The Letter Mem – From Origin to Transition

The letter Mem embodies the power of transition, moving from the starting point and pushing forward toward the destination.

Hence, any movement from place to place or from state to state is expressed in the letter Mem. For example: "When Israel went out of Egypt", and in the Mishnah: "Know from where you came". Also in the spiritual dimension, every transition and spiritual ascent from one level to another has its root in the letter Mem. The water, which more than anything else expresses the property of flowing and transitioning from place to place, is called by this name because of its spiritual root: the letter Mem.

Therefore, while the beginning formation of an embryo is through the power of the letter Heh, the letter of pregnancy (as explained above in the letter Heh, which is why the name of our mother Sarai was changed to Sarah), the completion of the embryo on the day it receives the name 'Adam' is done through the power of the letter Mem. The letter of transition from the period of being tiny and formless to the period when it is called by the name Adam. This is the root nature of creation, where the completion of the embryo occurs on the fortieth (Mem) day of pregnancy.

The letter Mem first appears in the Torah at the beginning of the word in the verse: "Upon the face of the waters".

Pronunciation

Mem, meaning water. Since the spiritual root of water is in the letter Mem. As explained in Sefer Yetzirah: "He appointed the letter Mem over water, and a crown for it"; and their characteristic, like their spiritual root, is to leave the source, move from place to place, and even to convey (like a ship). For water is liquid and flexible, crawling and passing easily from their source to another place. Water also transitions from form to form, as they take the shape of the place or vessel they reach.

Additionally, the spiritual root of water in the letter of transition is wonderfully expressed in the fact that it is the nature of water to transition also from state to state. For water is the only material in nature capable of existing in all three states of matter: solid (ice), liquid (water), and gas (vapor).

The letter Mem, which creates in water the quality of transitioning from place to place, from form to form, and from state to state, is also expressed in their exceptional nature in the natural world - to transform the one bathing in them from a state of filth and dirt to a state of cleanliness; from heaviness and fatigue to lightness and freshness; from a feeling of pressure to a feeling of calmness and tranquility.

Also spiritually, the person who immerses in forty (*Mem*!) seahs of mikveh water or mayan waters becomes pure. That is, transitioning from a state of spiritual impurity to purity.

Immersion in the Waters of Eden

What distinguishes water not drawn from the ground, and thus any water that has touched them, such as mikveh water, is their ability to purify a person spiritually, parallel to the natural cleaning property of water. Although the subject is deep and complex, we will explain it as much as our understanding allows, from one of its more fundamental and straightforward aspects.

Initially, the material creation was shaped with a high spiritual interior. Therefore, the place called the Garden of Eden, intended to benefit the first man and his descendants after passing the test of the Tree of Knowledge, was here, in our world, with all its levels and high spiritual grades. Since there was no contradiction between the pure matter of the world and the spiritual systems within it. Had the first man withstood the trial, the world would have reached its perfect correction, and the bounty of the illumination inherent in the Garden of Eden would have been realized in its entirety to shine and do good to man and his descendants forever, to delight in Hashem and enjoy the radiance of His glory. But when man first sinned, with the Tree of Knowledge, he suddenly lowered the creation from its spiritual degree - akin to a sudden electrical short causing lights to go out. Since the spiritual 'soot' created by the sin clouded the world that was pure until then, the high spirituality that was in the nature of matter had to part from the world like a soul separating from a body and ascending upward. Thus, all material creation descended from its pure grade to a state of low matter. This descent is called 'impurity', just as a body without a soul is called 'impure', and even touching it prohibits entry to the Holy Temple until purification.

Since that sin, humanity was decreed to die, meaning its soul would separate from its body. Only then, being without the obstructed matter, can it - if it has fulfilled the Creator's commandments - delight in Hashem in the upper Garden of Eden according to the level of its good deeds. Only at the resurrection of the dead at the end of days, when the world is corrected after fulfilling the verse: "For the earth will be full of knowledge of Hashem, as the waters cover the sea", will the world return to its pure state from before the sin and even reach the proper spiritual perfection. Then the upper Garden of Eden will once again merge with the lower Garden of Eden, and man will rise at the resurrection in a pure body.

