TU BeSHVAT tbsv1

by Hebrewletters SL

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$500

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7.000 x 5.000 inches

Title

TU BeSHVAT tbsv1

Artist

Hebrewletters SL

Medium

Painting - Watercolor On Watercolor Paper

Description

L'chaim tu b'shvat

TU B’SHVAT is from the Hebrew, meaning FIFTEENTH OF SHEVAT, the Jewish month (Alcalay, R. The Complete Hebrew English Dictionary. Jerusalem: Massada. . 853), indicating the New Year of the Trees.

Hebrew Bible source - ‘When you come to the land and you plant any tree, you shall treat its fruit as forbidden; for three years it will be forbidden and not eaten. In the fourth year, all of its fruit shall be sanctified to praise the Lord. In the fifth year, you may eat its fruit’ (Leviticus 19:23-25).

Mishnah - THERE ARE FOUR NEW YEARS. ON THE FIRST OF Nisan [first month of the Jewish calendar - begins late March or early April] IS NEW YEAR FOR KINGS [if a document is dated with a certain year in a king's reign, the year is reckoned to have commenced in Nissan, no matter in what month the king came to the throne] AND FOR FESTIVALS. ON THE FIRST OF Elul [sixth month of the Jewish calendar] IS NEW YEAR FOR THE TITHE OF CATTLE. R. Eleazar AND R. Simeon, HOWEVER, PLACE THIS ON THE FIRST OF TISHRI. ON THE FIRST OF TISHRI [seventh month] IS NEW YEAR FOR YEARS, FOR RELEASE AND JUBILEE YEARS [reckoning the years of uncircumcision (Leviticus 19:23)], FOR PLANTATION AND FOR [TITHE OF] VEGETABLES. ON THE FIRST OF SHEBAT [eleventh month] IS NEW YEAR FOR TREES (Danby, Herbert. 1933. The Mishnah. Oxford University Preess. Rosh HaShannah 1:1).

Tradition - Tu B'Shevat is the new year for the purpose of calculating the age of trees for tithing. Leviticus 19:23-24 states that fruit from trees may not be eaten during the first three years; the fourth year's fruit is for God and after that, you can eat the fruit. Each tree is considered to have aged one year as of Tu B'Shevat,

The Hebrew Letters featured in this painting are Tet Vav which spells TU, fifteen; and Beit Shin Beit Tet which spells B’shvat, meaning in SHAVAT. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell TU B’SHVAT.

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.

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.

VAV is the 6th letter, has a numerical value of 6, is constructed of a single vertical line, means HOOK and makes a sound like the V in Victory. When used as a vowel, Vav can sound like a long `o’ or a long `u.’ Translated it means AND. It is the GREAT CONNECTOR. Vav appears in the Four Letter name of God - Yud Hey Vav Hey.
“VAV is the sound if beiing joined. And VAV is a the sound of and. One and another” (Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters: Sefer Otiyot.Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 35).

The 6 Sephirot represented by the Vav are - Chesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1979. Tr. The Bahir. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 146-172).

What does the letter VAV resemble? It is alluded to in the verse “He spreads out light like a garment” (Psalms 104:5). For VAV is nothing other than six directions [ east, west, north south, up and down]? (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1979. Tr. The Bahir. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 30).

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).

When used as a vowel, Vav can sound like a long `o’ or a long `u.’ Translated it means AND. It is the GREAT CONNECTOR. Vav appears in the Four Letter name of God - Yud Hey Vav Hey
“VAV is the sound if beiing joined. And VAV is a the sound of and. One and another” (Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters: Sefer Otiyot.Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 35).

In meditation, the Vav is a place where you can leave your body in order to descend to a deeper place.




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.

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 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.





SHIN is the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has a numerical value of 300, means TOOTH, YEAR, REPEAT, TEACH. Shin makes the sound SHHHHHH when the DOT is on the right, and SSSS when the DOT is on the left.

There are differing opinions about which components make up the Shin. Kushner states that the Vav makes up the right arm, the Zayin the left, and Yud the middle. In Haralick’s opinion, the Yud is on the right, the Zayin on the left and the Yud in the middle. It is the view of Ginsburgh that the Shin is composed of 3 Vavs, each with a little Yud on its top. So, to make this letter your own, it will be necessary to take it into meditation and come to your own conclusion (Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. The Book of Letters.. Woodstock: Jewish Lights. 72; Haralick, Robert. 1995. The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters.. Northvale: Jason Aronson. 299; Ginsburgh, Yitzchak. 1990. The Hebrew Letters. Jerusalem: Gai Einai. 313).

Shin 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).

Sepher Yitzirah 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 Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf. According to the text, God created the world by means of these letters. The Shin is one of the mothers, that group from which emanated AIR (from Aleph), WATER (from Mem) and FIRE (from Shin). The 3 mothers in the universe are AIR, WATER and FIRE...HEAVEN was created from FIRE, EARTH was created from WATER, and AIR from SPIRIT (WIND) balanced between them. Aleph and Shin spell AISH – FIRE. Aleph represents AIR and Shin, FIRE. FIRE cannot exist without AIR (Sepher Yitzirah. TR. Aryeh Kaplan. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 197).

The Hebrew letters of the word for ‘husband’ are Aleph, Yud and Shin, and for ‘wife’ Aleph, Shin and Hey. The Yud and Hey form the Divine Name; but if omitted, only Aleph and Shin are left which form the word ESH, ‘fire’ (Sotah 17a).

A NIGGUN is a holy TUNE. Meditative chanting is softly singing a NIGGUN over and over again. In this case one could chant the word SHALOM.
But sometimes the Shin takes me for a ride. The middle yud bends over to make a seat and I steer with the left and right Yuds. The Shin loves to race the jet skis in the ocean. Especially since we always win.

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January 20th, 2019

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