The Hebrew letter featured in this painting is the Shin.

SHIN is the 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 300. SHIN means TOOTH, YEAR, REPEAT, TEACH. SHIN makes the sound SHHHHHH when the DOT is on the right, and SSSS when the DOT is on he left.
There are differing opinions about which components make up the SHIN. Kushner states that the VAV makes up the right arm, the ZAYIN the left, and YUD the middle. In Haralick’s opinion, the YUD is on the right, the ZAYIN on the left and the VAV in the middle. It is the view of Ginsburgh that the SHIN is composed of 3 VAVs, each with a little YUD on its top. So, to make this letter your own, it will be necessary to take it into meditation and come to your own conclusion (Kushner, Lawrence. 1975. The Book of Letters – a Mystical Alef-bait. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 72; Haralick, Robert M. 1995. The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters. Northvale: Jason Aronson. 299; Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak. 1992. The Hebrew Letters. Jerusalem: Gal Einai.. 313).

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 the text, God created the world by means of these letters. The Shin is one of the mothers- that group from which emanated AIR (from ALEPH), WATER (from MEM) and FIRE (from Shin). The 3 mothers in the universe are AIR, WATER and FIRE...HEAVEN was created from FIRE, EARTH was created from WATER, and AIR from SPIRIT (WIND) balanced between them. Aleph and Shin spell AISH – FIRE. Aleph represents AIR and Shin – FIRE. FIRE cannot exist without AIR (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1990. Tr. Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 197).

The letters of the word for ‘husband’ are aleph, yod and shin, and for ‘wife’ aleph, shin and hey. The yod and hey form the Divine Name; but if omitted, only aleph and shin are left which form the word esh ‘fire’ (Sotah 17a).

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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:: red

stock number:: sh5