The Universe according to Otiyot

עולם תיותת

The Universe of the Words

or, as it has also been translated-

The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet

-2-

Last week we did not quite finish up, so let’s clear that up first:

For us, as Jews, the Hebrew alphabet is part of our normal day, in prayer, Torah, study and other activities which are Jewish related events and activities. Without knowledge of this we would not have the foundation to further our da’at or our binah. Our knowledge and understanding; which we need to further our learning. That, of course, is a life-long adventure. But I am venturing to continue into this area of study because (I find it to be personally fascinating) it is a subject that most people do not know too much about. While I have spend a considerable time in the study of the Alef-Beit, I will be the first to recognize that there is much beyond my ken. For example, I was surprised when I learnt that the Kabbalist have a dictum which relates the letters to human beings in that the letters themselves also have a Guf, a Ruakh, and a N’shamah. גוף רוח ונשמה ָThis is not just so much fantasy- if you begin to look into this you will find the same thing happening not just in Hebrew letters but also in some of the various symbols and images that we have known for many years. If someone were to show you the script letters “GE”, you would immediately get an image associated with them, and based on you previous experience you would feel the force behind the script form and a strength of some manner.

So it should not come as a surprise that there is a Talmudic passage (Shabbos 104a) in which we learn that the Kabbalists learned lessons from the Alef-Beit dating back many centuries. Kabbalah aside, we see there is much to learn from the letters of Lashon HaKodesh.

Last week I began to show you some of the elements that a sofer (scribe) must learn and know, in order to be qualified to write a Torah Scroll, a Mezuzah, the Teffilin pages. This next page shows two (different) examples of the proper way to form the letters. These certainly do not look like what you expect to find in your siddur or book of Psalms. But you will certainly find lettering closely resembling one of these examples or the other when you open the Torah Scroll.

Here, now, is a comment written & published in 1878 by a Mr. Albert Pike. It shows that there existed then, as now, people who have learned the Hebrew language, but failed to understand the Jew and the context in which Hebrew was written [remember there was not Jewish State and not “Modern Hebrew” spoken on the street at that time - it was all Biblically related]:

“All manner of etymological feats may be performed in the Hebrew tongue (sic), without the slightest difficulty. Words in it have the most incomprehensible variety of often opposite meanings; an ignorance of the real difference in sound between ה and ח, or כ and ק...and the true sounds of several of these, and of others of the letters, with the uncertainty as to what vowel-sounds are to be supplied, whereby one is never sure whether the same written series of words is really the same word or another, afford the widest field for adventurous speculations and plausible derivations in etymology.” The Book of Words Albert Pike in a facsimile edition.

So while Mr. Pike understood the complexities of the Hebrew letters and words, he seemed not to be able to grasp the concept of know what a word meant within the content of the text! And while the is something that does continue to vex many people, within the context of STaM lettering, we have our own challenges.

This is a mandated format for Shirat Hayam (The Song of Sea)

found in Exodus 15:1˜18

It must be written in 30 lines and must be laid out as shown - no deviations.

The “broken Vav”

is another mandated format

This word is found in the story of Pinchas

(Number 25:12)

The reasoning being that while Pinchas’s act stopped the immoral behavior

and he received a blessing for his actions- true peace cannot be brought

through violence - the two concepts are incompatible.

Ergo the letter vav is broken.

Large letters

There is an official massoretic text which lists some 16 large letters in the Torah.

However there are disagreements (surprise!).

In any case this is the first word in the Torah and the first letter (ב) should be writ large (but not quite this large), and, even tho this one does not have them: there should be four (4) Taggin instead of the one shown.

Since the early Torah was actually five separate scrolls - the enlarged letter told them which was the beginning book and the place to start.

(according to Rabbi Dr. Eric Ray)

And: The Shema

There are also a couple of other “oddities” to talk about but I want to cover the letters that are approved to be lengthen, or elongated. This includes the final letter of the final word in the Torah.

A 12th Century CE Torah from the Iberian peninsula

These are the only letters which may be extended for reasons of justifying the text. Even so the sofer is admonished not to extend a letter to the point where it becomes unrecognizable. With that we will leave the subject for this week. The final “Israel” must end in the middle of the column.

Next week: Dots and the Upside Down Nun. ???