Kindle Notes & Highlights
certain Hebrew letters
languages,—though they sound phonetically different—share the same root
For example, alef, aluf and ulfana all share the same common root of alef, lamed and pei, and so their meanings are connected.
All three words share the same three letters: tzaddik, reish and hei in different combinations. The Baal Shem Tov1 explains2 the connection between the words as follows: When one is experiencing troubles (hatzar), and one runs to study Torah and pray with great desire (ratzah), one is illuminated with a G-dly light from within (tzohar) that helps him transform his troubles into blessings.3
“Bereishis bara Elokim es hashamayim v’es ha’aretz”—In
The word es is spelled with an alef, the first letter of the alef-beis, and a tav, which is the last. The fact is, es, is generally considered to be a superfluous word.
“Forever the words of G-d are hanging in the heavens.” The crucial thing to realize is that G-d did not merely create the world once. His words didn’t just emerge and then evaporate. Rather, G-d continues to create the world anew each and every moment. His words are there constantly, “hanging in the heavens.” And the alef-beis is the
foundation of this ongoing process of creation.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, explains10 that the source of the twenty-two letters is even higher ...
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Through the twenty-two letters of the alef-beis, the Jewish people are connected to G-d and receive all of their blessings.
the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, whom we will address throughout this book as simply “the Rebbe.”
auspicious
Sod is primarily the body of Jewish mystical thought known as Kabbalah.
fifth and highest dimension of Torah also referred to as the Teachings of Mashiach.
He called one of his disciples into his study to discuss the matter.
“You have a mitzvah and I have a mitzvah. Your mitzvah is to support your own family. My mitzvah is to teach my son. Let’s trade mitzvos. You will teach my son, and I will pay you so that you can support your family.”
Every aspect of the alef’s construction has been Divinely designed to teach us something. Contrast this with a child learning to read English for the first time. He is never taught why a capital “A” looks like a teepee and a small “a” looks like a soap bubble stuck to a wall.
In comparison to His true essence, our understanding is a mere dot.
When we realize that we are but a dot or a speck compared to the All-Mighty and All-Powerful G-d, we become a vessel to receive His Divine wisdom.
“Hear, O Israel, G-d is our L-rd, G-d is One.”
One of the great names of G-d is the Four Letter Name Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei, the Tetragrammaton, or Ineffable
Name. The gematria of the Yud (=10), the Hei (=5), the Vav (=6) and the Hei (=5) totals 26,
The Rebbe20 explains that the alef has three different meanings. One is aluf, which means a master or a chief. The second is ulfana, a school of learning21 or teacher. The third meaning is reached by reading the letters of the word backwards—pela (pronounced peleh)—wondrous.22
Aluf’s definition is “master.” This lets the world know that there is a Creator; that G-d is the Master of the universe, and that there is an Eye that sees, and an Ear that hears.
omnipotent
Ulfana means “school” or “teacher.” Not only do we introduce G-d as the Creator of the universe, but also as the Teacher of all mankind.
Through the Divine wisdom of His book, G-d establishes Himself in the world on the level of the ultimate Teacher.
“Mashiach, when are you going to come?” Mashiach responded, “When the wellsprings of your teachings (i.e., the teachings of Chassidus) spread forth throughout the entire world.”
only when the level of peleh—this level of wondrous esoteric thought—has permeated the world, will the arrival of Mashiach be imminent.
The second two thousand years, Rashi continues, began with Abraham. Abraham introduced the Torah. As the Talmud states,26 Abraham both learned and fulfilled the entire Torah long before it was physically given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.
inaugurated
usher
the difference between the words golah (exile) and geulah (redemption), is the presence of the alef.27 If one inserts an alef into the word golah/exile, exile is empowered and transformed into geulah/redemption).
Miraculously,
The design of the beis is similar to the path of the sun, which rises in the east and sets in the west.
