Variant spelling - KIROS

Biblical name - Keros was an ancestor of Babylonian exile returnees (Nehemiah 7:47).

The letters featured in this piece are KUF YUD RESH SAMECH. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell KEROS.

Each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet has a special meaning and a story to tell. Here a few brief ones about the letters on this painting.

KUF is the 19th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 100. KUF makes a sound like the K in Kind. KUF means TO SURROUND, TO TOUCH, MONKEY. KUF is constructed of a CAF (20) and a VAV (6) = 26. This is the same GEMATRIA as that of the YUD (10) HEY (5) VAV 6) HEY (5) name of God. KUF is associated with the word KADOSH – HOLY.
Now with the letter KUF… the letters began to beget (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 167b-168a).

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).

RESH is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 200. RESH makes a sound like the R in Radiant. RESH means BEGINNING or HEAD. When one spells out the letter RESH in Hebrew, it is RESH YUD SHIN. YUD and SHIN spell YESH - THERE IS. The letter RESH means BEGINNING. So it is possible to say that the RESH literally means THERE IS A BEGINNING.
Sepher Yitzirah divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers – ALEPH MEM SHIN, 7 doubles – BET GIMEL DALET CAF PEY RESH TAV and 12 elementals – HEY VAV ZAYIN CHET TET YUD LAMED NUN SAMECH AYIN TSADE KUF. According to the text, God created the world by means of these letters. The RESH is one of the doubles. “He made the letter RESH king over Peace and He bound a crown to it and combined one with another and with them He formed …the Universe…” (Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. Tr. Aryeh Kaplan. 1990.York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 176).

SAMECH is the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 60. It makes a sound like the S in Sun. SAMECH is shaped like a circle and means SUPPORT, TO TRUST, TO RELY ON.
Tradition tells us that the engraving of the letters of the 10 commandments went all the way through the tablets – from the front side to the back side. Therefore the SAMECH, since it is completely closed, should have fallen out. Because it did not, R. Hisda said that it stood there be means of a miracle (Shabbat 104a).

*

This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.

The original 5x7 watercolor painting of this image is available.

mat color:: green, black, white

stock number:: nm22-116