The Letter 'B' – Teaching Us Insight

In the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet lies a hint: A – The one creator who has no multiplicity, created a world whose essence is division and multiplicity. This is the letter B that comes after A. Therefore, the Torah, which begins with the description of creation, starts with the letter B: "In the beginning, God created."

As mentioned, this is hinted at in the very word "Bereishit" – the beginning (in Hebrew, 'Bet' is the second letter, suggesting the start of creation with B, indicating that creation is composed of many parts, complementing each other). However, God's proclamation at the start of the Ten Commandments, "I am Hashem your God," begins with the letter A – denoting absolute unity.

Now we will understand somewhat the amazement of the Talmudic sages about the depth of the meanings of the first two letters: "Aleph Bet – teach wisdom." Since in these short words: "Teach Wisdom," the knowledge is folded:

1. The one acted with wisdom, meaning in His supreme understanding.

2. The one created a built creation, meaning a creation composed of opposing forces ("Wisdom" from the word 'between') that complete each other.

3. At the start, learn to distinguish between things. The word "Aleph" here has two meanings. One meaning: the 'beginning'. The second meaning: 'teach', with A pronounced as 'Aleph', teach. Like "And I will teach you wisdom." 'Wisdom', from the words observation and distinction. "Teach Wisdom", learn to observe and distinguish between good and bad, truth and falsehood.

4. First, learn Torah.

Word explanations beginning with the letter 'B'

We will now clarify why certain words that start with the letter 'B' and contain identical letters, such as: building, understanding, son, between, stone; and their relation to each other.

Since in the holy language each letter expresses a different essence, all the words in which that letter appears are related to some extent to the essence of that letter. For each letter in the word is a different building block that, along with its counterparts, creates the complete and unique form of that word. However, sometimes deep contemplation is needed to understand the reason for the appearance of that letter in different words.

The strength of the impact of each letter's meaning on the word as a whole depends on its position in the word. The greatest influence is exerted by the first letter, as it is the most active. The second letter influences less, and so on.

Considering what's explained above, where the letter 'B' contains the power of building through parts and so 'B' is derived from the word for house, it's understandable why the words "house" and "building" start with 'B'. Even the word "understanding" starts with 'B', but to understand why it is built from the same letters as "building" with a change in the position of the letter Y, we must first contemplate the difference between wisdom, understanding, and knowledge.

Wisdom is a collection of data a person learns from the wisdom of others or from life experiences, and thus he is now a wise person. Knowledge is the intellectual attainment of conclusions reached clearly until one feels connected to them (as in "and Adam knew Eve his wife") as the scripture says, "You have been shown to know that Hashem is God, there is no other beside him."

However, through the power of understanding that resides within a person, they sort with their intellect between similar things, understand one thing from another, construct and combine detail to detail and data to data, reaching a more inner, deeper idea, and a...new, as an aspect of creation. It becomes apparent that spiritual understanding closely corresponds to material building, and both concern the creation of interiority through division, multiplicity, and construction.

From now on, we understand the meaning of the word between, used to denote distinction between this and that. "Between" from the language of understanding, which a person uses to distinguish between two seemingly similar things. More deeply, son is the one who is divided and born from his mother. However, when the spiritual letter Y (as will be explained in the chapter about the letter Y) penetrates the word son, meaning, when a person observes their spiritual mind in someone who seems identical to another and understands that he is separate and different from him, and so what seemed identical now stands on its own as a son born, we get the word for distinction: between. And that is 'understanding'.

Moreover, understanding and building express the process of mental and material building. Though in "understanding," the position of the spiritual Y comes immediately after the letter B, whereas in the word "building" it is later. However, at the end of both appears the letter H, the letter indicating the actualization, like birth, expressed both in "understanding," which is fertile and productive in thought, and in "building," which connects stone to stone until the result: a house and building.

But when the outcome is final, such as a "son" born, the word ends with the final 'N' alone, as the final letters typically express the ultimate result in this world (and on a deeper level, the most significant end, the days of Messianic times).

The "son" becomes part of the family structure, whereas the "stone" is part of the house structure. Since regarding material existing since the world's creation, which is not born, does not give birth, and does not make others fertile (unlike soil, which grows), it is called: stone. Because at the start of the world (A) it was created (B), and it is final with no offspring (final N). In contrast, when a son has a child, the final N from division B is dropped, and an A is added at the start, signifying one and beginning. Because now it has continuation, and the one has become two. Thus its name changes to "father," as previously explained regarding the letter A.

Words beginning with 'B' – from the aspect of numerical value

Consider the word "blessing," a word expressing great abundance coming from the little. The uniqueness of the three root letters of this word – B.R.K. – is that they are the only ones where each letter's numerical value is double that of the preceding letter:

B (2)             double of A (1)

R (200)          double of K (100)

K (20)            double of Y (10)

Additionally: all parallel letters in terms of numerical value, except these are units, these are tens, and those are hundreds, such as:

A (1) Y (10) K (100)

B (2) K (20) R (200)

And so on, they are intrinsically close in root and effect, except that one expresses the next stage after the other's action. For example, here the letter B expresses the benefit of multiplicity through creation. The letter K expresses the benefit of creating form from created matter. The letter R expresses the benefit of rising to greatness as in 'head'. All these operate in sequence, in order, for a person upon whom the blessing rests. For example, one who observes Shabbat properly and causes blessing in all livelihood actions during the remaining days. As the Torah states, "God blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." As articulated by Rabbi Shlomo Alkabetz in the "Lcha Dodi" prayer chanted throughout all Jewish communities at the entrance of Shabbat: "Come, my Beloved, to welcome the bride, the presence of Shabbat we await." The blessing of Shabbat acts on one who observes it properly; first their finances increase, then their property is structured so it's not damaged, and ultimately they rise to greatness (the letter H at the end of "blessing" is the female, fertile letter, in wealth and all other matters).

Even the word "firstborn," appearing in the Torah spelled without the letter V – "Bkr," composed of these three letters, expresses the uniqueness of the firstborn receiving a double portion in inheritance. Here we have an example from another perspective of the internal connection between two different words, "blessing" and "firstborn," which at first glance is not understood why their roots are composed of identical letters.

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