The symbolism and Shape of Letter Aleph: When Words Grow Wings.

Playful opening

Dear friends, I am supper happy. I want to start a new creative exploration – an invitation to the Muse of Play . Wht play? Because play opens hidden doors, God Himself is playful , and even in adluthoold it makes wisdom sparkle like chocolate on a tongue. I wish to examine the essence of the letters of the Hebrew language which are highly symbolic and mystical.

Having said that, I wish to start with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet which is the letter Aleph. א. 

Aleph : the silent beginning

The letter Aleph is the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. It has no sound on its own but it opens the alphabet. What is particularly intriguing, is the fact that it is not merely the first in a list of letters – it is the womb of the line of letters , that out of which they unfold.

If we were to appraise its form, it is composed of two Yods and one diagonal Vav. The upper Yud is placed on the top right, while the lower on at the bottom left. The upper Yod is shorter and finer. Slanted between them is a diagonal Vav which acts as a bridge. The Vav letter is normally vertical – but in Aleph it is uniquely diagonal.

To talk in the language of quantum physics, the upper Yod may represent the implicate order- the hidden blueprint , the lower the explicate one, what actually unfolds and the Vav the holomovement, the transformation between them. Alternately, one could see the upper as wisdom. beauty and the lower its manifestation- embodied /grounded wisdom/beauty .

Philosophical resonance

This invites reflection over thought provoking questions :

1 Why does Aleph have no sound ?

(pause*)

2 Why is the size of the 2 Yods different?

(pause**)

3 Why is the Vav diagonal and not vertical?

(breathe ***)

To address these question more as question mark and less as a definite answer , we could start by saying that Aleph is silent because all creation, all speech started in silence. The first principle is not presence nor absence but presence withheld. If were to see it in poetic terms Aleph is the breathe before you say I love you, the hush before a baby cries, the inhale before a big truth , the quiet between two strangers who almost smile but don’t , the moment before the music starts. Even though it seems empty- it is filled with withheld presence, it is luminous, alive.

Breaking Aleph up into its individual constituents , the upper Yod is smaller because the higher levels of reality the more silent and hidden they are, this applies to higher wisdom and beauty  being less accessible the more refined it is. To pause and reflect, the more elevated an essence is the less form it requests. The lower on the other hand is longer because we see it more and because the distance from the higher levels of reality is large. If we were to look at this in terms of the creation of the universe perhaps it is associated with the fact that the universe itself was hot and dense, a tiny state possibly a singularity ( small upper Yod) before it started expanding in the first place.

With respect to the vertical Vav perhaps it is so, because the slant introduces gentleness in the descend of wisdom  and beauty into human fragile vessels. Light needs to approach us indirectly . In terms of physics the implicate is not identically reproduced in its explicate, the lower Yud is an echo not a copy.

If we were to pause and link these concepts, it is like God descending and telling us I will not descend it power I will descend in pure love,  humbling Himself so that humans can be granted free will A. vertical line as Vav normally is  stable fixed, but the diagonal holds asymmetry in dynamic tension. The vertical line can seem sterile, the diagonal one signifies grace , [1]an ache of longing the staff world class poetry and music is made from . It honours what makes us human.

Poetic and mystical dimension

 One poet who expresses this dynamic tension is Rainer Maria Rilke who gracefully states :

Let everything happen to you : beauty and terror . Just keep going no feeling is final

A world in between where nothing resolves, but everything moves In this sense it resembles the letter ς the final letter of the world φως ( Greek for Light) which is terminal in the context of the world  but not in essence , it carries επιγευση,(aftertaste ) like a scent that lingers, a delicate small desert fig flavour ending a meal at a leading hotel of the world menu, instead of an overwhelming one.

<< 

Rilke seems not to be saying you will get over sadness you will be transformed by it, sadness is not the end>>

Such a tension, is like a metaphor based on synesthesia, which holds two different senses in dynamic tension yet appears soft harmonious in the hands of a skilled poet, light and weightless as a breathe. You cannot intellectually grasp what visual fragrance means but you feel it at gut level.

 

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Fragance note:

World: Hidden – where silence holds creation in suspension

Note: Hebrew -gravity wrapped in light

Undertones: Greek -order emerging from the unseen, a glimmer of intelligible form

French: the refined hush between phrases

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