TAVI nf10-98

by Hebrewletters SL

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Price

$500

Dimensions

7.000 x 5.000 inches

Title

TAVI nf10-98

Artist

Hebrewletters SL

Medium

Painting - Watercolor On Watercolor Paper

Description

TAVI is from the Aramaic, meaning GOOD (Kolatch, Alfred J. 1984. The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names Middle Village: Jonathan David. 223).
TAVI can also be a pet form of the Hebrew DAVID, meaning BELOVED (Kolatch, Alfred J. 1984. The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names. Middle Village: Jonathan David. 223).

Hebrew Bible source - And God saw the light, that it was good [tov]: (Genesis 1:3).

Talmud - Tavi (Tevi) was a third-century Babylonian scholar, who transmitted in the name of R. Josiah (Berachot 15b).
Tavi (Tevi) was a servant of Rabban Gamliel of Yavneh.
Rabban Gamliel called him a Torah scholar and he was greatly respected by the other sages (Frieman, Shulamis. 1995. Who's Who in the Talmud Northvale: Jason Aronson Inc. 319).
“It happened that Rabban Gamliel [by accident] put out the eye of Tavi (Tevi) his slave. He rejoiced over it very much, [as he was eager to have this meritorious slave set free], but it did not work out due to the fact that there was not a witness (Baba Kama 74b).

The Hebrew Letters featured in this painting are Tet Beit Yud. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell TAVI.

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.


TET is the 9th letter of the alphabet, has a numerical value of 9, makes a sound like the T in Truth and is the shape of the TET is like a bowl. The left side of the bowl resembles a ZAYIN. The TET is frequently associated with the word TOV meaning GOOD.

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.
Tet is one of the elementals.

God made the Tet king over hearing
God formed Leo in the Universe
Av in the year
And left kidney in the Soul
(Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters: Sefer Otiyot. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 217).

I first became enamoured with the Tet when I read the following story The Bahir, a first century kabbalistic text. It states that there are 613 letters in the passage of the Ten Commandments. This section contains all of the 22 Hebrew letters except for the Tet. The text reaches the conclusion that the Tet is excluded because it is the belly and goes on to state that the “Tet is not included among Sephirot, a sad situation(Kaplan, Aryeh. 1979. Tr. The Bahir. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 47).
I was happy to see that according to Ginsburg, the TET is “a vessel containing the blessing of peace.” He appears to arrive at this conclusion by associating TET as the 9th letter, with the 9th Sephirah, Yesod, meaning foundation, Zohar 3:115b correlated PEACE with Yesod. This interpretation fits with my experience in meditation. (Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak. 1992. (Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak. 1992. The Hebrew Letters. Jerusalem: Gal Einai.. 141).

There is a terrific story in Talmud [Taanit 21a] of a man who was nicknamed ISH GAM ZU - literally MAN OF ALSO THIS. ISH GAM ZU thought everything that happened in life was GAM ZU LETOVAH - ALSO THIS IS FOR GOOD Tov. He never wavered from this viewpoint, even when he became blind and lost the use of his arms and legs. I stood next to the Kever of Ish Gam zu in Tsfat which is located in the middle of a residential neighborhood. It seemed appropriate for this good man to be in the midst of the living.

[Zayyin Heth Tet Yud Kaf 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).

[The writing of the letters] must be ‘kethibah tammah’ [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the… Tet as a Pey or the Pey as a Tet Shabbat 103b).

The TET is one of 7 letters Gimel 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 Zayin s.
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 Tet is a wonderful letter in which to meditate. You can sit in it and the letter will curl itself around you. It is soft and flexible. And if, while in the Tet, you hold the Yud, in your hands against your abdomen, it adds yet another dimension.


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.

God made the Beit king over Wisdom
God formed the moon in the Universe
Sunday in the year
And right eye in the Soul
(Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters: Sefer Otiyot. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 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.


YUD is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 10, means HAND, makes a sound like the Y in Year and is a simple point. It is the smallest letter in the alphabet and yet is frequently associated with the very large concept of EMANATION, the highest level in the Four World paradigm of Kabbalah.

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.
Yud is one of the elementals.

He [God] made the letter Yud king over action and he bound a crown to it…
And then He formed
Vergo in the Universe
Elul in the Year
And the left hand in the Soul male and female
Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 216).

Menachot 29b teaches that the WORLD TO COME was created by use of the letter Yud.

Yud has the important job of being the first letter of the Tetragrammaton - Yud Hey Vav Hey. Zohar states that, in this context, the Yud represents the head of all creatures (Zohar. 1984 Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 3:130).

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

[Zayyin Chet Tet Yud Kaf 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).

If you enter meditation and the Yud comes to you, ask Yud a question and wait for the answer. Amazing results. The
Yud is also capable of taking you anywhere in the Universe. Give it a try and let me know the results.

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August 22nd, 2021

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