“Now Adonai Eloheim planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. And Adonai Eloheim made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground …In the middle of the garden were the Tree of Life and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Genesis 2:8-9).

Tradition associates the Tree of Life with the Torah . The liturgy proclaims that the Torah is ”a Tree of Life – etz hayyim – to all who hold fast to it,” and that it represents “eternal life planted in our midst.“ The wooden rods around which the Torah parchment is rolled are called atzei hayyim (trees of life)…The image of the Tree of Life, both as a symbol of as well as of immortality in the World to Come, has long been a favorite decorative motif in synagogues (Frankl, Ellen and Betsy Platkin Teutsch. 1992. The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols. Northvale: Aaronson. 181).

Variant spellings - ets hayyim – etz chayim – etz chayyim – etz chaiyim

In this painting ALL 22 of the Hebrew letters are represented, but the letter featured is the Chet

Variant spelling - ches – heth - het

CHET is the 8th letter of the alphabet and has a numerical value of 8. Chet is pronounced like the CH in BaCH. Kushner's description is the best that I have found of what is necessary to create the sound of Chet . It is the "top of your throat and the bottom of your throat fighting against one another" (Kushner, Lawrence. 1990. Sepher Otiot: The Book of Letters. Woodstock: Jewish Lights Publishing. 39).

Talmud teaches that if one learns UNDERSTANDING and performs acts of LOVINGKINDNESS for the poor, then God will look upon the person with Chen – spelled Chet Nun – FAVOR, GRACE (Shabbat 104a ).

[The writing of the letters] must be kethibah tammah [perfect writing]; thus one must not write the… Heyas a Chetor the Chetas a Hey (Shabbat 103b).

[Zayyin Heth Teth Yod Kaf Lamed : [this sequence teaches,] and if thou doest thus, the Holy One, blessed be He, will sustain [Zan] thee, be gracious [Hen] unto thee, show goodness [Metiv] to thee, give thee a heritage [Yerushah], and bind a crown [ Keter ] on thee in the world to come (Shabbat 104a ).

Usually the Chet is composed of 2 Zayins. But the 16th century kabbalist master, Luria, stated that the Chet consists of a Vav on the right and a Zayin on the left. Each Hebrew letter has a numerical value. GEMATRIA is the numerical manipulation of the values of the letter to explain the meaning of a word or phrase. The combined value of the Vav (6) and Zayin (7) is 13 which is the value of the word ECHAD - Aleph (1) Chet (8) Dalet (4) = 13. ECHAD means ONE. It is also the highest prime denominator of the name of God - Yud (10) Hey (5) Vav (6) Hey (5) = 26 =13 = ONE.

The Rabbis of the Talmud regarded the letters as the basic elements of the universe, much as we think of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and carbon Rabbi Mitchell Chefitz, author of The Seventh Telling, The Thiry-third Hour, and The Curse of Blessings).

The story of ET...

Rabbi Dov Ber, the Maggid of Mezritch, and a follower of the Baal Shem Tov, explains in Or Torah the secret of the verse Bereshit Bara Eloheim Et - IN A BEGINNING GOD CREATED ET. These are the first words of Torah - Genesis 1:1 - in a beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ET is a word that is not translatable into English. It is like a marker that says - "a definite direct object is next." Thus there needs to be an ET before THE heavens and THE earth. If there was no the, there would not need to be an ET. But Dov Ber points out a deeper meaning. ET is spelled - Aleph Tav. And Aleph Tavis an abbreviation for the ALPHA-BET. Alephis the first letter of the ALPHABET and Tavthe last. So in a beginning God created the ALPHA-BET. And God did this before creating the heavens and the earth. God used the letters, the building blocks, to create the world.

R. Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the Alter Rebbe of Chabad explains that if the letters were to depart even for an instant, all of creation would become absolute nothingness (Zalman, Shneur. 1981. "Igeret Hateshuvah." Shaar Hayichud. Tanya. Brooklyn: Kihot. 289).

Some of you may read these words and laugh. Silly stories. But I challenge you to spend 5 minutes a day thinking about the letters. Perhaps you could practice drawing one letter for about a minute and then think about it of 4 minutes. See if you can do this every day for a few weeks. And watch what happens. They letters are ALIVE.

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This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.

The original 9x12 watercolor painting of this image is available.

mat color:: green

stock number::ab21