The Complete Dictionary of English and Hebrew First Names.

The Complete Book of Hebrew Baby Names.

Variant spelling - PERETS - PEREZ - PERES - PHAREZ

Hebrew Bible name - Pharez was a son of Judah and Tamar, twin brother of Zerach, and father of Hezron and Chamul (1 Chronicles 2:5-9; Genesis 29: 30).

The Hebrew Letters featured on this painting are Pey Resh Tsade. Taken all together they spell PERETZ.

Each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet has a special meaning and a story to tell. Here are a few brief ones about the letters in this painting.

PEY is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 80. PEY makes a sound either like the P in Peace or the F in Food. PEY means MOUTH and is constructed of a Caf with a Yud situated at the top and rotated inward.
If one looks carefully at the Pey one can see that there is a Beit, which makes up the empty space within it. The Beit is the first letter of the word Bereshit - IN A BEGINNING, which is the first word of Torah. God opened up Gods MOUTH and out came the Beit - BEGINNING - CREATION.
The Pey is one of the 5 letters [Caf Mem Nun Pey Tsade] that have 2 forms (Shabbat 104a).
I [Pey] signify redemption and deliverance (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:2b).
The bent Pe and the straight Pe [intimate] an open mouth [Pey], a closed mouth.
The medial (bent) Pey is almost closed - A time to keep silence, and a time to speak (Ecclesiastes 3:7) (Shabbat 104a).
[The writing of the letters] must be kethibah tammah [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the& the Tet as a Pey or the Pey as a Tet (Shabbat 103b).
Sefer Yetzirah. divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin, 7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Kuf Pey Resh Tav and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
According to Sefer Yetzirah, God created the world by means of these letters.
According to Sefer Yetzirah, God created the world by means of these letters. Pey is one of the Doubles. Seven Doubles: BGD KPHRT, Their foundation is Wisdom, Wealth, Seed, Life, Dominance, Peace and Grace. Seven Double, their foundation is [that] He engraved them, He cared them, He permuted them, He weighed the, He transform them, and with them He formed seven planets in the Universe, Seven days in the Year, Seven gates in the Soul, male and female: two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth. And God made the letter Pey King over Dominance and He bound a crown to it and combined one with another and with them He formed the Mercury in the Universe, Thursday in the Year, The left ear in the Soul, male and female (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 159, 162, 176).

RESH is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 200. RESH makes a sound like the R in Radiant. Resh means BEGINNING or HEAD. When one spells out the letter Resh in Hebrew, it is Resh Yud Shin. Yud and Shin spell YESH - THERE IS. The letter Resh means BEGINNING. So it is possible to say that the Resh literally means THERE IS A BEGINNING.
[The writing of the letters] must be kethibah tammah [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the Dalet as a Resh or the Resh as a Dalet (Shabbat 103a).
Kuf [stands for] Kadosh [holy]; Resh [for] Rasha [wicked]: why is the face of the Kuf averted from, the Resh? The Holy One, blessed be He, said: I cannot look at the wicked. And why is the crown of the Kuf turned toward the Resh? The Holy One, blessed be He, saith: If he repents, I will bind a crown on him like Mine. And why is the foot of the Kuf suspended? [To show] that if he repents, he can enter and be brought in [to God's favour] through this [opening]. (Shabbat 104a).
A Tanna taught: If one corrects one letter, he is culpable. Now, seeing that if one writes one letter he is not culpable. if he [merely] corrects one letter he is culpable? [Surely not] - Said R. Sheshet: The circumstances here are e.g., that he removes the roof [i.e.. the upper bar] of a Heth and makes two Zayyin thereof. Raba said: E.g.. he removes the projection of a Daleth and makes a Resh thereof. [In a Scroll of one of the Biblical books. This constitutes a complete labour, because one may not permit a Scroll of Scripture to remain with an error] (Shabbat 104a).
I am a scribe, and he said to me, Be meticulous in your work, for your occupation is a sacred one [work of heaven]; should you perchance omit or add one single letter, you would thereby destroy all the universe.(18) There is no need [for me to assure you] that I would make no mistakes in respect of words that are plene or defective, since I am familiar [with the subject], but [I have even taken precautions] against the possibility of a fly's perching on the crownlet of a Dalet and, by blotting it out, turn it into a Resh, for I have a certain ingredient, called vitriol, which I put into the ink. (18) By omitting e.g. , the Aleph in Aleph Mem Tav (truth), the word would be abbreviated to Mem Tav (dead) Eruvin13a).
Sefer Yetzirah divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin , 7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
According to Sefer Yetzirah, God created the world by means of these letters. The Resh is one of the doubles. He made the letter Resh King over Peace and He bound a crown to it and combined one with another and with them He formed the Universe (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 176).

TSADE is the 18th letter and makes a sound like the T and S pronounced at the same time. It is associated with the word TSEDEK - RIGHTEOUS. The TSADE is constructed of 2 letters - an elongated and curved or bent Nun on the left and a Yud on the right (The Bahir 22).
Tsade is one of 7 letters which may be adorned with Tagin, or little crowns, in the Torah, Tefillin or Mezzuzah scroll. These are called the SHAYNAYZ GAYTZ letters letters [Shin Ayin Tet Nun Zayin Gimel Tsade] Each one of these letters contains a Zayin. A TAG is composed of 3 strokes which themselves look like little Zayins. There is a wonderful story in Talmud, which describes Moses ascending to Heaven to find God occupied in affixing TAGGIN to the letters of Torah (Menachot 29b).
I am the sign of the righteous (Zadikim) and of Thyself who art called righteous, as it is written, For the Lord is righteous, he loves righteousness (Zohar. 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:2b).
The Tsade is one of the 5 letters [Caf Mem Nun Pey Tsade] that have 2 forms Shabbat 104a.
A bent Zadde and a straight Zadde: the righteous [Zaddik] is bent [in this world]; the righteous is straightened [in the next world].19 But that is identical with the faithful bent [and] the faithful straightened?-The Writ added humility 20 to his humility; hence [we learn that] the Torah was given under great submissiveness (Shabbat 104a).
And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim (Exodus 28:30).
R. Johanan said: [The letters] stood forth [on the breastplate] [The names of the twelve sons of Jacob were inscribed on the Urim and Thummim. The answer always came through the letters which stood in relief]. Reish Lakish said: They joined each other. But the Zade was missing? [The names of the twelve sons did not include that letter] (Yoma 73b).
Sefer Yetzirah divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers - Aleph Mem Shin, 7 doubles - Beit Gimel Dalet Caf Pey Resh Tav and 12 elementals - Hey Vav Zayin Chet Tet Yud Lamed Nun Samech Ayin Tsade Kuf.
According to Sefer Yetzirah, God created the world by means of these letters. Tsade is one of the Elementals. Twelve Elementals, their foundation is [that] He engraved them, and transformed them, and with them He formed 12 constellations in the Universe, 12 months in the Year and 12 directions in the soul, male and female. And God made the letter Tsade King over taste. And He bound a crown to it, and He combined one with another and with them He formed Aquarius in the Universe, Shevat in the Year, and the Korkeban in the Soul, male and female (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 209, 197, 218).

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* This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.

The original 5x7 watercolor painting of this image is available.

mat color:: blue

stock number:: nm6-129