RECHAVAM nm8-151 #1
by Hebrewletters SL
Original - Not For Sale
Price
$500
Dimensions
7.000 x 5.000 x 555.000 inches
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Title
RECHAVAM nm8-151 #1
Artist
Hebrewletters SL
Medium
Photograph - Watercolor On Watercolor Paper
Description
RECHAVAM is from the Hebrew, meaning EXPANSE OF THE PEOPLE, symbolizing FREEDOM (Kolatch, Alfred J. 1984. The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names, Middle Village: Jonathan David. 193).
REHOBOAM is an Anglicized spelling.
Hebrew Bible name - Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, who succeeded him as King of Israel (1 Kings 11:43).
Rehoboam was a husband of Abigail who was a daughter of Eliab, granddaughter of Jesse; and Machalat a daughter of Jerimoth, granddaughter of David; and father of Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham (2 Chronicles 11:18-19).
Rehoboam was a husband of Maacha, a daughter of Absalom and father of Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. And Rehoboam loved Maacha, the daughter of Absalom, above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines; and begat twenty and eight sons, and threescore daughters) (2 Chronicles 11:20-23).
The Hebrew Letters featured in this painting are Resh Chet Beit Ayin Mem sophit. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell RECHAVAM.
Each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet has a special meaning and a story to tell. Here a few brief ones about the letters on this painting.
Resh is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 200, makes a sound like the R in Radiant and means BEGINNING or HEAD. When one spells out the letter Resh in Hebrew, it is Resh Yud Shin. Yud and Shin spell Yesh - THERE IS. The letter Resh means BEGINNING. So it is possible to say that the Resh literally means THERE IS A BEGINNING.
Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories:
3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin,
7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav
and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Zayin Tet Zayin Yud Zayin Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
Resh is one of the doubles.
He [God] made the letter Resh king over Peace and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
Saturn in the Universe
Friday in the Year
And the left nostril in the Soul male and female
Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 176).
The Resh looks very much like the Dalet. The only difference is that the right angle of the Resh is a rounded 45-degree angle. The horizontal line of the Dalet has a little foot that extends backwards toward the Gimel. Talmud cautions us not to mistakenly write the Dalet as a Resh or the Resh as a Dalet (Shabbat 103b).
“Kuf [stands for] Kadosh [holy]; Resh [for] Rasha [wicked]: why is the face of the Kuf averted from, the Resh? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I cannot look at the wicked. And why is the crown of the Kuf turned toward the Resh? The Holy One, blessed be He, saith: If he repents, I will bind a crown on him like Mine. And why is the foot of the Kuf suspended? [To show] that if he repents, he can enter and be brought in [to God's favor] through this [opening]. This supports Resh Lakish, for Resh Lakish, said: What is meant by, Surely he scorns the scorners, But he giveth grace unto the lowly If one comes to defile himself, he is given an opening; if one comes to cleanse himself, he is helped” (Shabbat 104a).
One method of meditation is called PERMUTATION. This is simply the process of rearranging the order or sequence of the letters. There are extremely complex systems like those developed by the 13th century kabbalist Abulafia. And then there are simple ones. For instance the Resh is spelled Resh Yud Shin. Yud and Shin spell Yesh - THERE IS. The letter Resh means BEGINNING. So it is possible to say that the Resh literally means THERE IS A BEGINNING.
Yesh also means EXISTENCE, SUBSTANCE, BEING, REALITY. How would these words fit with the word BEGIN? The word ROSH – HEAD is closely associated with the Resh. Rosh is spelled Resh Aleph Shin. But if one spells it Aleph Shin Resh it is Asher. Asher means WEALTH, or Shin Resh is MINISTER. The gematria of these of these 3 letters is 510 which is also the gematria for Yenaten - SHALL BE GIVEN. One can spend a lifetime doing this. This can be called FUN.
CAF is the 11th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 20, means PALM OF THE HAND, SPOON, CONTAINER and stands for bent objects. When the Caf has a dot in it, Caf makes a sound like the K in Kitchen. Without the dot it makes a sound similar to that made by the letter Chet. When functioning as a prefix CAF can mean AS, LIKE, WHEN, AT, ABOUT or ACCORDING TO.
Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories:
3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin,
7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav
and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Zayin Tet Zayin Yud Zayin Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
Caf is one of the doubles.
He [God] made the letter Caf king over Life and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
Venus in the Universe
Wednesday in the Year
And the right nostril in the Soul male and female
Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 175).
The Caf is one of 5 letters: [Caf Mem Nun Pey Tsade] that have 2 forms - the regular [bent] form used in the beginning and middle of a word and the FINAL FORM,- SOFIT, used as the last letter of a word (Shabbat 4a).
[The writing of the letters] must be ‘kethibah tammah’ [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the… Beit as a Caf, or the Caf as a Beit (Shabbat 103b).
