The last letter (22) of the Aleph-Beis is the letter Tav, which is also the last letter of the letter Bet, about which we learnt about in the blog on the Bet. And the last letter is the wav ו, the letter we saw in the blog about the Yud.
It has the sound of t in modern Hebrew and de sound of s in the pronunciation of the Ashkenazim.
It has the gematria of 400.
It is connected with the word אמת – truth.
G-d is the Only One who can give us Eternal Complete Truth. He has given that to mankind through the aleph א – the first letter of the 10 Commandments, the mem מ – the first letter of the Midrash and the tav ת- the first letter of the Talmud. His Word is the Eternal Truth.
When we immerse ourselves in what He wants to teach us, we can come to a state of perfection, however, only if we always keep realising that we can only achieve it through Him and only through His help and grace. We must always remain humble.
This is what the tav also teaches us. You can think of her as a dalet and yud. If we are not humble, symbolised in the smallest letter – we are only a dalet ד – which you can link to the hebrew word dal meaning poor.
We are now familiar with the: ב י ת א ל פ (ף) and with the: ִ ּ ֶ ָ ַ ֵ ֹ
[ i, dagesh, e, aa, a, ee, o ] and can now read the following words, among others:
Ezekiel: 3:15
וָאָב֨וֹא אֶל־הַגּוֹלָ֜ה תֵּ֣ל אָ֠בִיב
And I came to the exile community that dwelt in Tel Aviv
Numbers 34:2
…כְּנָ֑עַן זֹ֣את הָאָ֗רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֨ר תִּפֹּ֤ל לָכֶם֙ בְּֽנַחֲלָ֔ה אֶ֥רֶץ כְּנַ֖עַן לִגְבֻלֹתֶֽיהָ
… Canaan, this is the land that shall fall to you as your portion, the land of Canaan with its various boundaries
Numbers 15:38
…וְנָֽתְנ֛וּ עַל־צִיצִ֥ת הַכָּנָ֖ף פְּתִ֥יל תְּכֵֽלֶת
…let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner.
Genesis 12:8
וַיַּעְתֵּ֨ק מִשָּׁ֜ם הָהָ֗רָה מִקֶּ֛דֶם לְבֵֽית־אֵ֖ל
He moved on from there to the highlands, east of Bet-El
The name of the place is Bet-El. Before Bet-El you see a ל. This lamed is a preposition, in this case “of” . There are several prepositions in Hebrew that consist of 1 letter, in which case they are attached to the attached noun.
By Angelique Sijbolts
Sources: ChabadVideo, The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet Grammatica vh Bijbels Hebreeuws by E. Lettinga, Grammar For Biblical Hebrew by C. Seow
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