Diminished Letter Khaf in Be-reyshit/Genesis 23:2, Parshat Chayey Sarah

בס''ד


This week's Torah reading has another diminished letter - Khaf - which tells us something of the complexities of family relationships.

Depending on which Chumash you're using, the verse we'll look at can be found in Plaut p.156, Cohen p.118, Hertz p.80, Sforno p.115, JPS p.32, Jerusalem p.23, and Stone p. 106.

Let's set the scene: Avraham has just come within a hair's breadth of slaughtering his and Sarah's only child, Yitzchak, for a sacrifice to Ha-Shem. Luckily for everyone Ha-Shem saw that our devoted Patriarch was going through with it, so sent an angel to stop the knife from cutting the lad's throat.

However, on returning home, Avraham and Yitzchak find that Sarah has died. Pirqei de Rabbi Eliezer xxxii tells us this is because the seductive Sama'el, Angel of Death, came to Sarah and told her that Avraham had killed and rendered their son a burnt offering. The shock and confusion of this grievous news finished her.

וַתָּמָת שָׂרָה, בְּקִרְיַת אַרְבַּע הִוא חֶבְרוֹן--בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן; וַיָּבֹא, אַבְרָהָם, לִסְפֹּד לְשָׂרָה, וְלִבְכֹּתָהּ.

And Sarah died in Qiriat Arba - which is the same as Chevron - in the land of Kena'an; and Avraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

"...va-yavo Avraham lis'pod le-Sarah ve-liv'kotahh."

Khaf (כ) derives its name from kafuf, "bent". "A kafuf" in particular means a person bowed down in humility. Also, due to it's pictographical shape, Khaf symbolises the palm of our hand, kaf yad כַּף יָד.

After Sarah's death, Genesis 23:2 reads, "...Avraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her." The small Khaf in the word ve-liv'kotah tells us that Avraham contained his grief, bearing his pain in his heart and not making himself a spectacle due to his sense of modesty (Midrash: Kol Ha-Torah). You can just see him gathering his robes up to his heart with this small, tight Khaf, his kaf yad, to enclose and control his feelings. How heart-breaking.

Other reasons are given for the small Khaf: Avraham may have restrained his grief because Sarah lived a full and successful life (Ba'al Ha-Turim), or possibly because Sarah's hearing the news of the Akeidah killed her, and Avraham didn't wish to publicly share his regret, lest others would conclude he felt guilty for causing her death from a broken heart.

Now, if you take this small Khaf out of the word entirely, what do you have left?
Ve-liv'kotahh, "to weep for her" becomes ולבתה u-le-vatah, "and for her daughter". Instead of "...va-yavo Avraham lis'pod le-Sarah ve-liv'kotahh", "...and Avraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her", we get "...va-yavo Avraham lis'pod le-Sarah u-le-vatah", "...and Avraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her daughter". What?

The Roke'ach (Rabbi Eleazar ben Judah ben Kalonymus of Worms, the husband of a Soferet Rebbetzin Dulcie*) offers the idea based on the Gemara in Bava Batra 16b that Avraham and Sarah also had a daughter, who died at the same time as Sarah.

What is a Khaf? It's name means the palm of your hand. An enclosure. It's shape is two similar things joined, which bend together to meet and marry.

Avraham's hand/agency/power, home/presence, his כתר keter, crown of Torah, his כהנות kohanut, priesthood, was diminished by losing his wife. Why? Because, according to Sh'mot/Exodus Rabba i. 1, Sarah was closer to Ha-Shem and superior to Avraham in her gift of prophecy, and he knew it. This is why he pitched Hagar and Yishma'el out at her insistence, against his own wishes (Bereshit/Genesis Rabbah xlvii. 1). This is how they got so many new souls together and brought them to The Land with belief in the Holy One (Bereshit/Genesis 12:5). They were a team.

Sarah was Avraham's crown. And he'd lost her forever. Perhaps this is why Midrash Tanchuma Chayei Sarah 4 tells us that Avraham wrote Ayshet Chayil to eulogise Sarah.
May her memory be for a blessing.



