Biblical name - AVRAHAM was the first patriarch and the founder of a nation. He was the husband of SARAH and the father of ISAAC (Genesis).

The letters featured in this piece are ALEPH BEIT RESH HEY MEM. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell ABRAHAM.

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

ALEPH is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of one. The meanings of ALEPH are: THOUSAND, MASTER, TEACHING, OX. The ALEPH makes no sound. The ALEPH is composed of a VAV (6) and 2 YUDS (20). Their combined value is 26 which is the numerical value of the name of God - YUD (10) HEY (5) VAV (6) HEY (5).
The Lord said to her: “Aleph, Aleph, although I will begin the creation of the world with the Beit, thou wilt remain the first of the letters. My unity shall not be expressed except through thee, on thee shall be based all calculations and operations of the world…” (Zohar.) 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:3b).
Beit is female, Aleph male. As Beit created, so Aleph produced letters (Zohar.) 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:30a).

BEIT is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet and its numerical value is 2. The meanings of BEIT are HOUSE, HOME, CONTAINER. The BEIT makes a sound like the B in Beautiful.
Torah begins with the letter BEIT. It was chosen for this honor because it is closed on top, bottom and on the right. It is open on the left, the direction of the text, to teach us to look forward and not backward, in our daily lives (Freedman, H. and Simon Maurice Tr. 1983. Genesis Rabbah. New York: Soncino P. 9).

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.
Sepher Yitzirah divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers – ALEPH MEM SHIN, 7 doubles – BET GIMEL DALET CAF 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 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…” (Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. Tr. Aryeh Kaplan. 1990.York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 176).

HEY is the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 5. HEY means BEHOLD. The HEY is constructed of a DALET and a YUD. HEY makes a sound like the H in Happy. HEY appears twice in the YUD HEY VAV HEY Name of God.
The heavens” are the totality of twenty-two letters. The letter HEY produced the heavens to give them life and to water them and the earth (Zohar.) 1984. Tr. Harry Sperling et al. New York: Soncino. 1:30a).

MEM is the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 40. MEM makes a sound like the M in Middle. But according to the ancient kabbalistic text Sepher Yitzirah, the MEM hummmmmms! MEM is usually associated with the word MAYIM - WATER or EEMAH - MOTHER. MEM is composed of a CAF (20) and a VAV (6) = 26, which have the same GEMATRIA as the YUD (10) HEY (5) VAV (6) HEY(5) = 26 – name of God - the holiest of God's Names.
The MEM is one of the 5 letters – CAF, MEM NUN, PEY, TSADE – that have 2 forms. One form is used in the beginning and the middle of a word – the open MEM . The other form is at the end of the word – the closed MEM. According to Talmud, the open MEM represents revealed teaching and the closed MEM represents concealed teaching AIR (Shabbat 104a).

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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:: green

- stock number:: nm2-4