When God was about to create the world by His word, the twenty two letters of the alphabet descended from the terrible and august crown of God whereon they were engraved with a pen of flaming fire. They stood round about God, and one after the other spake and entreated, “Create the world through me!” After the claims of all the letters had been disposed of, Beth stepped before the Holy One, blessed be He, and pleaded before Him: “O Lord of the world! May it be Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing that all the dwellers of the world give praise daily unto Thee through me, as it is said, 'Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen, and Amen.'” The Holy One, blessed be He, at once granted the petition of Beth. He said, “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” And He created His world through Beth, as it is said, “Berashith (In the Beginning) God created the Heaven and the Earth.” The only letter that had refrained from urging its claims was the modest Aleph, and God rewarded it later for its humility by giving it the first place in the Decalogue. - Legends of the Bible by Louis Ginzberg
“And the Elohim said, let there be light: and there was light.”
Hebrew is seen as the primordial language of creation — the “letters of fire” in Kabbalah.
- Numbers
- Letters
- Words
32 mysterious paths of wisdom 10 sephirot out of nothing
The Creator created the Hebrew Alphabet then used the letters to form words that brought the universe into being.
Letters Words Sentences/statements/spells
The letters of the alphabet are the foundational building blocks of creation 22 archetypal primordial creative utterances ….
Kabbalistic thought extended Biblical and Midrashic notions that God enacted Creation through the Hebrew language and through the Torah into a full linguistic mysticism. In this, every Hebrew letter, word, number, even accent on words of the Hebrew Bible contain Jewish mystical meanings, describing the spiritual dimensions within exoteric ideas, and it teaches the hermeneutic methods of interpretation for ascertaining these meanings. Names of God in Judaism have further prominence, though infinite meaning turns the whole Torah into a Divine name. As the Hebrew name of things is the channel of their lifeforce, parallel to the sephirot, so concepts such as "holiness" and "mitzvot" embody ontological Divine immanence, as God can be known in manifestation as well as transcendence. The infinite potential of meaning in the Torah, as in the Ein Sof, is reflected in the symbol of the two trees of the Garden of Eden; the Torah of the Tree of Knowledge is the external, finite Halachic Torah, enclothed within which the mystics perceive the unlimited infinite plurality of meanings of the Torah of the Tree of Life. In Lurianic terms, each of the 600,000 root souls of Israel find their own interpretation in Torah, as "God, the Torah and Israel are all One"
As early as the 1st century BCE Jews believed that the Torah and other canonical texts contained encoded messages and hidden meanings. Gematria is one method for discovering its hidden meanings. In this system, each Hebrew letter also represents a number. By converting letters to numbers, Kabbalists were able to find a hidden meaning in each word. This method of interpretation was used extensively by various schools.
Letters of Light
“As a carpenter employs tools to build a home, so G-d utilized the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, the alef-beis, to form heaven and earth. These letters are the metaphorical wood, stone and nails, corner posts and crossbeams of our earthly and spiritual existence. In Letters of Light Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin explores the essence of these holy letters, illustrating how they continue to be a source of creation, reflection, prayer and inspiration in our everyday lives.”
The Aleph-Bet
Cuneiform and Hieroglyphics are both pictorial ways of writing.
An alphabet is a series of characters with phonetic values that must be combined to form words.
Was the Hebrew alphabet the first true alphabet of humankind? Each letter has hieroglyphic, phonetic, and numerical values.
“It was at this point that actual alphabets came into fashion. Somewhere in Palestine in about 1500 BCE some folks began to assign phonetic values to their hieroglyphs. It was really a simple matter. The little pictograms already represented whole words. Therefore, each one could just as easily stand for the sound of the first letter of its word. For instance, the Semitic name for an ox was "Aleph"- and so the hieroglyph for Aleph became the character for the sound of "A." The Semitic name for a tent or dwelling was "Beth"- and so the hieroglyph for Beth became the character for the sound of "B." This process continued until a series of 22 pictograms had been chosen to represent 22 essential sounds in the spoken language.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
“In this way the Ugaritic alphabet made its way from Canaan to Israel- where it became the proper ancestor of Hebrew- "Paleo-Hebrew." The Hebrew language we know today was originally a dialect of Canaanite. Of course, the Israelites made the alphabet their own over time. In about 400 BCE, scribes writing in Aramaic (a Mesopotamian language adopted by the Israelites during the Captivity in Babylon) abandoned the clay tablet method in favor of the more Egyptian practice of painting the letters on papyrus and parchment. When the Hebrew language was painted in this way, it created the "brush-stroke" style with which we are most familiar today- called "Aramaic" or "Square-Script" Hebrew. It is also commonly referred to as "Biblical Hebrew"- so called because this was the alphabet used to scribe the Old Testament and other ancient Biblical texts.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
Biblical Hebrew had no vowel sounds written down, so we don’t really know how it sounded.