*Rebbetzin Dulcie or Dulcina of Worms was a learned wife and mother who used to repair the Torah scrolls of her husband's synagogue in Worms, and translate the prayers into the vernacular so that she could lead the women in their own services. She was murdered at age 26, along with her daughters, by Crusaders on their way to Israel.


Copyright© A. Barclay

Dotted Letters Example #2a: Be-reyshit/Genesis 18:9, Parshat Va-yeira

בס''ד


In Be-reyshit/Genesis 18:9, Parshat Va-yeira (Plaut p.123, Cohen p.87, Hertz p.64, Sforno p.87, JPS p.25, Jerusalem p.17, Stone p. 80) the word אֵלָיו eylav has three dots, one dot each over the letters א Aleph, י Yud, and ו Vav. We read:

וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו, אַיֵּה שָׂרָה אִשְׁתֶּךָ; וַיֹּאמֶר, הִנֵּה בָאֹהֶל
And they said to him: 'Where is Sarah your wife?' And he said: 'There, in the tent.'
“Va-yom'ru eylav ayeyh Sarah ish'tekha? Va-yomer hineyh va-ohel.”

What are these dots for and what do they teach us? The angels who wished to announce Yitzchaq's conception actually knew where Sarah was; they asked this rhetorical question of Avraham out of courtesy, so they would not appear to be men approaching his wife unannounced, and also so that they wouldn't give their game away.
(Avot deRebbe Natan 30b)

Also, Alef-Yud-Vav spells איו ayo, a scholar. Nice.


Copyright © A. Barclay

Megillat Ruth: Enlarged Letter Nun - מגילת רות: נ' רבתי

BS"D

Some time back my good friend Simon Montagu wrote to me about the connection between the enlarged letter Nun in Parshat Ki Tisa (Sh'mot/Exodus 34:7) נצר and the enlarged Nun in Ruth 3:13 לִינִי הַלַּיְלָה:
"Hhesed is of course one of the main themes of Ruth," he commented, "and so is the origins of the Mashiahh, so I'm sure the connection is there."

I answered that, among many other things, the letter Nun symbolizes downfall with simultaneous salvation, fruitfulness, and faithfulness leading to Moshiach, all of which apply to Ruth.

This voort, this d'var Torah, is inspired by and dedicated to Simon, with much gratitude.


So here goes:
In the Book of/Megilat Ruth chapter three we find an intimate scenario between our protagonist/heroine Ruth, the Moabite convert to Judaism widowed by her Israelite husband, and the only man who can provide her with a secure future, her dead husband's relative, Bo'az.

According to Jastrow, her Moabite name was Ruth (רות), because "she looked at (approved of) the words of her mother-in-law" (Naomi). This name has the same root letters - Reysh-Tav - as a Talmudic word for "pity, relief, mercy, to treat favourably", ratui (רתוי).

Bo'az's root name (בֹּעַז), on the other hand, can mean עַז ('az): strong, mighty or intense; or עֹז ('oz): courage, daring, might or strength. When we think of people's names in TaNaKh as their roles, their purpose for living, then we clearly see here that Ruth needs help from a reliable source to lift her out of her quandry. Both she and Bo'az understand this. They complete each other by giving the opportunity to fulfil their life's purpose through the other.

As we read chapter three and see Ruth's dead husband's mother advising her to enhance her physical charms, then secretly join Bo'az alone, we prepare for a seduction. It's not clear whether this indeed happened at this point - opinions disagree as to whether their physical relationship was consummated now or after their wedding - but Ruth did leave quite an impression on Bo'az, as we read in verse thirteen:

לִינִי הַלַּיְלָה, וְהָיָה בַבֹּקֶר אִם-יִגְאָלֵךְ טוֹב יִגְאָל, וְאִם-לֹא יַחְפֹּץ לְגָאֳלֵךְ וּגְאַלְתִּיךְ אָנֹכִי, חַי-יְהוָה; שִׁכְבִי, עַד-הַבֹּקֶר.

Linger tonight, and tomorrow morning if he will redeem you, good. Let him redeem you; but if he's unwilling to redeem you, then I will, as the L@RD lives. Lie down until the morning.'

