Hey: Expression - Thought, Speech, and Action

The name of the letter Hey appears in the verse, "Take [Hey] for yourselves seed." "Take" (Hey) expresses revelation of self in the act of giving of oneself to another. Giving to others in the form of self-expression is the ultimate gift of self. In the secret of the letter Giymel, the rich man gives of himself to the poor man in the form of charity. The highest form of charity is when the giver is completely concealed from the receiver, in order not to embarrass him, as is said, "the concealed gift subdues anger." Here, in the secret of the letter Hey, the gift itself is the relation and expression of self, drawing the receiver into the essence of the giver. Joseph, the speaker of the verse "take for yourselves seed," corresponds to the sefirah of Yesod, whose function is to express self in the form of giving seed, as explained in Kabbalah. When Joseph first gave grain to his brothers, they were unable to recognize him, similar to the Daleth in relation to the gimlet. Upon his revelation to his brothers (and thereby to all of Egypt), his giving became that of the Hey. Instead of grain he now gave seed.

The soul possesses three means of expression--"garments," in the terminology of the Kabbalah and Chassidut: thought, speech, and action. The higher garment, thought, is the expression of one's inner intellect and emotions to oneself. The process of the intellect and emotions becoming conscious through thought is similar to giving oneself (the essentially unconscious domains of the soul) to another (one's state of consciousness). The two lower garments, speech and action, express oneself to others.

The three lines which compose the form of the Hey correspond to these three garments: the upper horizontal line to thought; the right vertical line to speech; the unattached foot to action.

The horizontal line symbolizes a state of equanimity. The continuous, horizontal flow of thought is the contemplation of how YAHWEH is found equally in every place and in every thing. In relating to one's fellow Hebrew, one must realize that each of us possesses an innate inner point of goodness, and that all Hebrews are equal in essence. This realization, the horizontal high plane of one's consciousness in relation to another, sets the "scene" for all individual, personal relationships.

The origin-point of speech, the right vertical line of the Hey is directly connected to the line of thought and thereafter descends to express one's thoughts and inner feelings to others. The root of the word speech in Hebrew, dabar, means "leadership," as in the expression "There is one leader [dabar] in a generation, not two leaders in a generation." Leadership implies hierarchy, relative positions of up and down, and thus is represented by a vertical line. The King, and likewise every leader, rules through his power of speech, as is said, "By the word of the King is His sovereignty."

The separation of action, the unattached left foot of the Hey, from thought, the upper horizontal line, reflects a deep truth about the nature of action. "Many are the thoughts in the heart of man, yet the advice of YAHWEH shall surely stand." The servant of YAHWEH experiences the existential gap between his thoughts and deeds. Often he is unable to realize his inner intentions. Other times he is surprised by unexpected success. In both cases he feels the hand of YAHWEH directing his deeds. The gap is the experience of the Divine Nothing, the source of all Creation in deed: something from nothing.

We have now reached the culmination of the sequence represented by the three letters Giymel, Daleth, and Hey, the process of giving of oneself to another. The gift, represented by the foot, the unattached segment of Hey, when fully integrated in the receiver, becomes his own power of action and giving of himself to others. Even more, now he fully realizes that the ultimate effect and potency of his deeds are in truth the act of Divine Providence.

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FORM

Three lines; the two lines of the Daleth together with an unattached left foot.

Worlds:

• Three dimensions of physical reality:
  • Width - horizontal line,
  • Length - vertical line,
  • Depth - unattached foot.
• There is a dimension of reality beyond initial sensory perception.
• "We will do and understand."

Souls:

• Three garments ("servants") of the soul:
  • Thought (meditative or involuntary) - horizontal line,
  • Speech (from the heart or from the lips) - vertical line,
  • Action - unattached foot.
• The beinoni, who masters his "servants."

Divinity:

• Three Divine manifestations:
  • Essence - horizontal line,
  • Transcendent Light - vertical line,
  • Immanent Light - unattached foot.

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NAME

To be broken; to take seed; behold; revelation.

Worlds:

• Breaking of the vessels and the resulting plurality of Creation.
• The teacher breaking the brilliance of his comprehension for the sake of the student.
• Broken existence resulting in unified existence.

Souls:

• Impregnating reality with the souls of Yisrael.