This spiritual decline due to the sin of Adam and Eve occurred throughout creation, except in the lower Garden of Eden itself, existing in our world, which, being inherently more related to the world of spiritual reward than the material one, remained in its purity and heavenly level. That's why humanity was expelled from this Garden of Eden where they lived. Since one tainted by sin and becoming 'impure' cannot remain in a place of high purity (incidentally, it's worth mentioning that besides the Garden of Eden, Mount Moriah, the place of the Gate of Heaven, remained close in purity to the purity of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, a person tainted with any impurity is forbidden to enter it. But other parts and particulars of all creation descended from their rank due to the sin of the first man and will be purified in the days of the Messiah).

Only the waters, as long as they are 'living waters' (meaning not drawn or uprooted from their gathering place in the ground), whose natural cleaning property is also reflected in their spiritual essence, are not spiritually tainted by the 'dirt' created by sin. They are as connected through the earth to the rivers of the Garden of Eden (lower), whose waters were not defiled, and they have the power to purify a person, of whom most of the body (composed mainly of water) immerses in them, from various types of impurities.

The woman received a divine gift – the unique ability to create new life through pregnancy and birth. When this ability is not fulfilled, and menstruation occurs, its deep meaning lies in the fact that new life that could have come into the world did not, which is a symbolic death of that life potential. The Creator revealed in His Torah that this condition (primarily unnecessary by nature, uncomfortable, and created only since Eve's sin with the Tree of Knowledge as part of the decree "In pain will you bring children") causes an involuntary state of 'niddah impurity' (like any death causing 'impurity'), although it is natural today, and has no inherently personal moral implication.

And how does a woman purify herself after these days?

By immersing at the end of counting seven clean days and proper checks in a valid mikveh of living waters. For she immerses then in the waters of Eden itself!

On a higher level of waters, it's explained in several places in the Talmud that the Torah is compared to water. As it says: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters." And there is no water except Torah. This is the Torah given after forty (*Mem!*) days, and by studying it, a person purifies their soul and corrects their traits, as water acts for the body. This Torah behaves - like the nature of water - to leave the proud who elevates himself and descends to the lowly and humble in spirit, preferring to dwell there. It refreshes and revives a person’s soul like living waters to a tired soul. It is heavy only for one carrying part of it and its commandments on his back, like a person carrying a barrel of weighted water. But one who immerses entirely in Torah and its commandments takes delight and rests on its love and is amazed by its beauty, like a person diving in a coral-rich beach and dazzlingly colorful deep-sea fish; an immense weight of water rises above him, yet he does not feel it. On the contrary, he delights and marvels at the wonderful beauty of oceanic depths and feels pity and compassion for the one outdoors, on the shore, busying himself with simple shells...

Also, one strengthening in Torah and commandments, who does not know how to remove from their memory negative images they've seen or experienced in the past, can take a lesson from the water metaphor in the Torah. A glass full of oil on all its edges, which drops of water are dripped into, drop by drop – for each drop entering the glass, an oil drop exits. Since the heavy waters sink down. So, even if one's thoughts are full of vain forbidden words, and they engage in Torah – for every word of Torah that enters their mind, a vain forbidden word exits.

The word "water" has no singular form but only a plural form. Since water is made up of drops, each of them also comprises smaller drops, which in themselves can be divided. And because the root of water, which is plural in nature, is rooted in the letter Mem, the letter Mem is used to change a singular form to a plural form by adding it at the end of the word. But the addition of Mem is done by the addition of the letter Yud, which together with the Mem forms the word "Yam". A word denoting an abundance of water. Instead of "friend", "friends". Like "Chaver-yam" which means 'friend – many'.

