CHET, tree of life ab21

by Hebrewletters SL

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Price

$900

Dimensions

9.000 x 12.000 inches

Title

CHET, tree of life ab21

Artist

Hebrewletters SL

Medium

Painting - Watercolor On Watercolor Paper

Description

the tree of life – etz hayyim

In this painting ALL 22 of the Hebrew Letters are represented, but the letter featured is the CHET.


CHET is the 8th letter of the alphabet and has a numerical value of 8, is pronounced like the CH in BaCH. Kushner's description is the best that I have found of what is necessary to create the sound of Chet . It is the "top of your throat and the bottom of your throat fighting against one another” (Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters: Sefer Otiyot.Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 39).

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.
Chet is one of the elementals.

Talmud teaches that if one learns UNDERSTANDING and performs acts of LOVINGKINDNESS for the poor, then God will look upon the person with Chen spelled Chet Nun with FAVOR, GRACE (Shabbat 104a).

[The writing of the letters] must be kethibah tammah [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the… the Chet as a Hey or the Hey as a Chet (Shabbat 103b).

[Zayyin Heth Tet Yod Lamed: [this sequence teaches,] and if thou doest thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, will sustain [Zan] thee, be gracious Hen] unto thee, show goodness [Metiv] to thee, give thee a heritage Yerushah], and bind a crown Keter] on thee in the world to come (Shabbat 104a).

Usually the Chet is composed of 2 Zayins. But the 16th century kabbalist master, Luria, stated that the Chet consists of a Vav on the right and a Zayin on the left. Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value. GEMATRIA is the numerical manipulation of the values of the letter to explain the meaning of a word or phrase. The combined value of the Vav (6) and Zayin (7) is 13 which is the value of the word ECHAD - Aleph Chet Dalet (4) = 13. ECHAD means ONE. It is also the highest prime denominator of the name of God - Yud (10) Hey(5) Vav (6) Hey (5) = 26 =13 = ONE.

Mishneh Torah is a major halachic (law) work written by Maimonides. In it Rambam explains that there are 10 levels of ANGELS. The Hayyot [Chet Yud Vav Tav] HA KODESH are above all the others. The word Hayyot begins with a Chet and is related to the word Chai [Chet Yud] - LIFE (Mishneh Torah 1981. Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:7. Tr. Moses Hyamson. New York: Feldheim. 36a).

In meditation the letter Chet frequently presents itself as a door way. It is safe to go through this particular doorway because it is constructed of a Vav and a Zayin, which, by virtue of their numerical value, allude to the name of God as explained above. It is also possible to ask for an ANGEL to guide one when passing through Chet.


Tradition associates the Tree of Life with the Torah. The liturgy proclaims that the Torah is ”a < Tree of Life,’etz hayyim’, ‘to all who hold fast to it,’ and that it represents ‘eternal life planted in our midst’ The wooden rods around which the Torah parchment is rolled are called ‘atzei hayyim’ (trees of life) .The image of the Tree of Life, both as a symbol of as well as of immortality in the World to Come, has long been a favorite decorative motif in synagogues’ (Frankel, Ellen and Betsy Platkin Teutsch. 1992. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols. Northvale: Aaronson. 181).


The Rabbis of the Talmud regarded the letters as the basic elements of the universe, much as we think of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon (From the teachings of Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz, author The Seventh Telling , The Thiry-third Hour, The Curse of Blessings and White Fire.

The word Etconsists of the letters aleph and tav, which include between them all the letters, as being the first and last of the alphabet (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:15b). The story of The story of Et:

Rabbi Dov Ber, the ‘Maggid of Mezritch,’ and a follower of the Baal Shem Tov, explains in Or Torah, the secret of the verse ‘Bereshit Bara Eloheim Et’ - IN A BEGINNING GOD CREATED ET. These are the first words of Torah - Genesis 1:1 - in a beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ET is a word that is not translatable into English. It is like a marker that says - "a definite direct object is next." Thus there needs to be an ET before THE heavens and THE earth. If there was no’ the,’ there would not need to be an ET. But Dov Ber points out a deeper meaning. ET is spelled - Aleph Tav. Aleph Tav is an abbreviation for the ALPHA-BET. Aleph is the first letter of the ALPHABET and Tav the last. So in a beginning God created the ALPHA-BET. And God did this before creating the heavens and the earth. God used the letters, the building blocks, to create the world.


R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe of Chabad explains that if the letters were to depart even for an instant, all of creation would become absolute nothingness (Zalman, Shneur. 1981. "Igeret Hateshuvah. Shaar Hayichud.” Tanya. Brooklyn: Kihot. 289).


Some of you may read these words and laugh. Silly stories. But I challenge you to spend 5 minutes a
day thinking about the letters. Perhaps you could practice drawing one letter for about a minute and
then think about it of 4 minutes. See if you can do this every day for a few weeks. And watch what happens.
The letters are ALIVE.

Uploaded

January 15th, 2018

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