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Creating Bridges: Spirituality & Philosophy:
Kabbalah: "Letters from Heaven:"
Spiritual Guidance from the Hebrew Alphabet
Tav: 22nd letter of the aleph-beit
Numerical value: 400
Sound: “T” as in Torah
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by Avigayil Landsman |
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Song of Tav
Plant in me the seeds
of your teachings
that I might return to
You in truth
Derivation
Two crossed sticks like an “x” or a “t” are the original forms of the letter tav. Over time one stick got longer and then curved to become the letter tav we know today. The crossing of two sticks or lines signifies completion. The letter tav completes the aleph-beit. Tav means a sign, mark or symbol. The illustration I have designed has a butterfly in it. The structure of the butterfly resembles the “x” that the letter tav derives from. The butterfly is a sign of teshuva, the Hebrew word for return.
Numerical Value
The numerical value of tav is 400, the highest value of all the Hebrew letters. There are four open sides to Avraham’s tent, there are forty days of the Flood that destroyed the world, forty years of wandering in the desert to reach the Promised Land and there are four hundred years of exile in Egypt before the Hebrew slaves are freed. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said that what Shabbat is in time, Israel is in physical reality. There are four hundred worlds of Divine pleasure in the World to Come, there were 400 pieces of silver paid for the burial place for Avraham’s wife, Sara and the dimensions of the Land of Israel are four hundred parsah by four hundred parsah. (Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh, The Alef-Beit: Jewish Thought Revealed through the Hebrew Letters, p.326) What begins in the single digit, four open sides to Abrahams tent,we see as Abraham’s hospitality which grows exponentially when taken to the hundredth power: from one man’s hospitality to the dimensions of a Holy Land.
The Teaching of Tav
The word, Torah begins with tav. Torah is known as the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament and is often translated as the Law. The Law sounds rather harsh and unloving. The actual root of the word Torah is connected to the words for parenthood and teaching. It is the Teaching of the Infinite, laws or guidance for healthy behavior. Just as a loving parent disciplines a child out of love for the child, God instructs the Jewish people through the Torah. The Torah is a love letter to the Jewish people. The ancient Rabbi Akiba said that one must look for the secrets contained in “every jot and tittle,” meaning that even the decorative ornamentation on the letters themselves has meaning. When one accepts the Torah as a love letter, one wants to pour over the text, looking for the inner meaning contained in each word, in each letter.
I want to thank Rabbi Jonathan Kligler of the Woodstock Jewish Congregation for offering this beautiful teaching on the meaning of Torah: Think of a love letter you received from an old lover. When you first got the letter, you were thrilled and perhaps a half hour after you put it down, you reread it and found deeper significance to certain phrases, or the way your lover dotted his or her “i” or crossed his or her “t”. Certain descriptions brought back cherished memories the two of you shared. These stories deepen your enjoyment of life and guide you to live a richer, fuller life. Love, after all, is the only true adventure there is! The rabbis and students of the Torah over the millennia have treated the Torah in just this way, inventing systems (finding related words from the roots of words, comparing numerical value of words, etc.) to unravel the mysteries they believe were contained, all for the sake of drawing closer to God, the Infinite Source of Love. It is a seal between God and Israel, for us to bind ourselves to the Ways of the Source of Love. When you are in love with someone, you want to please him or her by acting in an enjoyable manner.
This is the same principle behind following the mitzvot, or commandments/laws that God gives in the Torah. Jews follow the instructions in order to draw closer to God, in order to have meaning and purpose in life. In Psalms we read that those who follow the Shabbat find delight. This isn’t about rewarding the righteous but a matter of cause and effect. The prescribed activities (mitzvot) outlined in the Torah regarding Sabbath speak of not working. It is a simple fact that when one stops worrying about working and reaching goals and takes the time to experience the holiness of the moment, one finds joy. This is the experience of Shabbat.
The Torah serves to complete the circuit between Israel (the Jewish people) and the Infinite. Torah teaches Israel how to behave in a just manner. The signs of the Eternal’s partnership with Israel are contained within the Torah: the rainbow of the covenant, circumcision and Shabbat. The rainbow was the Infinite’s sign that the world would never again be destroyed through a flood; the act of circumcision is a sign of being in relationship to the Infinite and Shabbat is a withdrawal from the activity of creation, a sign that the work is complete on the seventh day.
Another very important word that begins with the letter tav is teshuva, translated as return or response. Teshuva is returning to God when we mess up. In Judaism, there’s no word for sin. The closest word Jews have is “cheyt,” which is an archery term, meaning “missing the mark”. It is human nature to forget all the instructions for healthy, balanced behavior. We are humans, not robots. And that’s why we have an “instruction book” called the Torah. Torah is the sacred text for Jews that assists with one’s spiritual transformation guiding our code of conduct. Over and over again we read how God loves us and that even when we stray, God takes us back in love. Yes, there are many verses in the Torah that speak of doing away with enemies. When read through the lens of a love letter instead of taking the words literally, we can understand that wiping out our enemies means that we need to “kill off” of the “idolatrous” aspect of ourselves that gets caught up in expectations and material concerns. The Pharaoh who Moses confronts is the stubborn, rigid part of us that cannot see any other way to approach life. Missing the mark is about turning away from our spiritual essence with an unhealthy focus on the mundane.
