The 13th letter of the Aleph-Beis is the Lamed.
It is the second letter we saw, in the previous blog, in the word “aleph”.
The name Lamed is related to the word Lamad – לָמַד which refers both to teaching and learning.
The lamed represent G‑d as a Teacher. Because the lamed is comprised of a כ – kaf and a ו – vav : 20 and 6=26. Twenty-six is the gematria of G‑d’s name, the Tetragrammaton Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei.
It is the highest letter. Which shows the importance of learning and education. Knowing learning is a gift from G-d to humanity. Through learning, he can develop himself intelletually and spiritually. It is possible for man through learning to increase his awareness of G-d. By increasing this awareness, man can come to know G-d and thereby recognize Him. Which can be linked to the first Noahide commandment formulated in a positive way: Know G-d.
The ל has the sound “l”.
The second letter of the word is the mem – מ
and the last letter of the word is the daleth – ד
In the word לָמַד you will see a small bar below the mem מ. This is called the patach. The patach has a short a-sound like in the English word “car”.
Last time we looked mainly at the Aleph, now at the Lamed. We now know the patach, chamets and segol.
Because of this, we can now make the following words:
אַל
Which we can find in Ruth 1:16
וַתֹּ֤אמֶר רוּת֙ אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִ֔י לְעׇזְבֵ֖ךְ לָשׁ֣וּב מֵאַחֲרָ֑יִךְ
But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you.
אֶל
Which we can find in Genesis 12:1
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יי אֶל־אַבְרָ֔ם לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥
HaShem said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land
לָא
Which we can find in the words of Hillil (shabbat 31a)
דַּעֲלָךְ סְנֵי לְחַבְרָךְ לָא תַּעֲבֵיד זוֹ הִיא כׇּל הַתּוֹרָה כּוּלָּהּ
That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah
This לאָ is the Aramaic word for the Hebrew word לאׁ “lo” – meaning “no” which we will learn later.
Learn more about the Lamed
By Angelique Sijbolts
Sources: ChabadVideo en The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Artscroll
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