Notice the enlarged letter Nun in the word "linger", ליני, lini. I ask myself three questons: Why an enlarged letter, why the letter Nun in particular, and why in the word "linger"?

Why an Enlarged Letter?
Rabbi Chaim David Halevy (1924/5-1998), Kabbalist and former Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, writes in his Quntres Torah Min Hashamayim (Booklet of Heavenly Torah) that each time a letter is written enlarged in TaNaKh, this shows us G@d extending Divine benevolence, doing an extra deed of loving-kindness, of chesed (חסד) for us.

Why the letter Nun?
The gematria/numerological value of the letter Nun is fifty. According to Rav Yitzchak Ginsburgh, the number 50 and the letter Nun represent the Shekhinah (G@d's Divine Feminine Presence), who is the originatrix of each soul of Israel.

We count fifty days of the Omer between Pesach and Shavu'ot, which is when we read Megilat Ruth. We read it on this day because it documents the יִחוּס yichus, pedigree, of David Ha-melekh, who was born and niftar on Shavu'ot (Shulchan Arukh with Mishnah Berurah 490:9; Shaarei Teshuvah 494:3). The souls of Israel are kings and the children of kings. The heir to this throne is Moshiach, beginning with King David (a Moshiach, just not the Moshiach), the great-grandchild of Ruth and Bo'az, and ending with our final redemption still to come, she-yibane Beit Ha-Miqdash bimheyra be-yameynu.

Nun also symbolizes the receiving vessel of this soul of Moshiach, and the ne'eman נאמן or Faithful One. Nun is the fourteenth letter of the Alefbet, which equals "David" - דוד – as the letter Dalet (ד) is worth four and Vav (ו) worth six, so 8+6=14.

Nun, last but not least, stands for neshamah נשמה, the third of five levels to the soul. This level of soul directly perceives the Shekhinah.

Why the word "Linger"?
The final clue hides, rather obviously, in what Bo'az says:

"Linger tonight", or "Linger this night", as הלילה ha-lailah means. Bo'az may have been inviting Ruth to remain close to him that night, but he was also inviting another force to linger with them. Rabbi Chaninah writes in the Babylonian Talmud tractate Niddah 16b that “The name of the angel in charge of conception is Lailah”.

The story of Lailah can be found in Midrash Tanhuma-Yelamedeynu, Pekudei 3, first published in (Istanbul, not) Constantinople in 1522.

Lailah, one of the only female angels, serves the sacred task of bringing the seeds and the soul together and then plants it in the womb. She is the souls' midwife. It is she who illuminates the womb so that the infant can see from one end of time/space/Creation to the other, and it is she who teaches unborn Jewish children the entire Torah, and the history of our souls.

When it's our time to be born, Lailah cuts the illumination and brings us forth into the world. The instant we emerge, she lightly presses her index finger to our upper lips, saying “Shhh,” and this makes us forget everything we learned in utero, so we make our first cry. Notice that the knowledge is still present, just forgotten, like the Jungian idea of Collective Unconscious. This is our explanation also for our philtrum, the vertical indentation between our nose and lips.


סִיּוּם
This enlarged Nun is the neshamah, the soul, of Moshiach patiently waiting to be conceived by the couple destined to bring it into the world. The soul of Adam Qadmon, which will animate Ruth and Bo'az's great-grandson David, and will transmigrate to our future Messiah.
Bo'az and Ruth have opened their hearts to each other through the chesed חסד, loving-kindness they've paid one another throught to narrative, and as they turn their destinies to enter the Divine Flow which is the will of G@d, they are inviting the angel Lailah to guide the soul of Moshiach present with them on that threshing-floor down through their union.

לילאה טוב
Lailah tov


Sources:
Jastrow's Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Yerushalmi, and Midrashic Literature
Talmud Bavli Masekhet Niddah 16b and 30b
Midrash Tanhuma-Yelamedeynu Pequdey 3
Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg
Zohar
Anaf Yosef on Talmud Bavli Masekhet Niddah 30b


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