Symbolic Language and Essence: The Uniqueness of the Holy Tongue

In various languages, referred to in Judaism as "symbolic languages," every word consists of a combination of letters that can be replaced with others, as long as people agree that a particular combination of letters expresses that notion. However, in Hebrew, the letters forming a word create its essence. One of the significant implications of this wondrous foundation is that someone who understands the secret of each letter deeply can take an incomprehensible word, break it down, and understand it based on the meaning of each of its letters, as explained in the chapters of this book. Many words are even composed of shorter words that connect with one another, rendering their essence comprehensible. For example, in the word "bat," the letter ‘ayin combines with "taf" - "taf," and with "pei" - "af". Hence, the characteristics of this creature are flying, wrapping itself in its wings, appearing frightened as if covering itself for protection, like "and she wrapped herself with a veil and swooned." And so many more examples (see explanations for animal names at the end of the chapter on the human name, page ~). This phenomenon is unique to the essence of the Holy Tongue and has no parallel in symbolic languages.

Put another way, the sages agreed to make the signs for speech sounds. Consequently, according to this understanding, there is no difference between these letters and the signs used by non-Jews for their languages in their lands... And based on this agreement [understanding], the essence of the recorded script is merely to reveal the speaker's intention. Like a wise doctor writes his wisdom in a medical book; the intent is not that the book itself is a cure at all, but rather the intention of his book is to reveal his knowledge or intent concerning medicine, and when a person understands the main wisdom written in the book, the book itself no longer holds utility. Such is their understanding concerning the matters of the Torah.” And see there all his words, which reject this error outright, bringing the Zohar’s words that the letters of the Torah are a garment for the soul within them, about which King David said in Psalms: "Unveil my eyes and I shall gaze upon wonders from Your Torah."

The ancient kabbalist Rabbi Todros Abulafia wrote in his book "The Treasure of Honor": "Many great, terrifying and sublime secrets are hinted and inscribed in the shapes of the letters, accepted and known to the sages and prophets orally to Moses our master, peace upon him, fortunate is the one who is privileged even to smell them from afar."

In his commentary on Tractate Megillah, he further adds and writes: "The shapes of the letters hint at several mysteries in existence - high inner ones that serve in the innermost chambers, and emanation is also emanated through them. In the crowns, high external spiritual existences are also hinted, and the vowels are like a soul to the letters, and even the cantillation signs leading the words hint at supreme secrets in words of the present and future."

And the Ramchal wrote in "The Way of the Tree of Life": "And this has already been explained in the Book of the Zohar regarding the alphabet. It is not a metaphor, but rather, their essence literally. For all the letters we see in the Torah all indicate the twenty-two lights found above [in higher worlds]. And those superior lights enlighten upon the letters."

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All details of creation are composed of different combinations of forces, amounting to twenty-two forces in total: the power of division, mutual detachment, connection, closure, opening, etc. Nowadays, it is customary to call active force 'energy.' Here also, just to clarify, we will say as a distant analogy that the letters store within them a kind of high energy that changes from letter to letter, and each letter acts as a 'sign' and vessel for the unique spiritual power. Thus, all letters together contain all the forces that compose and assemble creation. Hence, an 'ot' (letter) from 'siman' (sign), and the combination of specific letters into a word is essentially a combination of the forces inherent in those letters. Just for clarity, one can metaphorically compare this to the equations accepted in chemistry. Each letter in the formula represents an essential and crucial component in the actual composition of that matter. But in the Holy Tongue, the letter not only represents the specific component but it is its essence entirely. For it is the root of its formation and the reason for its manifestation in the world.

For example, in the letter "bet" lies the power of division and multiplication in creation (such as cell division for building), and the letter "kaf" is the letter of bending and giving shape to the multiplying parts. Therefore, the writing of these two letters is similar (bet, kaf), and their placement is identical: one is the second of the units, and this is the second of the tens. This has the number two, and this has twenty. And when both join together, kaf+bet, they hint at all twenty-two letters in which the world was created in a method of division and multiplication (bet) until shape creation (kaf). Incidentally, long before the discovery of the chromosomes and their number by modern scientists using sophisticated tools, it was written in "Or HaChama" quoting Rabbi Abraham Galanti on the Zohar: "The creation of all worlds was with twenty-two letters, and so was man created with twenty-two letters. For the father, when begetting his son, impresses upon him the twenty-two letters within him, [as] his father also did at his own birth. By the power of these twenty-two letters, the child is formed and grows." It was now revealed to researchers that the number of identical chromosomes given by each parent in a child is twenty-two (!), besides the additional chromosome that determines the sex. (And see the letter 'nun,' derived from 'offspring,' and the letter 'nun' corresponding in number to the letter 'hei' is also essentially feminine yielding. Similarly, its name (nun) also includes a bent 'nun,' which signifies female, and an erect 'nun' denoting male. This is the secret of the twenty-third chromosome that comes from the female and contains within it the potential for male or female. See there extensively.)

And since the world was created with letters, it follows that even before the creation of the world, the creator formed the shape of each letter and set its pronunciation according to the spiritual power infused in it. Thus, when he said "Let there be light," he commanded the three different spiritual forces in the letters aleph, vav, resh to join together precisely in this order, resulting in reality as light. And so in every act of creation.

