The Hebrew Letter Aleph

ALEPH

The Hebrew Letter featured in this piece is the ALEPH.

ALEPH is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of one. The meanings of Aleph are: THOUSAND, MASTER, TEACHING, OX. The Aleph makes no sound. The Aleph is composed of a Vav (6) and 2 Yuds (20). Their combined value is 26 which is the numerical value of the name of God - Yud (10) Hey (5) Vav (6) Hey (5) (Chefitz, Mitchell. 2001. The Seventh Telling. New York: St. Martins Press. 219).

Alef Beth [means] ‘learn wisdom [Alef Binah] (Shabbat 104a).

The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I am not called as I am written: I am written with Yud Hey, but I am read, Aleph Dalet [Adonai] (Kiddushim 71a).

The letters of the word for ‘husband’ are Aleph, Yud and Shin, and for ‘wife’ Aleph Shin and Hey. The Yud and Hey form the Divine Name; but if omitted, only Aleph and Shin are left which form the word Esh ‘fire’ (Sotah 17a).

Zohar - The letter Aleph remained in her place without presenting herself. Said the Holy One, blessed be His name: Aleph, Aleph, wherefore comest you not before Me like the rest of the letters? She answered: Because I saw all the other letters leaving Thy presence without any success. What, then, could I achieve there? And further, since Thou have already bestowed on the letter Beth this great gift, it is not meet for the Supreme King to take away the gift which He has made to His servant and give it to another. The Lord said to her: Aleph, Aleph, although I will begin the creation of the world with the Beit, thou wilt remain the first of the letters. My unity shall not be expressed except through you, on you shall be based all calculations and operations of the world, and unity shall not be expressed save by the letter Aleph. Then the Holy One, blessed be His name, made higher-world letters of a large pattern and lower-world letters of a small pattern. It is therefore that we have here two words beginning with Beit(Bereshith bara) and then two words beginning with Aleph(Elohim et). They represent the higher-world letters and the lower-world letters, which two operate, above and below, together and as one’ (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:3a-1:3b p.12-13).


Beit is female, Aleph, male. As Beit created, so “Aleph, produced letters (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:30a).

Sefer Yetzirah
divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers – Aleph
Mem Shin , 7 doubles – Beit Gimel Dalet Kuf Pey Resh Tav and 12 elementals – Hey Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.

According to Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation., God created the world by means of these letters. The Alephis one of the mothers- that group from which emanated AIR (from Aleph), WATER (from Mem) and FIRE (from Shin). The 3 mothers in the universe are AIR, WATER and FIRE...HEAVEN was created from FIRE, EARTH was created from WATER, and AIR from SPIRIT (WIND) balanced between them. Aleph and Shin spell AISH – FIRE. Aleph represents AIR and
Shin – FIRE. FIRE cannot exist without AIR (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Tr. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 197).


When one is meditating with the Aleph be prepared for hugs. The Aleph loves to give hugs and receive them.

Some of you may read these words and laugh. Silly stories. But I challenge you to spend 5 minutes a day thinking about the letters. Perhaps you could practice drawing one letter for about a minute and then think about it of 4 minutes. See if you can do this every day for a few weeks. And watch what happens. They letters are ALIVE.