The word CAF first appears in Torah in Genesis 32:26 when Jacob wrestles with the Angel. CAF is the HALLOW or CONTAINER for Jacob's hip bone. Isaiah 49:16 - ‘I have engraved you on the KAPHIAM’ - PALMS of My Hands.
In Shabbat 104a there is a homiletic interpretation of the names of the Hebrew letters. Here the CAF is linked with the word KETER- CROWN. This passage states that if one masters UNDERSTANDING - ALUF BENAH (ALUF – MASTER, BENAH – UNDERSTANDING) and gives to the poor GAMOL DALEEM (GAMOL – REWARD, DALEEM – POOR) then the Holy One…will…bind a CROWN – KETER upon you for the World to Come.
At that moment, the Caf descended from its throne of glory and quaking and trembling said: O Lord of the universe, may it please Thee to begin through me the creation of the world, seeing that I am Thine own ‘Cavod’ (honour). And when Caf descended from its throne of glory, two hundred thousand worlds began to shake, the throne trembled, and all the worlds quaked and were about to fall in ruins. Said to her the Holy One, blessed be His Name: Caf, Caf, what do thou here? I will not create the world with thee. Go back to thy place, since thou stand for extermination (Kelayah). Return, then, to thy place and remain there. Immediately she departed and returned to her own place. O Lord of the universe, may it please Thee to begin through me the creation of the world, seeing that I [Caf] am Thine own ‘Kavod’ (honor) (Zohar 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:6a).
When sitting in the Caf, which means PALM OF THE HAND, I feel like I am being held in the PALM of the Universe. Very comforting.
BEIT is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, its numerical value is 2,means HOUSE, HOME, CONTAINER and makes a sound like the B in Beautiful.
Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories:
3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin,
7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav
and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Zayin Tet Zayin Yud Zayin Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
Beit is one of the doubles.
He [God] made the letter Beit king over wisdom and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
The moon in the Universe
Sunday in the Year
And the seven gates in the Soul male and female
Two eyes, two ears tow nostrils, and the mouth (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 174).
Midrash - Torah begins with the letter Beit. It was chosen for this honor because it is closed on top, bottom and on the right. It is open on the left, the direction of the text, to teach us to look forward and not backward, in our daily lives (Freedman, H. and Simon Maurice Tr. 1983 Genesis Rabbah. New York: Soncino 9).
Talmud -
R. Hisda also said: The writing of the Tables could be read from within and without, e.g., nebub [hollow] would be read buban behar, [in the mountain] [as] rahab; saru [they departed] [as] waras. The Rabbis told R. Joshua b. Levi: Children have come to the Beth Hamidrash and said things the like of which was not said even in the days Joshua the son Nun. [Thus:] Aleph Beit means learn wisdom. [Aleph means learn and Beit [Binah] means wisdom] (Shabbat 104a).
When he [a proselyte] went before Hillel, he accepted him as a proselyte. On the first day, he taught him, Aleph Beit Gimel Dalet [the first four letters of the Hebrew alphabet]; the following day he reversed [them, the letters ] to him. ‘But yesterday you did not teach them to me thus,’ he protested. ‘Must you then not rely upon me [As to what the letters are]? Then rely upon me with respect to the Oral [Torah] too’ (Berachot 31a).
[The writing of the letters] must be kethibah tammah [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the… the Beit as a Caf, or the Caf as a Beit (Shabbat 103b).
Zohar -
When the time came to create the world all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet presented themselves to God in reverse order. Each one requested that God place it first in creation. God rejected each one in turn. The Beit then entered and suggested that it be put first since it represented the blessings, Brachot. God agree and thus Beit was put first in the creation of the world (Zohar. 1978. v.1. TR. Harry Sperling and Maurice Simon. London: Soncino. 12).
Rab Hanuna the Venerable said: ‘We find here a reversal of the order of the letters of the Alphabet, the first two words “Bereshith bara - ”in-the-beginning He-created”- commencing with Beit, whereas the two words following, “Eloheim E” -”God the ” -commence with Aleph (Zohar Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:2b).
Afterwards the letters were distinguished and inscribed in the Scripture-beth in Bereshith bara, and aleph in Elohim eth. Beth is female, Aleph male. As Beit created, so Aleph produced letters. “The heavens” are the totality of twenty-two letters. (Zohar 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:30a).
‘He who wishes to enter into my presence must first of all pass through that gate. So here the first gate to super-Wisdom is the fear of God; and this is what is meant by reshith (beginning). The letter Beit (=2) indicates two things joined together, namely two points, one shrouded in mystery and one capable of being revealed; and as they are inseparable they therefore are both joined in the single term reshith (beginning), i.e. they are one and not two, and he who takes away the one takes away the other as well’ (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:7b).
We have been taught that wherever the name Solomon occurs in the Song of Songs, it refers to “the King to whom peace belongs”, while the term “king”, simply, refers to the Female. The lower is contained in the upper, and the mnemonic is that the lower is heir to the upper, so that both are as one, together constituting Beit (=baith house), as it is written, “With wisdom [Hachma] he will build a house (Beit) ” (Proverbs 24:3; Zohar 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:29a).
