THE HEBREW ALPHABET

There are twenty-two letters in the Hebrew alphabet, plus seven letters that have a "final form" when they appear at the end of a word. This is necessary because in Old Testament Hebrew, there were no spaces between the words. The following is list of the letters and their meanings as determined by Jewish rabbis and scholars over hundreds of years:

  1. ALEPH – God as Creator and King
  2. BEIT – House and Temple
  3. GIMEL – Loving kindness and culmination
  4. DALET – The door; the way or path
  5. HAY – The breath of God; grace
  6. VAV – Completion and redemption
  7. ZAYIN – Sustenance and struggle; affliction
  8. CHET – Trancendence, life and grace
  9. TET – Serpent and objective good
  10. YOD – Creation and metaphysical
  11. KAF – Crowning accomplishment
  12. LAMED – Teaching and learning
  13. MEM – Water, revealed and concealed
  14. NUN – Faithfulness, soul and emergence
  15. SAMECH – Support and Divine presence
  16. AYIN – Sight and insight
  17. PEH – Mouth and speech
  18. TZADDI – Righteousness and humility
  19. KOPH – Holiness and growth cycles
  20. RESH – The wicked
  21. SHIN – Divine power and provision
  22. TAV – Truth and perfection; judgement
  23. Final KAF (11)
  24. Final MEM (13)
  25. Final NUN (14)
  26. Final PEH (17)
  27. Final TZADDI (22)

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