“For instance, take the word SPhR (Samekh, Peh, Resh)- the base of the word Sephirah. We can not know if this was pronounced "Sephar", "Sepher", "Siphur", or any number of other phonetic possibilities. This is complicated by the fact that all three of these examples indicates a different Hebrew word! (Sephar = Count, Sepher = Book, Siphur = Speak.)” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
“The continuity of teaching the language from one generation to the next was shattered in 600 BCE by the Captivity in Babylon. As previously mentioned, this was the period when the Jewish people adopted the common Mesopotamian language of Aramaic- which is known to have both Hebrew and Arabic influences. The scribes created the "Square Script" method of writing Hebrew during this period, but the true pronunciations of the words were rapidly lost forever. Hebrew became the Holy Script of the Tanakh (the Old Testament), but was otherwise a dead language- no longer spoken by common people. Because Hebrew was used to write the Tanakh, and was assumed to be the language spoken by every Biblical patriarch and prophet, it became strictly reserved for religious and mystical purposes. It was assumed to be the language with which Angels could communicate with humans, and its creation was credited to no one less than Adam himself.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
The name of the animals were not the only inheritance handed down by Adam to the generations after him, for mankind owes all crafts to him, especially the art of writing, and he was the inventor of all the seventy languages. - Legends of the Bible by Louis Ginzberg
The tradition of Kabbalah believes that Adam knew the heavenly Alphabet, but forgot most of it when he left Paradise. The Hebrew Alphabet was his attempt at an earthly reflection of that perfect Celestial Alphabet.
“Previously, the Christian traditions had utilized more late-Egyptian and Greek characters, as their mysteries were based mainly upon the New Testament and its Apocrypha (written largely in Greek, Coptic, and other languages). However, the Jewish traditions surrounding the Old Testament always held a fascination for Christian mystics. Therefore, especially during the Medieval period, the Hermetists and other Christian occultists were quick to adopt Hebrew as a Magickal Alphabet.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
Hebrew is not the ancestor of Greek and Latin alphabets, but it belongs to the same ancestral family tree of alphabets that eventually produced them.
Numerical Values
“The four letters of Adonai- Aleph, Daleth, Nun and Yod- add together for a total of 65. Normally, we would analyze the number 65 Qabalstically- in a manner similar to numerology. When this is done with Hebrew, it is called Gematria- a practice within the Qabalistic tradition. The Gematria used by the scribes of Paleo-Hebrew and early Biblical Hebrew was simpler and straightforward. Rather than analyzing "65" as a mystical number in its own right, the Hebrew mystic was more interested in finding other Hebrew words that share the value of 65 with Adonai. Those words, it is believed, share some kind of mystical relationship with the name Adonai, and throw light upon its inner spiritual meanings. To continue the example, I have found two further words in Hebrew with a value of 65. One is Hekel (Heh, Yod, Kaph, Lamed), which translates as Temple or Palace. Another is Has (Heh, Samekh), translating as Silence. (There is some indication that Has indicates a command to be silent.) The Hebrew mystic would meditate long upon these three words: Lord, Temple, and Silence. He would ask how these things are related, and what they tell him about each other. He might assume that this means Silence is always required in the Temple of the Lord. If he thinks deeper, he might realize that Silence IS the Lord's Temple. ("He who works in Silence, and naught but Silence can express!") There are other possible interpretations as well- each of them relevant to the mystic who discovers them.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
Sepher Yetzirah: Book of Formation
1:2 Twenty-two are the Letters, the Foundation of all things; there are Three Mothers, Seven Double and Twelve Simple letters. 2:2 He hath formed, weighed, and composed with these twenty-two letters every created thing, and the form of everything which shall hereafter be.