The first word in Torah is Bereshit which t means IN A BEGINNING. If you divide Bereshit into bara and sheet it means HE CREATED SIX [sheet is 6 in Aramaic] Six what? The 6 days in which creation was completed? (Zohar. 1984 Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:3b. 13). Six directions? East, West, North, South, Up, down?
The first letter to come to me in meditation was the Beit. For years I sat in the Beit as I meditated. It is a safe place.
AYIN is the 16th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 70 makes no sound, and means EYE or FOUNTAIN.
The Ayin is constructed of an elongated Yud (10) on the right and a Zayin (7) on the left.
Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories:
3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin,
7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav
and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Zayin Tet Zayin Yud Zayin Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
Ayin is one of the elementals.
He [God] made the letter Ayin king over anger and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
Capricorn in the Universe
Tevet in the Year
And the liver in the Soul male and female
Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 217).
In the alphabet the letter Samech is followed by the Ayin]. Samech Ayin [means] support [Semak] the poor [aniyim] (Shabbat t 104a).
In the alphabet the letter Ayin is followed by the letter Pey. But in (Lamentations 3:36-41; and Lamentations 4:16-17), which are written as an alphabetical acrostic, Pey (which means MOUTH) is placed before the Ayin (which means EYE). This is because when the spies went into the promised land they spoke with their mouths what they had not seen with their eyes (Sanhedrin 104b).
[The writing of the letters] must be ‘kethibah tammah’ [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the Aleph as an Ayin, the Ayin as an Aleph, (Shabbat 103b).
The Ayin is one of 5 letters: [Caf Mem Nun Pey Tsade] that have 2 forms - the regular [bent] form used in the beginning and middle of a word and the FINAL FORM,- SOFIT, used as the last letter of a word.
Ayin is one of 7 letters which may be adorned with TAGIN, or little crowns, in the Torah, Tefillin or Mezzuzah scroll. These are called the SHAYNAYZ GAYTZ letters [Shin, Ayin, Tet, Nun, Zayin, Gimmel, and Tsade] Each one of these letters contains a Zayin. A TAG is composed of 3 strokes which themselves look like little Zayins.
There is a wonderful story in Talmud, which describes Moses ascending to Heaven to find God occupied in affixing TAGGIN to the letters of Torah: Rab Judah said in the name of Rab, When Moses ascended on high he found the Holy One, blessed be He, engaged in affixing coronets to the letters. [These are the Taggin, i.e., three small strokes written on top of the letters ‘Shatnayz Gaytz’ in the form of a crown (Menachoth 29b).
The Ancient Holy One is called Ayin (nothing) (Zohar 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 3:158b).
Wisdom was completed from Ayin (nothing) (Zohar 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:30a).
In meditation one can sit in the elongated arc of Ayin, on the right, and the Zayin, arm, on the left, curves around to hold one in place. It feels very safe and secure. When you are firmly settled Ayin will rock you gently.
MEM is the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet , has a numerical value of 40, makes a sound like the M in Middle. But according to the ancient kabbalistic text ‘Sefer Yetzirah,’ the MEM hummmmmms! Mem is composed of a Caf (20) and a Vav (6) = 26, which have the same GEMATRIA as the Four letter name of God, Yud (10) Hey(5) Vav (6) Hey (5) = 26, the holiest of God's Names.
Mem is usually associated with the word mayim - WATER or Eemah - MOTHER.
Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories:
3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin,
7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav
and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Zayin Tet Zayin Yud Zayin Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
Mem is one of the mothers.
He [God] made the letter Mem king over Water and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
Earth in the Universe
Cold in the Year
And the belly in the Soul male and female
Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 154).
Tradition tells us that the engraving of the letters of the 10 commandments went all the way through the tablets, from the front side to the back side. Therefore the final Mem since it is completely closed, should have fallen out. . Because it did not, R. Hisda said that it stood there be means of a miracle (Shabbat 104a).
The Mem is one of the 5 letters [Caf Mem Nun Pey Tsade] that have 2 forms - the regular [bent] form used in the beginning and middle of a word and the FINAL FORM, ‘Sofit’, used as the last letter of a word (Shabbat 4a).
One form is used in the beginning and the middle of a word - the open Mem. The other form is at the end of the word - the closed Mem. According to Talmud, the open Mem represents revealed teaching and the closed Mem represents concealed teaching (Shabbat 104a).
It must be ‘kethibah tammah’ [perfect writing]; the Mem as a Samech or the Mem as a Mem, closed [letters] open or open letters closed (Shabbat 103b).
Sometimes when I meditate with this letter, the Mem acts like sort of a submarine for me. At other times I can breathe under water. Nice. Let me know how you do.
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May 11th, 2020
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