It will be a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever, for in six days YUD HEY VAV HEY made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He stopped work and He ENSOULED (Exodus 31:17. TR. Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz, author of The Seventh Telling, The Thirty-Third Hour, The Twenty-second Letter).
The letters featured in this painting are VAV YUD NUN PEY SHIN. Taken together they spell VI YE NAPHASH - ENSOULED.
Each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet has a special meaning and a story to tell. Here are a few short ones about the letters on this card.
VAV is the 6th letter, has a numerical value of 6, and is constructed of a single vertical line. VAV means HOOK and makes a sound like the V in Victory. When used as a vowel, VAV can sound like a long `o' or a long `u.' Translated it means AND. It is the GREAT CONNECTOR. VAV appears in the Four Letter name of God.
YUD is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 10. YUD makes a sound like the Y in Year. YUD is a simple point. It is the smallest letter in the alphabet and yet is frequently associated with the very large concept of EMANATION, the highest level in the Four World paradigm of Kabbalah.
YUD has the important job of being the first letter of the Tetragrammaton - YUD HEY VAV HEY. Zohar states that, in this context, the YUD represents the head of all creatures (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 3:130).
In the Sephrotic tree the YUD symbolizes WISDOM - the stage of concealment which precedes its development into a state of expansion in UNDERSTANDING. It is then contained and represented in the letter HEY. (Zalman, Shneur. 1981. "Igeret Hateshuvah." Likkutie Amarim Tanya. Brooklyn: Kihot. 359).
NUN is the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 50. NUN makes a sound like the N in Now. The NUN has the head of a ZAYIN. The body is an elongated Zayin. NUN means SHINE, SPOUT, SPREAD, KINDDOM in Hebrew and FISH in Aramaic.
The NUN is one of 5 letters [CAF, MEM NUN PEY TSADE] that have 2 forms - the regular [bent] form used in the beginning and middle of a word and the FINAL FORM - SOFIT - used as the last letter of a word. According to the ancient kabbalistic text The Bahir, the bent NUN represents the spinal cord through which the body is fed by the brain (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1979. Tr. The Bahir. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 31).
PEY is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 80. PEY makes a sound either like the P in Peace or the F in Food. PEY means MOUTH and is constructed of a CAF with a YUD situated at the top and rotated inward.
If one looks carefully at the PEY one can see that there is a BEIT, which makes up the empty space within it. The BEIT is the first letter of the word BERESHIT - IN A BEGINNING, which is the first word of TORAH. God opened up God’s MOUTH and out came the BEIT – BEGINNING – CREATION.
I [PEY] signify redemption and deliverance (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:2b).
SHIN is the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 300. SHIN means TOOTH, YEAR, REPEAT, TEACH. SHIN makes the sound SHHHHHH when the DOT is on the right, and SSSS when the DOT is on he left.
There are differing opinions about which components make up the SHIN. Kushner states that the VAV makes up the right arm, the ZAYIN the left, and YUD the middle. In Haralick’s opinion, the YUD is on the right, the ZAYIN on the left and the VAV in the middle. It is the view of Ginsburgh that the SHIN is composed of 3 VAVs, each with a little YUD on its top. So, to make this letter your own, it will be necessary to take it into meditation and come to your own conclusion (Kushner, Lawrence. 1975. The Book of Letters – a Mystical Alef-bait. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 72; Haralick, Robert M. 1995. The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters. Northvale: Jason Aronson. 299; Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak. 1992. The Hebrew Letters. Jerusalem: Gal Einai.. 313).
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This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.
The original 5x7 watercolor painting of this image is available.
mat color:: blue
stock number:: cc7
