Secrets of the Jewish Alphabet

Twenty two chapters of the book represent brief acquaintance to symbolics, numerical value and combinations of letters of the Jewish alphabet. In the appendix is the fonts summary table of the Jewish writing.

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foreword

The Hebrew alphabet is unique. He is the primary and original , while all other alphabetic writing systems arose from it. For example , the modern Russian alphabet - a direct descendant of one of the first Slavic alphabet , kirilliiy , which is processing the Greek letters , which, in turn, is secondary to the Hebrew alphabet . Similarly, in a letter to Indian culture " Brahmi " by Aramaic , Hebrew and kindred who had widespread in the Middle East goes back to the Hebrew alphabet .

In everyday use, even for the layman and for linguists , letters - no more than is said to textbooks , conventional graphic signs to represent sounds in writing. Their names , forms of writing and correlation with certain sounds are the result of the generally accepted " unwritten agreement" in society. But , unlike all the other letters systems , the Hebrew alphabet is replete with hidden meanings , as prisoners in the order of arrangement of the letters together in any meaningful groups , and in the rules of usage and pronunciation . The special importance of the Hebrew letters (similar to the phenomenon found in some other languages ​​and writing systems ) to make their numerical values ​​- gematria , giving the relation of words and turns of phrases additional sense . In Yeshe more latent carriers of information are the names and forms of writing letters. If you do not talk about cursive , schematic or in any of the simplified recording options , and that is used in writing the Torah scrolls , tefillin and mezuzot , in the form of letters of the Hebrew alphabet , the semantic value is not only obshy form letter mark, but and each of its constituent parts. After all, most of the letters of our alphabet is a combination of two or more basic letters which are in each of these combinations are the details of the new whole , acquiring its own significance .

Our alphabet Alefbet comprising twenty-two letters plus five special , "end" of the forms used when writing to the word, the mapping of categories of higher spiritual order, are on a much higher level of abstraction and , in turn, are the 'letters' which created the universe . This can be likened to the way the letters that make up the mathematical or chemical formulas , get into them a meaning different from that which they can carry as text. In the formulas, the symbols are letters appear fundamental entities - for example, chemical elements. Similarly, all signs of the Hebrew alphabet are a symbolic reflection of the original " script " that lies at the heart of the universe. This applies to our world , visible and tangible , and the spiritual worlds , more abstract , in all worlds - an innumerable variety of forms and manifestations , and all of them can be described by formulas consisting of a limited set of letters.

The Hebrew letters - the symbols of the basic forces and phenomena (of course , to a greater extent than the letters in the chemical or mathematical formulas) that make up our reality. In Jewish literature, there are many interpretations of the shape of each of these characters , their names, and a combination of methods . That is why the introduction to this simple , at first glance , the theme of how the alphabet is so complex and difficult and effort. This subject is presented in the Jewish tradition as ancient numbering Millennium books - call at least " Otiyot de - Rabbi Akiva ," a collection of interpretations of the Mishnah period - and many later works , written up to these days.

One book is impossible to sum up the huge amount of information contained in our sources , because each of them represents only one side, a specific aspect of a topic . The foregoing is true with respect to all areas of Jewish knowledge. We bring to your attention a book should be considered as a kind of introduction to the topic . In carrying out its inherent only in her function , she followed the great sage Hillel , urges us : " Now go and learn! "

This is a revised edition of a series of articles originally intended for the periodical "Fathers and Sons" and published in its pages . We hope to put together and re- edited article will be perceived by readers as a complete work. In cabalistic books says that if two characters are able to form a combination of the two , then three letters - for six , etc. I would like to think that the twenty- two chapters of the story about the letters of our alphabet , compiled this book will provide an opportunity for him to get a fuller and deeper understanding .

Adin Steinsaltz