One night a Torah teacher of mine called me up in a funk. He told me that he was desperately depressed and didn’t know what to do. He felt the abyss was swallowing him. I told him to read some Torah. Just the mention of Torah opened the closed door to his soul. The next day he phoned me to tell me that after we hung up, he opened to a verse of Torah and meditated on it for a while and his bad mood immediately lifted.
Tav is the last letter of emet, the Hebrew word meaning truth. Truth is the acknowledgement that what is, IS. The other letters of the aleph-beit get their definition from words they begin with, so why does tav get its definition from being the last letter of emet, the Hebrew word for truth? In his book, “The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters,” Robert Haralick explains, “that the power of truth lies in its effects of manifestation…. The energy intelligence of tav is an effect, not a cause. It is the end, not the beginning…. In our inhabited universe or world, intelligence, understanding, reason, wisdom and knowledge work with truth.” (The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, page 311) All these words in Hebrew, by the way, begin with the letter tav! The three letters that make up the word emet span the entire aleph-beit, aleph being the first letter, mem being the middle letter of the aleph-beit and tav being the last letter. The teaching about this is that truth is all-encompassing, spanning the entirety of creation, all the possible combinations of the letters, while falsehood, sheker, is spelled with three letters that come at the end of the aleph-beit, meaning that a falsehood is narrow and hides at the end.
A friend of mine described the moment of her beloved husband’s death as a moment of emet. After his last breath passed from his lips, a mighty wind blew around the hospital. She was filled with many different emotions and at the center of the experience was emet, truth. For my friend, it was a moment that transcended emotions.
Tav is the last letter of the aleph-beit, the first letter of the word teshuva, return, so when you are finished reciting the aleph-beit and come to tav, it is a signal to return to aleph and start again, knowing that everything in Creation is contained with the 22 letters you chant. The more times you chant the aleph-beit, the more words you bring down! In Pirke Avot, a section of the Talmud containing pithy sayings of the ancient rabbis (including Rabbi Akiba) it says “hafach ba v’hafach d’koolay”—“turn it over and over and over so you can understand it all.”
The Teshuva Yo-yo
The concept of teshuva has a much deeper meaning than a simple return or response. Teshuva occurs when we realize that we have moved away from our higher path and need to get back into gear. The prayer, “V’ahavta,” (“and you will love”) opens with the words, “And you will love with all your heart, soul and might.” I strive to live this, to follow these instructions daily. Truly, this prayer is written on my heart and when my heart pumps, the words circulate through my being and manifest in my actions. When I fall from grace, when I make a chet, I strive to do teshuva. The more I fall from grace, the more I realize I have fallen and then do teshuvah with more awareness which more fully repairs my inner brokenness. The tension between “diveykut,” total cleaving to God and teshuvah, return, creates movement.
This experience is like a yo-yo. The yo-yo yearns to be united with the hand, God. The yo-yo falls from the hand but does not fall away completely as it is connected to the hand by a string. It appears that the yo-yo is climbing up the string but it is the tug of the hand that pulls the yo-yo up. The yank on the string is the prayers of our hearts and the intensions of our mitzvot. This desire comes from being in touch with the divine that lies within us. When we fully know this we can rest comfortably in the wings of the Shekinah. This is faith. Teshuvah happens when we believe that the strength of the Divine is powerful enough to lift us up when we have fallen further than we thought we’d fall. Then we don’t have to fear the falling because we know that built into the falling is the pull to ascend.
Butterflies, Torah and Teshuva
The cycle of a butterfly parallels that of a student or initiate. The butterfly begins life as an earthbound caterpillar that devours as much food as it can hold. The initiate fills him or herself with as much knowledge and experience as he or she can hold. After this active period, the pupa slowly builds a wall of protection that isolates itself and keeps itself still as its form changes, slowly becoming a beautiful butterfly. For some species of butterflies, this stage takes up to two years! The student (or pupil) must also enter a state of seclusion to integrate the lessons he or she has “ingested.” The structure is tight and confining. The time alone serves to incubate all the nourishment into what will eventually transform into a beautiful butterfly. This corresponds to a student who has learned a lot and must take time to integrate the information that will lead to new insights. The ability to apply one’s knowledge into new insights distinguishes the master teacher from the pupil. This period of incubation can seem interminable to the point where we feel like we are wasting our time.
