Aleph, bet and shin: the symbolism of the Hebrew letters

The Torah opens with the word bereshit, «in the beginning», and therefore with the letter bet, the second of the alphabet. This simple fact of spelling has generated over the centuries a surprising number of commentaries. Why not begin with aleph, the first letter? The answers of the Jewish sages show clearly how, in tradition, every letter is considered the bearer of a meaning, a story and almost a personality.

Bet, a house open to the front

The Midrash Bereshit Rabbah offers a famous explanation. Bet has the shape of a house closed on three sides and open only to the front, in the direction of writing. Thus, the sages say, one should not inquire into what lies above, below or before creation, but into what comes after. The very name of the letter, which means «house», strengthens the image of the world as a dwelling prepared by God.

Another interpretation recalls that bet is the initial of berakhah, «blessing», while aleph is the initial of arur, «cursed». The world, in this reading, had to begin with a word of good. The numerical value of bet, two, has also been linked to the duality of creation: heaven and earth, light and darkness, the present world and the world to come.

The silent aleph

Aleph is a silent letter: on its own it has no sound, but it carries the vowels that accompany it. Its name derives from the word for «ox», a memory of the ancient pictographic sign, and is close to the term meaning «master» or «to teach». For the mystics its silence symbolises the divine unity that precedes every word. Its numerical value, one, makes it the emblem of the One.

The Zohar, the great text of Kabbalah composed in thirteenth-century Spain, relates that before creation the letters came one after another before the Holy One, blessed be He, asking to be the instrument with which the world would be created. Bet was chosen. Aleph, which had made no claim, received in return the honour of opening the Ten Commandments with the word anokhi, «I am».

Shin, fire and the name of God

In the Sefer Yetzirah shin is one of the three mother letters and is associated with fire; its three-armed shape has often been compared to rising flames. It is commonly seen on the case of the mezuzah, the small scroll fixed to the doorposts of Jewish homes, as the initial of Shaddai, one of the names of God. It also appears, in relief, on the small box of the phylacteries worn on the head during prayer.

Another pair of letters has nourished legends. The word emet, «truth», is formed by aleph, mem and tav; removing the aleph leaves met, «dead». Late legends about the golem, the clay creature attributed to rabbis of Prague and other cities, tell that the word emet was written on it and that erasing the first letter was enough to turn it back into dust.

These stories should not be read as manuals but as forms of thought. Through the shape, sound and number of the letters, Jewish tradition has developed a true theology of writing, in which every sign of the Torah is considered worthy of attention, down to the smallest of the letters, yod, and the little crowns that scribes draw above some of them.