The Letter Aleph: Each Letter and Its Unique Value

According to the secret of the letters, one can understand the reason behind the formation of every word from those specific letters, a concept not present in any other language. Here are two common words: father and mother.

Father:

A – Aleph (leader)

B – Bayit (family)

Father: leader of the house, head of the family.

From a numerical perspective: Father – the A' becomes B'. The one becomes two through the birth of his child. Hence, he is now called: Father.

In contrast, the word mother consists of the letter Aleph – the one – with the letter Mem expressing expansion and the creation of new life (as explained below in the letter Mem). The son develops and grows within her, receiving life, and thus she becomes a mother. However, until the end of the 40th day of pregnancy, the body is not complete, which is why she is called 'mother' only from the 41st day of pregnancy. Indeed, the word 'mother' has the numerical value of forty-one. It is worth noting that although a soul enters the embryo within the first three days of pregnancy as explained by the Ari of blessed memory, and aborting the embryo constitutes soul removal, the body becomes complete only at the end of the 40th day; as explained in the Mishnah.

It should also be noted that the letters following (coming after) the letters 'mother', are 'son' – B' after A', N' after M'. For he comes out from her and continues the next generation. See further regarding the word 'stone' composed of the letters 'father – son'.

Missing Aleph in the Torah Book

The Midrash states that when Adam sinned, the letter Aleph flew away from him, leaving blood. That is, Hashem removed the high spiritual part He had given him before the sin, rendering man relatively lower spiritually.

In light of this, we can understand, at least a little, the depth contained in the full and defective spelling in the Torah. The removal of the letter A as a result of a severe sin is hinted at in several places in the Torah through spelling changes. Here are a few examples:

In forty-five places, the expression "to sin offering" appears in the Tanakh. However, when the Torah commands bringing a sin offering for idolatry, it is written: "and one goat for sin offering." Sin instead of sin offering. To hint at the removal of the A, the "Aleph," from Adam who sins through idolatry. Amazingly, 'Adam' has a numerical value of forty-five, and the removal of Aleph from one of the instances – in the verse about sinning in idolatry – leaves forty-four places with a numerical value of 'blood'.

Regarding sexual immorality, the Torah also says to Abimelech: "And I kept you from sinning against me." Sin instead of sinning. To hint at the removal of the A, the "Aleph," from Adam who sins through sexual immorality.

And concerning eating forbidden foods (which the holy Zohar compares to idolatry), the Torah says "and do not defile yourselves with them, that you become defiled by them"; become defiled instead of become defiled. To hint at the disappearance of the Aleph, the "Aleph," from Adam sinning by eating forbidden foods.

We also find in the Torah the removal of the letter Aleph from the word "twins" in the verse concerning the birth of Jacob and Esau: "and when her days to deliver were fulfilled, behold, twins were in her womb," whereas for the birth of Judah and Tamar's sons, Peretz and Zerah, it is written: "and it came to her labor, and behold, twins were in her womb." Rashi, the great Torah commentator, explains why it is said of Jacob and Esau "twins": "Twins, lacking. But in Tamar it is said twins full, as both were righteous. But here one was righteous and one wicked."

Expressing spiritual decline by removing the letter Aleph exists in other Holy Language words. For example, the title 'truth' is suitable only for opinion or law correct according to Hashem's wisdom. A human being is prone to mistake and might label falsehood, contrary to the Creator's will, as 'truth'. Hence any opinion contradicting Hashem's Torah is not truth. This is hinted at in the beginning of the Torah: The ends of the words "In the beginning God created," form the word truth. However, these letters appear in alphabetical order to hint that the material world created conceals and obscures the truth.

Therefore, anything called 'truth' by people but contradicts the Torah truth does not belong with the Aleph, and it is not called 'truth', the Aleph (Hashem) withdraws, leaving 'death'; a body without a soul, matter without spirit, words without true content. Just as removing the Aleph, the soul, from man leaves the word 'blood' which is matter without spirit. Remarkably, the numerical value of the word death is 440, paralleling the numerical value of the word blood, which is 44. This indicates their similarity without the Aleph, where both lack spirit. (Except that the word death refers to the whole body, including blood. Hence its number is tenfold.)

Similarly, the word 'love', meaning longing to give out of closeness, becomes, when the spiritual Aleph disappears from it, the word 'give', which means give me. As occurs with a person lacking fear of heaven, whose only purpose is his self-enjoyment.

The Argument of the Letters

In a deep and wondrous Midrash that may seem puzzling at first glance and deals with the argument of the letters asking to be the one by which the world is created, lies the secret of the illumination of the letters, each letter according to the power ingrained in it. Here's a short section from the Midrash:

"Said Rabbi Akiva: These are the twenty-two letters with which the entire Torah was given, engraved with a burning pen on the divine crown of Hashem. And when He sought to create the world, they descended and stood before Him...

And Aleph, when he saw Hashem... stood aside and was silent. Until Hashem called him and said to him: 'Aleph, why are you silent and saying nothing to me?' Aleph replied and said: 'Master of the Universe, because I have no power to say anything before You. All the letters are counted in a higher value, and I am in a low count. Bet is two, Gimel is three, and so on. And I am in one.'

Hashem replied and said to him: 'Aleph, do not fear! You are the head of them all like a king. You are one, I am one, and the Torah is one, which I am destined to give through you to My people Israel. As it is said "I am the Hashem your God".

Many secrets lie in the arguments of the letters in the Midrash and Hashem's reply to them. From the arguments and the replies, one can learn the essence of the illumination of each letter, and accordingly, how a person, using the power of choice he received, can use this illumination positively, correctly, and beneficially, or regrettably negatively, mistakenly, and harmfully. The ability of a letter to act in the negative way is why the world wasn't illuminated at its creation with the letter, to prevent the possibility of strong activity of that inherent power in the negative way.

The chosen letter whose illumination power creates the world like a baby formed, discovered, and born, and followed by all the letters, is the letter Bet – the letter of blessing and multiplication. The modesty of the letter Aleph that stood aside in silence as explained in the Midrash, expresses the initial illumination line that lit by the leader of the world. That high spiritual illumination created everything and is hidden as a mystery in all visible reality, but it is the reason for everything's existence. This is what is found in the secret of Hashem's response to Aleph. To say, do not be deceived by seeing everything around consists of many material parts, and think that this is the absolute reality. Rather know that "the head to all like a king, is the Aleph, leader of the world, which is the source of all, and without the spiritual spark given to every material, it would have no existence. And without the one Torah given to one nation, there would be no purpose and meaning to all existing creation.

The Use of Aleph's Power on the Negative Side

In the holy Zohar, it is explained that because of the power of choice given to man, every letter also holds the ability to incline to the negative side. And due to the great power embedded in the letter Aleph, its inclination to negativity by man would cause great damage. Hence, the world was created with the letter Bet ("In the beginning") and not with the letter Aleph.

Here is the language of the Zohar: "And if you say, isn't the Aleph the head of all the letters, and why wasn't the world created with it? It is true. But because in it is the call of the word 'cursed', the world wasn't created with it. And even though the Aleph is the letter of the supreme secret that includes in it the name of Hashem that constitutes all that exists, the world wasn’t created with it to not give ability and place for the strength of the Sitra Achra called cursed. And so the world completed with the Bet and through it was created."

The explanation of the word "cursed": A – the limitless spreading, towards the letter R – the poor and wicked. V – the Vav connector to another R. That is, to the poorest of the poor, the wicked of the wicked. As similarly brought in the Talmud Yerushalmi, see there.

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