and words that share the same numerical value can also be related. For example, the word Hateva (nature) has the numerical value of 86, which is the same numerical value as Elokim (one of G-d's names).6
What then is the secret of the Hebrew letters? Why has so much scholarship been dedicated to their understanding? And why do they, unlike any other alphabet, possess independent value?
Let There Be Light
One might say the first clue into the unique quality of the Hebrew letters is in the third verse in the Torah: "And G-d said let there be light".7
The verse does not say "G-d created light"; G-d only said it should be, and the verse concludes that it was. This raises a question: Where was light summoned from? And how did "light" know to be light.
To take a modern example: if Steve Jobs walked into an Apple board room five years ago and said "Let there be an iPod" what would we have?
Nothing.
Not only couldn’t that statement produce an iPod, but it wouldn’t even produce the concept or vision of one. Because a) words don’t produce; they only describe, and b) they only describe things that already are (at least in concept or on paper), and at the time an iPod did not exist.
But how did "light" know G-d was calling it, and how did a saying bring it into being? There was no light. There wasn’t even a descriptive word to summon light, because light never existed, and was therefore never described.
Let There Be Letters
This question leads us to the original, albeit more obscured, clue into the nature of the letters. This one in the very first verse of the Torah:
Breishit – In the beginningBara Elokim – G-d createdEt –Hashmayim – the heavensV’Et – Ha’aretz – the earth.8
Notice there is a Hebrew word (repeated twice) which isn't translated. The word Et. Et is a Biblical Hebrew word that has no translation. To be sure, the word is not meaningless, and while it cannot be translated, it is interpreted. The Talmud is replete with respective explanations for the numerous Et's that appear throughout the Torah.
The utterances themselves are the building blocks of creation. They are not just what called creation into being; they are the being called creation.
Breishit – In the beginningBara Elokim – G-d createdEt – Alef through Tav
In the beginning G-d created the Hebrew Alef Bet.
Letters of Creation
You see, the Hebrew Alef Bet are not just letters; they are the Elementary Particles, or DNA of existence. They represent forms of Divine energy. Fuse a number of metaphysical elementary particles (aka Hebrew Letters) in a specific manner, and you will have heaven, fuse a few others in a different manner, you will have earth.11
So G-d says "Let there be light", i.e. may the energies/letters of Alef, Vav, and Reish fuse into (the word) Or (light). They do. As a result we have light.
Thus the Psalmist says "Forever, O L-rd, your word stands in the heavens."12 Your word O L-rd, "Let there be a firmament"13 is the persistent Raison d'être of the vast skies. As the Mishnah says "with ten utterances G-d created the world."14 The utterances themselves are the building blocks of creation. They are not just what called creation into being; they are the being called creation.
3D Letters
And thus for thousands of years Hebrew was studied not only as a language of words (grammar, spelling etc), but a as a science of letters. Since the letters themselves are descriptions of energies we must understand what each letter tells us about the energy it symbolizes. These secrets can be found in the meaning of its shape and name, its numerical/mathematical value, and based on what other alphabetical elementary particles it groups with.
There is much to say and many words have been recorded to explain the letters. Following is a series of short essays providing brief insight into three dimensions of each letter: its name, shape and numerical value.
Alef, Bet, Gimmel, Dalet, Hey, Vav, Zayin, Chet, Tet, Yud, Kaf, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Pei, Tzadik, Kuf, Reish, Shin, and Taf.
You may also want to read the following books: Letters of Light, by Rabbi Ari Raskin. The Hebrew Letters, by Rabbi Yitzchok Ginsburg. Sefer Yetzirah, (translated) by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan. And Understanding the Alef-Beis, by Dovid Leitner15
Footnotes
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Miscellaneous » Hebrew / Languages » Codes and NumbersMiscellaneous » Hebrew / Languages » Hebrew