Thus, the letters as the initial and foundational creation brought into existence by the Creator are the code of creation, from which the whole universe was created and constructed.

Accordingly, the Maggid of Mezritch explained - on the symbolic level - the first verse of the Torah: "In the beginning, God created the A-Z of the heavens, etc." In the beginning, God created “A-Z," that is, the letters aleph through tav. Through their function, the heavens and the earth, and all their details were created. Seeing the voices

It is worth noting here that even significant skeptics about the non-human origin of the Hebrew holy letters and their inseparability from creation have changed their minds following research by Yaakov Guggenheim, as well as Chaim Elbaz and Elisha Zarviv among others. They analyzed a recording of different letters' pronunciations using sensitive software that deciphers sound frequency vibrations and presents a graphic diagram on the screen according to the frequencies. Astonishingly, the research revealed that while the sound of Latin letters (as expected) produced different diagrams on the screen, having no connection to the Latin letters' shapes, the sound of Hebrew letters created graphic forms identical to the Hebrew letters on the screen!

The likelihood of such a result is similar to the likelihood that saying the word "shirt" would create an image of a shirt on the screen...

Incidentally, in the Hebrew holy letters, there are words whose writing produces the realistic expression of that word. For example, the word "etz" looks like a trunk from which branches emerge, and the word "esh" appears as having many flames. From the fundamentals presented so far in explaining the holy tongue's essence, it is clear that in this language, there is no possibility of replacing one word with another according to human agreements as in other languages, nor does it make sense to change even the letters' order in a word according to an arbitrary whim. For such a change would alter the specific essence that word expresses in reality according to its letters' order, just as altering a letter in a chemical formula results in a completely different and entirely changed reality. But as mentioned, in Hebrew holy letters, the situation is much more profound. These letters do not only signify and symbolize something; they actually construct - through the active illuminations within them - the universe in all its details, following the Creator's voice during creation. They also sustain and maintain creation at every moment, up to this very day – as a result of the Creator's will, persistently revealed in reality. Hence, incidentally, every object is called in Hebrew "davar" or "hefetz." "Davar" because it was created by speech, and that is its essence: "speech." And "hefetz" because its existence depends on the Creator’s will in its existence.

The Spirit in the Material

Kabbalah explains that not only was the world created with the letters of the Holy Tongue, but they also cause it to be maintained perpetually. If the letters with which creation was made were to retract and return to their source for even a moment, all of creation would revert to absolute nothingness. In this regard, the Ari Z"l explains in his writings the verse: "that not by bread alone does man live, but by every utterance from the mouth of Hashem does man live." Here, the difficulty lies in how a spiritual soul depends on material food, and if a man doesn’t eat, the soul will depart and he will die. However, because creation was made by Hashem’s word, when He said "Let there be sky!" the firmament immediately came into being, and the divine command entered its internal life, remaining to sustain them always. As it says, "Forever, Hashem, your word stands firm in the heavens." "Your word" is your command – "Let there be sky," stands firm always in the heavens, maintaining them forever. Likewise, in all creation, that same utterance remains within them that they were created with, and it is their inner life. When one eats material food, the body is nourished by the material of the food, and the soul by the spiritual command existent in the food, hence when one does not eat, their soul withdraws from them. Thus, the verse states, 'to make you know that man does not live by bread alone,' that is, not solely by material bread does man live, but by 'every utterance from the mouth of Hashem,' by the spiritual divine command hidden within the material bread, does man live. Therefore, it specifically says "the man" with the definite article and not just "a man." Since the body is referred to as the flesh of a person (like "He should not be poured on human flesh"). From this, we learn the importance of the blessing that one recites over the food they consume. By blessing, one arouses the inner spirituality within the food, receiving life for their soul. Additionally, one corrects and clarifies the transmigrated souls and the sparks of holiness within them. This is alluded to in the verse "Hungry and thirsty, their soul faints within them." To say that this necessity to hunger and thirst is embedded in people because 'their soul faints within them,' since there are souls enveloped and enclosed within the food. By hunger and thirst being aroused in people, they eat and drink, bless over their food, effecting the rectification of the transmigrating souls (see the testimony of the renowned kabbalist Rabbi Yehuda Patia in his book "Minchat Yehuda" about the words of the dybbuk concerning the transmigration in a pomegranate, and the soul of a woman that was transmigrated at that time in the roasted meat before them, and the influence of the blessing on the food on their correction).

Here are the words of Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin in the book "Light Sown to the Righteous":

"And indeed, to those knowledgeable in the ways of the Kabbalists, blessed be their memory, the sages of truth regarding the higher worlds, all were made by combinations of holy letters. And that all created beings of this world, their name in the Holy Tongue is what sustains them. Therefore, whatever each creature may be named live, is its true name. Like the 'bull,' since its life force is of the power of its three letters shin, vav, resh in the upper worlds, being the primary force of its life. And so it is with all creations of the world and all worlds. Therefore, it is easy for a wise person to call it the Holy Language, for it is indeed holy."

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