The Hebrew alphabet as the material of the Work of Creation (PL)
24.06.2024 - 11:00 / High Synagogue (1st floor), ul. Józefa 38How is the Hebrew alphabet different from all other alphabets?
The creative power of the Hebrew letters has its source in the Eternal Name. A verse from the prophet Isaiah (26:4) contains two letters from God’s most sacred Four-letter Name – Yud and Hei: “Trust the Eternal forever, for through Yud Hei the Eternal is the Rock of the worlds”, the Talmud teaches that Yud and Hei refer to two worlds: this world and the world to come. In the description of creation in Bereshit 2:4 there is a word in which the letter Hei is written in a small form: “This is the history of the heavens and the earth at their creation [behibaram], at the time when the Eternal God made the heavens and the earth.” You should not read it as behibaram meaning “while creating them” but rather be Hei baram “through Hei he created them”, hence the conclusion that this World was created with the letter Hei, and the Future World – with the letter Yud (BT, Menachot 28b).
According to tradition, Moshe’s staff, which was used to bring plagues and miracles, had Hebrew letters engraved on it. In the choshen, the high priest’s breastplate, there were letters of the alphabet that combined to give prophetic answers. When Bezalel built the Mishkan (Tabernacle in the Desert), he was able to do so because “he was able to put together the letters by which the heavens and the earth were created” (BT, Berachot 55a). Rava made man (BT, Sanhedrin 65b), using knowledge of the Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, which discusses the role of letters in the Work of Creation. And the power of this alphabet still remains active.
Tickets (35 PLN) available at 33.jewishfestival.pl/en/tickets/; limited number of participants (30 persons)