Divinity:

• Divine revelation - "Beholding" YAHWEH.
• Ultimate revelation of the Mashiach.
• Small Hey: potential Divine revelation.

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NUMBER

Five

Worlds:

• Symbol of division.
• Five origins of speech in the mouth.
• Five fingers of the hand.
• Five visible planets in the solar system.
• The five vanities in the opening verse of Ecclesiastes.

Souls:

• Five levels of the soul.
• Five times "Bless YAHWEH, my soul" in Psalms 103 and 104.
• Five voices of the joy of bride and groom.

Divinity:

• Five Books of Moses.
• Five voices at the giving of the Torah.
• Five times light in the first day of Creation.
• Five final letters.
• Five redemption's.

Daleth: Selflessness

The Daleth. The poor man, receives charity from the rich man, the Giymel. The word Daleth means "door." The door stands in the opening of the house, the Beyth.

In the Zohar, Daleth is read as "that has nothing [d'leit] of her own." This expresses the property of the lowest of the Divine Emanations, the sefirah of Malchut, "kingdom," which has no light other than that which it receives from the higher sefirot. In man's service of YAHWEH, the Daleth characterizes "shiflut," "lowliness," the consciousness of possessing nothing of one's own. Together with the awareness of one's own power of free choice, one must be aware that He gives you the power to achieve success, and not to think, YAHWEH forbid, that one's accomplishments are "my power and the strength of my hand." Any achievement in this world, particularly the performance of a mitzvah (commandment), the fulfillment of YAHWEH's will, depends upon Divine aid. This is especially true in one's struggle with his evil inclination, whether it be manifest as external passion, stubborn resistance to accepting the yoke of Heaven, or laziness, apathy, and the like. As some of the Sages teach: "If not for YAHWEH's help he [man] would not have been able to overcome it [the evil inclination]."

The Talmud describes a situation where one man is carrying a heavy object and another man appears to be helping him by placing his hands under the object, when in truth the first man is carrying all the weight. The second man is referred to as "a merely apparent helper." So are we, explains the Ba'al Shem Towb, in relation to YAHWEH. Ultimately, all one's strength comes from Above. Free choice is no more than the expression of one's will to participate, as it were, in the Divine act. One merely places one's hands under the weight carried exclusively by YAHWEH.

"For to You, YAHWEH, is kindness, for You pay man in accordance with his deed." The Ba'al Shem Towb observes: Just payment in accordance with one's deed is not an act of kindness (chesed), but rather one of judgment (din)! He answers: "in accordance with one's deed," can be read "as though the deed is his." Thus YAHWEH's ultimate kindness is His enclothing the "undeserved" reward in the guise of deservedness, so as not to shame the receiver. The Name of YAHWEH in this verse is Adnut, the letters of which also spell in Hebrew dina, "judgment," implying the Divine guise of judgment, through which YAHWEH's kindness (chesed) is most fully expressed. The Zohar reads chesed as "chas d’leit," "having compassion [on] the Daleth," i.e. he who possesses nothing of his own.

In regard to an arrogant person YAHWEH says: "I and he cannot dwell together." The door to YAHWEH's house allows for the humble of spirit to enter. The door itself, the Daleth, is the property of humility and lowliness, as explained above. The Daleth is also the initial letter of the word dirah, "dwelling place," as in the phrase "YAHWEH's dwelling place below." Thus the full meaning of the Daleth is the door through which the humble enter into the realization of YAHWEH's dwelling place below.

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FORM

Two lines forming a right angle, with a corner point. A man bent over. Three levels of bitul.

Worlds:

• The corner point: Consciousness of the ego.
• Bitul HaYeish.
• Every creature's unconscious awareness of its continuous recreation by YAHWEH.

Souls:

• The vertical line: selflessness.
• Bitul Bimtziut; "Standing crowded."
• Collective consciousness; willingness to sacrifice one's life for one's people.

Divinity:

• The horizontal line: submergence of the soul in its Divine Source.
• Bitul Bimtziut Mamash; "Prostrating wide."
• Letters being surrounded by white parchment. Willingness to sacrifice one's life for YAHWEH.

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NAME

Door; poor man; lifting up - elevation.

Worlds:

• Door--bitul, the entrance way to truth.
• The servant who refuses to go through the door of freedom.

Souls:

• True lowliness of the soul.
• The moon as a symbol of the soul.