This impatience comes from a product-orientation where time well spent is equated with physical form, whether it is a project, like a book or doctoral thesis or a high-paying job. I think of my daughter Rubi, who illustrates the antithesis of this focus. At age seven, Rubi was fascinated with the workings of the human body. I remember that one evening after dinner, she sat quietly with a look of deep self-satisfaction. I couldn’t understand why she looked so pleased. After several minutes of wondrous silence she proudly declared, “I’m digesting!” For Rubi, the application of the information was not only enough; it was cause for an epiphany! Do you think the butterfly feels the same way? Does the caterpillar know that eventually, its funky form will emerge into the magnificent, expansive butterfly?
I compare the cocoon to the Holy of Holies, the empty space in the Tabernacle where the High Priest would commune with the Eternal. The tabernacle consisted of many ritual objects and yet, the Holy of Holies was completely empty. It was simply a vessel for the Divine Presence and one who could experience it. Can we transcend physical reality and experience it as a gateway to the divine?
I link the butterfly to Torah and teshuva. The butterfly is the final form of a lifetime of development. The beauty of the last stage of this insect is an airborne, returning to Spirit. The Torah is the written words on the parchment scroll, the insights we have when we can apply its lessons to our lives and therefore the link to return us to our Source. The Torah scroll is wound up on two wooden staves and opened by rolling the staves outwards, like two flapping wings. Each time we unroll the scroll new insights are born, like new butterflies taking flight.
I also compare the butterfly with knowing God because like the lifespan of a butterfly, to really know God is a fleeting moment of splendor.
Prayer and meditation are pathways to God. In Hebrew, the word for prayer is tefila, yet another word beginning with the letter tav. If you reverse the first two letters of tefila, the resulting word means cord or thread. The teaching on this is that “prayer is the thread that connects and interweaves us with God.” (Robert Haralick, The Inner Meaning of the Hebrew Letters, p.316)
The silence of our solitude can be deafening if we focus on our isolation. Barbara De Angelis, writer, therapist and lecturer writes, “Silence and solitude are confrontational. They plunge us instantly into truth, and it is for this reason they are so essential to the health of our spirit.”
Illustration
I painted this series sixteen years ago, and like my other works, they have been buried among old papers and art supplies in my basement. Through the magic of teshuva (return), my mind flashed on them as the perfect illustration for tav! There are three stages of development in this illustration. First we see a girl fascinated by a butterfly sitting on a rose bud. The rose bud unfolds its petals to reveal its full potential by the last frame. Secondly, she approaches the butterfly to admire its delicate details, the butterfly lights on her finger, whispering to her its sacred song, inviting her to go beyond her worldly embodiment. In the third frame, she and the butterfly fly off into the imaginary realm of fantasy and adventure.
Application: Tav in a reading
If you select tav in a reading, you are being invited to reassess the part you play in relationship with God, another person, yourself, or all of the above! As the saying goes, “as above, so below.” What you do in one situation affects all other realms of experience; so choose your thoughts, words and actions with care. Seek guidance from your sacred text. Remember, there is no shame in falling; the shame is in not getting up. Return to the Source on the wings of the sacred teshuva butterfly!
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Avigayil Landsman,
Torah Scholar, Calligrapher, Lecturer, Teacher & Creator of the "Letters From Heaven" Deck
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Avigayil has been a serious student of Torah for the last ten years and has written many d'vrai Torah(Torah lectures). She is the creator of Letters from Heaven, a Jewish divination system that incorporates the mystical meanings of the Hebrew letters, her chiddushim (new insights into Torah) and their application to the challenges of daily life. Her LFH readings offer seekers of all persuasions spiritual direction in finding one's authentic voice.
Avigayil is a multi-media artist who is best-known for the beaded breastplate that adorns the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's Torah. She creates personalized ketubot, beeswax Shabbat candles, shiviti plaques and other judaica as well as secular art in Sculpey, paint, and shadow boxes that combine disparate objects such as feathers, beads and wood.
Her Judaica (beeswax Shabbat and havdallah candles, havdallah spice boxes, shiviti plaques) and calligraphy cards are available for purchase at the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's judaica shop, Miriam's Well and her home. She also does private commissions.
Avigayil has taught enrichment classes in calligraphy for the Woodstock Jewish Congregation's Hebrew school. She prepares children and adults for becoming Bat/bar-mitzvah with humor and deep wisdom that come from her own unique way of living through the lessons of Torah. She has also given workshops and lectures on the spiritual meaning of the Hebrew letters and Letters from Heaven at Omega and Mount St. Alphonsus.
"Avigayil Landsman's interpretations of the Hebrew letters are original, witty, steeped in scholarship, and above all a genuine opening to our own spiritual wisdom." Rachel Pollack, creator of Shining Tribe Tarot Deck
www.rachelpollack.
com
Avigayil is available for art commissions and LFH readings in person or on the phone. She may be contacted by e-mail at:
Avigayil1@earthlink.net
Website:
www.jewish-wisdom
-and-art.4t.com
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