What Does The Letter Kaf Tell Us According to Torah and Kabbalah?

The name of the letter Kaf comes from the word 'bending,' and because of this bending, we call any tool with a bent shape - Kaf. Even the shape of the spoon is a bent shape. To bend is to subdue. When a person or a public is forced to do something, it is defined as coercion, 'they are forced.' Material is physically bent, and a person is coerced by threat and force.

In the Gemara on Shabbat, the letter Kaf is described with the words 'ties a crown for you,' because the crown is a symbol of kingship, the power to impose on others. Even the word 'Melech' (king) itself ends with a Kaf.

What is unique about bending material is that it does not involve destroying it, cutting it, but only subduing it. Bending gives it shape and utility, like in the case of the spoon. Although force is applied, bending is not crushing or breaking it, but using it properly.

The letter Aleph represents the power of creation, the power that creates matter. The letter Kaf represents the power that acts on matter, adapting it to the different needs of the Creator. Even the word 'Koach' itself is made up of Kaf and Chet: Kaf is the power acting on matter, and Chet is the matter.

Aside from the Creator's power, there is another power that operates in the world, and that is the power of man. It is he who, with his will, takes the material and bends it into different creations, from an ordinary spoon to very complex creations. This is because man has choice, and he has a divine wisdom to create in Hashem's world. Thus the first word in the Torah that starts with Kaf is 'Ki,' a word that always serves as an explanation for a person's choice. All things that happen in the world do not come from reasoning. A stone does not fall 'because,' and even the actions of an animal are not 'because.' They have no chosen reason, just the fulfillment of ordinary needs. Man can make different choices for reasons he explains with 'because.'

The Creator's power is the first power in creation, and it is symbolized by Aleph. The power of creation is also given to man, as he can also create, and therefore this power is symbolized by the letter Kaf, which has a number of twenty. It begins the second decade of letters. The number two (twenty – two tens) also symbolizes two sides, each choice has two sides. Interestingly, arbitrary choice is symbolized by the doubling of Kaf: 'Kocha,' which emphasizes the power of choice – Kocha, I decided. That's how it will be.

'Bending' is the bending of the body, submission, from which 'knee' also derives. 'Keifel' is the doubling of something by bending it, like folding (hence, by extension, to multiply numbers). To conquer, to ride, to bind, to imprison, to yield, to lean – all use the letter Kaf (even to launder, meaning to immerse the garment in water and bend it to clean it). The word 'Ken' also symbolizes submission, and the common gesture for 'yes' is nodding the head. Embarrassment is the bending of a person's power, and so is the valley of Baka, 'make human return to humility.' A thicket is bushes bent and tangled together.

Blessing is the harmony between Bet and Kaf, between the creative power of the Creator, and the power to subdue material and the choice of man. When man submits to the Creator, and crowns the Creator over himself, and his choices are to subdue desires, to subdue material, and to create positive creations, that is blessing. The abundance flows from the Creator to his creation and to man's work. Similarly, a pool of water symbolizes harmony between the source of water and the human creation of digging a pool, bending the ground so that water can reside there peacefully.