The Essence of Kabbalah by Brian L. Lancaster

Author:Brian L. Lancaster
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-84858-139-5
Publisher: Arcturus, 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151–153 Bermondsey Street, London.
Published: 2011-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

BRIEF EXCURSUS: LETTERS OF CREATION 1

We started this chapter by examining the letter bet, the letter which opens the Torah. Its tail points towards the alef to remind us of the oneness and silence from which it derives. The letter bet introduces the category of double letters in the classification given by the Sefer Yetsirah. According to the Sefer Yetsirah, there are three categories of letters: 'mothers', 'doubles' and 'simples'. The alphabet is comprised of three mother letters, seven double letters and twelve simple letters. As the name applied to them suggests, the double letters generally take one of two different forms, a hard-sounding form and a soft form. Thus, the letter bet can be either a hard 'b' sound or a soft 'v' sound. The two forms are generally differentiated by placing a dot ( dagesh ) inside the letter to make the hard form. The metaphysical teaching associated with the double letters, namely, that created forms are seemingly definite (hard) and yet are really veils to the deeper spiritual reality that sustains them, is hinted at in the grammatical basis of the dagesh. The dagesh, giving the hard form, is inserted when the definite article is used. The definite article encourages us to think of the entity as substantive ( the house); the word without the definite article is relatively derivative, and in this sense symbolizes the object's dependency – its soft form. The Zohar makes this point by alluding to the creatures that 'run and return like a flash of lightning' ( Ezekiel 1:14). They run from the higher presence towards the lower world and return from their task in the lower sphere to the higher. 'They run with the dagesh and return in the soft form' (e.g. Tikkunei Zohar, Tikkun 6:21a).

The alef is a mother letter, meaning that it has a distinctive generative potential. I shall explore the teachings concerning mother letters in Chapter 6 (see here ). Here, my interest lies with the double letters and the meaning they hold for our understanding of creation. Essentially, the import of the double letters is that their dual nature conveys the essential duality of the created realm. Everything that exists conveys the core paradox of reality: An entity is both real in itself and yet enjoys only a relative existence since it is dependent on the spiritual essence that sustains it. The bet (symbolizing the created world) has a tail to indicate that all is dependent on the concealed alef that precedes it.

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