Divinity:

• The elevation of the soul by YAHWEH into Himself.
• "I will exalt you, YAHWEH, for you have lifted me up." Not belonging.

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NUMBER

Four

Worlds:

• Four elements of the physical world: fire, air, water, and earth.
• Solid, liquid, gas, combustion.
• Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen.
• The four physical forces: gravity, electromagnetic, strong, weak.
• Man, animal, vegetable, and inanimate objects.
• Four seasons of the year; Four directions.
• The four worlds: Atzilut, Beriah, Yetzirah, and Asiyah.

Souls:

• Four matriarchs: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.
• Jacob's four wives: Rachel, Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah.
• The four sons and the four cups of wine of the Seder
• The four expressions (levels) of redemption.
• Four feet of the Divine Throne: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David.
• Father, mother, son, daughter: the first commandment of the Torah: "be fruitful and multiply."

Divinity:

• Four letters of YAHWEH's Name.
• Four components of the Torah text.
• Four basic levels of Torah interpretation.

Giymel: Reward and Punishment

The Sages teach that the Giymel symbolizes a rich man running after a poor man, the Daleth, to give him charity. The word Giymel is derived from the word gemul, which in Hebrew means both the giving of reward as well as the giving of punishment. In Torah, both reward and punishment have the same ultimate aim the rectification of the soul to merit to receive YAHWEH's light to the fullest extent.

Reward and punishment imply that man is free to choose between good and evil. (The teaching of the Giymel thus refers back to that of the open left side of the Beyth, from which it is born, as explained above.) The Rambam (Maimonides), in particular, places great stress upon free choice as being fundamental to Hebrew faith. According to the Rambam, the World to Come, the time of reward, is a completely spiritual world, one of souls without bodies. On this point the Ramban (Nachmanides) disagrees and argues that since complete freedom of choice exists only in our physical world, the ultimate rectification of reality the reward of the World to Come will also be on the physical plane. Kabbalah and Chassidut support the opinion of the Ramban.

This is alluded to by the leg of the letter gimel which expresses the running of the rich man to bestow good upon the poor man. Running, more than any other physical act, expresses the power of will and freedom of choice (the Hebrew word for "running," ratz, is related to the word for "will," ratzon). In running, the leg is firmly in contact with the earth; through an act of will, the soul directly affects physical reality. The final reward, the ultimate revelation of YAHWEH's Essential light, will thus justly be bestowed upon the soul in the very same context as its life's endeavor, the physical world.

The Torah says: "Today in this world to do them," from which the Sages infer: tomorrow in the World to Come to receive their reward." Only "today" do we possess the opportunity to choose between good and evil. And so in accordance with our choice do we, ourselves, define the reward and punishment of "tomorrow." Just as evil is a finite phenomenon, so is punishment. Not so good and reward, which are truly infinite. The Giymel of "today" is the secret of better one hour of teshuvah and good deeds in this world than all the life of the world to come. The Giymel of "tomorrow" is the secret of better one hour of serenity in the world to come than all of the life of this world.

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FORM

A Waw with a Yad as a foot. A person in motion.

Worlds:

• The running of the rich to the poor, the full to the empty, inherent in nature.

Souls:

• The run and return of the soul between its Divine source and physical abode.
• The hand of Jacob grabbing the heel of Esau.
• The constant progression of the Hebrews.

Divinity:

• The expansion and contraction of the Infinite Light in the process of Creation.

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NAME

Camel; bridge; weaning; benevolence.

Worlds:

• The camel's journey through the desert of this world.
• The camel symbolizes the angel of death.
• A bridge; the connecting force inherent in nature.
• Primordial matter and Divine wisdom.

Souls:

• The soul nursing from its Source.
• The process of weaning through which a person learns to be independent.

Divinity:

• YAHWEH's continuous bestowal of lovingkindness and the weaning of the tsimtsum.
• The obligation to emulate YAHWEH by giving to others.

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NUMBER

Three

Worlds:

• Numerical symbol of stability and balance.
• Equilibrium between the three primary elements of Creation: air, water, and fire.

Souls:

• Three Fathers: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• Three divisions of Hebrew souls: kohanim (priests), Leviim (levites), and Israelites.
• The segol and the segolta.

Divinity:

• Three parts of the Torah: The Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings.
• "Three bonds are bounded together: Israel, Torah, and YAHWEH."