3 Mother Letters - Tria Prima, 3 elements minus Earth 7 Double Letters - 7 classical planets, 7 days of creation, etc. 12 Simple Letters - 12 Zodiac signs, twelve Tribes of Israel
Three Mother Letters
2:1 The twenty-two sounds and letters are the Foundation of all things. Three mothers, seven doubles and twelve simples. The Three Mothers are Aleph, Mem and Shin, they are Air, Water and Fire. Water is silent, Fire is sibilant, and Air derived from the Spirit is as the tongue of a balance standing between these contraries which are in equilibrium, reconciling and mediating between them.3:2 The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, are a great Mystery, very admirable and most recondite, and sealed as with six rings; and from them proceed Air, Fire, and Water, which divide into active and passive forces. The Three Mothers, Aleph, Mem and Shin, are the Foundation, from them spring three Fathers, and from these have proceeded all things that are in the world.
3:3 The Three Mothers in the world are Aleph, Mem and Shin: the heavens were produced from Fire; the earth from the Water; and the Air from the Spirit is as a reconciler between the Fire and the Water.
The three Mother Letters are the primary forces in the universe- representing the Heavenly Fire, the Waters of the Abyss, and the Air (or Spirit) of God that moved upon the face of the Waters. (See Genesis 1.)
4:1 The Seven double letters, Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh, and Tau have each two sounds associated with them. They are referred to Life, Peace, Wisdom, Riches, Grace, Fertility and Power. The two sounds of each letter are the hard and the soft--the aspirated and the softened. They are called Double, because each letter presents a contrast or permutation; thus Life and Death; Peace and War; Wisdom and Folly; Riches and Poverty; Grace and Indignation; Fertility and Solitude; Power and Servitude.4:3 These Seven Double Letters He designed, produced, and combined, and formed with them the Planets of this World, the Days of the Week, and the Gates of the soul (the orifices of perception) in Man. From these Seven He bath produced the Seven Heavens, the Seven Earths, the Seven Sabbaths: for this cause He has loved and blessed the number Seven more than all things under Heaven (His Throne).
Seven Double Letters
The seven double letters have both a soft and a hard sound.
Twelve Simple Letters
5:1 The Twelve Simple Letters are Héh, Vau, Zain, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samech, Ayin, Tzaddi and Qoph; they are the foundations of these twelve properties: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Speech, Taste, Sexual Love, Work, Movement, Anger, Mirth, Imagination, and Sleep. 5:2 These Twelve Simple Letters He designed, and combined, and formed with them the Twelve celestial constellations of the Zodiac, whose signs are Teth, Shin, Tau, Samech, Aleph, Beth, Mem, Oin, Qoph, Gimel, Daleth, and Daleth. The Twelve are also the Months of the Year: Nisan, Yiar, Sivan, Tamuz, Ab, Elul, Tishri, Hesvan, Kislev, Tebet, Sabat and Adar. The Twelve are also the Twelve organs of living creatures: the two hands, the two feet, the two kidneys, the spleen, the liver, the gall, private parts, stomach and intestines.
The Hebrew Letters & The Tree of Life
“Different mystical systems assign the Letters to the Tree's pathways in different patterns. It is tempting to try and rank one as "better" than another. However, as the Sepher Yetzirah stresses, the Letters are actually intended to be mixed and combined in different patterns for different purposes. Because the pathways are active and dynamic (as opposed to the passive and receptive Sephiroth), one should find a different arrangement each time one views the Tree. (Similar to the shuffling of the Tarot deck before the cards are laid out for interpretation.) Therefore, each unique system of 22 Paths is correct in illustrating the point it intends to illustrate.” - Aaron Leitch, Introduction to the Hebrew Alphabet
The Book of Formation assigns the 3 Mother Letters to the horizontal paths- Shin to the highest Path (the Fire above), Mem to the lowest (the Water below), and Aleph between them (the reconciling Air). The 7 Double Letters are arranged across the seven vertical Paths, forming the Three Pillars we have discussed in previous lessons. The 12 Simple Letters make up the diagonal Pathways, taking energy across from one Pillar to another.
Books and Resources
- Godwin's Cabalistic Encyclopedia