Moreover, the letter Mem, which is the root of the water, contains the power of multiplication of the whole, creating another in its image. Initially, the primary cell divides with the power of the letter Bet, the letter of division and multiplication. These cells divide themselves and spread and expand until a complete human form is created from them, containing the hereditary traits of the source from which they came; akin to the division of water droplets. This final transition to the form of Man is done with the power of the letter Mem, the letter of transition to a new state.

The name of the letter Mem is composed of the duplication of the letter itself - Mem. Thus it resembles the letters Heh and Vav. But the letter Mem is the only one where the first letter in the name of the letter is open (Mem), and it is like giving birth to the closed letter that follows it (final Mem), the letter symbolizing the newborn embryo not capable of birthing at the current time.

The letter Mem is composed of the letters Kaf and Vav. The letter Vav, is the letter of connection and unification. While the letter Kaf, is the letter giving the form. For the connection brings the formation of the embryo receiving form. Both are included in the action of the letter Mem. The result: transition to new life.

In Sefer Yetzirah, it is explained that the letter Mem is one of the three mother letters, standing at the head of the pyramid of letters:

Aleph Mem Shin

Bet Gimel Dalet Kaf Peh Resh Tav

Heh Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tzadi Kuf Shin

"Three mother letters, a great secret, wondrous and covered... and from them emerge fire and water, male and female. Three mother letters, their foundation. And from them emerged fathers, from whom everything was created. Three mother letters in the world; Air, Mai, Sh. The heavens were created first from fire, and the earth was created from water, and the air mediates between the fire and the water".

Therefore, even though man is made from all four elements, fire, wind, water, and dust, as explained in the book "Etz Chaim", the creation process of the embryo begins from a drop, in the aspect of water, and also ends on the fortieth day which is the letter Mem, the letter of water. The embryo is created in its mother's womb surrounded by water, and the vast majority of the body is water. Since, unlike air (Aleph) and fire (Shin) which are more spiritual, water (Mem) is foundational material and includes within it the element of earth. Therefore all the details of the creation of the human body revolve around what is hidden in the letter Mem. However, after man is active in the world, the main force operating in him and activating him is the force of fire, and for this reason, he is called in adulthood man or woman (as explained above in the letter Heh and the letter Yud).

It is also written in Sefer Yetzirah: "Three mothers. Mem mute, Shin whistling, Aleph air, wind carries in between [between the fire and the water]". And the Gra explained in his commentary on Sefer Yetzirah that the pronunciation of the letter Mem is done with the lips alone and does not involve tongue and voice movement. And so are the waters that are naturally stationary in their place (in the aspect of the attribute of kindness), and they are not like the whistling fire (in the aspect of the attribute of strength) or the spirit in between them (the attribute of beauty).

Therefore, the word "still" contains twice the letter Mem, expressing rest here. The word 'water' also contains Mem twice. Except that in the word 'water' appears the letter Yud expressing spirituality and vitality, between two letters Mem, imparting motion. Whereas in the word 'still', the Mem letters are adjacent, and in front of them comes the letter Vav of connection, linking them to the letter Dalet which is poor, expressing the poorest element in creation - the inanimate.

Even the place of the letter Mem in the order of letters indicates its essence, the letter of transition. When we arrange all the letters in a row, including the five final letters (Mem, Nun, Tzadi, Peh, Kaf) and the seven soft letters (Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Resh, Tav), we find that the letter Mem is the letter of transition from the past to the future. The letter A at the beginning of the letters, the letter T at the end, and the letter M exactly in their center. The letter Aleph represents the past, the letter Tav the future, and the letter Mem the present; that's the time of transition from past to future.

These three letters combine to form the word "truth", which divides into two words. "Mother" "dead"."Mother" is the source and beginning of man. "Dead", is the end of man. It turns out that the letter Mem, shared by both and the middle in the word "Truth", is the letter of transition between the starting point and the end.

To purchase the book "The Code" by Rabbi Zamir Cohen, visit Hidabroot Shops.