Meaning of the Hebrew alphabet

[Logomachist]

Does anyone here know enough about the Kabbalah to explain what the letters of Hebrew alphabet are supposed to represent? Are there easy, short glosses as with the Germanic futhark?

[cnorman18]

Not sure what you mean here. The Hebrew alphabet predates Kabbalah by a couple thousand years, and is an alphabet like any other alphabet; it represents the sounds of spoken language. Any mystical "meanings" attached to the letters -- the three "mother" letters, the letters in the various names of God, and so on -- were all added long, long after the fact. Kabbalah, which dates from the tenth century or thereabouts, is not Judaism, and is in some ways may be more related to other esoteric mystical traditions than to its parent religion. It is a very specialized field, and only strictly ultra-Orthodox male Jews over 40 are allowed to study it, according to those who claim to know the real deal.

It might be of interest that Yemenite Jews have always claimed to have the correct original pronunciation of Hebrew, and they might well be right; the diacritical marks or "vowel marks" that appear with the Hebrew consonants are all pronounced differently in Yemenite Hebrew, while many of them have the same pronunciation in other dialects of the language. (The Yemenite Jews are also the only ones who claim to know which kinds of locusts are kosher. I doubt if that particular tradition is going to catch on outside of their community.)

[ThatGirlAgain]

It might be of interest that Yemenite Jews have always claimed to have the correct original pronunciation of Hebrew, and they might well be right; the diacritical marks or "vowel marks" that appear with the Hebrew consonants are all pronounced differently in Yemenite Hebrew, while many of them have the same pronunciation in other dialects of the language. (The Yemenite Jews are also the only ones who claim to know which kinds of locusts are kosher. I doubt if that particular tradition is going to catch on outside of their community.)

Here is Leviticus (TaNaKh version of course) on the subject.

20. Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you.
21. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.
22. From this [locust] category, you may eat the following: The red locust after its species, the yellow locust after its species, the spotted gray locust after its species and the white locust after its species.
23. But any [other] flying insect that has four legs, is an abomination for you.
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo ... ter-11.htm

Note that, despite carping from some quarters, it does not say that insects have four legs. It is talking about those that walk on four legs and have “jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs� used for hopping as being potentially kosher. What exactly the red, gray and white locusts are is apparently a Yemenite secret. And presumably so is the recipe.

[Thatguy]

Here is Leviticus (TaNaKh version of course) on the subject.

20. Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you.
21. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.
22. From this [locust] category, you may eat the following: The red locust after its species, the yellow locust after its species, the spotted gray locust after its species and the white locust after its species.
23. But any [other] flying insect that has four legs, is an abomination for you.
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo ... ter-11.htm

Note that, despite carping from some quarters, it does not say that insects have four legs. It is talking about those that walk on four legs and have “jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs� used for hopping as being potentially kosher. What exactly the red, gray and white locusts are is apparently a Yemenite secret. And presumably so is the recipe.

Which non-kosher flying insects walk on four legs?

[cnorman18]

To get back to the OP: Here is an article from the 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia about the history and development of the Hebrew alphabet, and here is one on the mystical significance of that alphabet and its development.

There are many websites which purport to give the meanings of the individual letters: they may or may not be reliable. Virtually all of them are Christian sites.

[ThatGirlAgain]

Here is Leviticus (TaNaKh version of course) on the subject.

20. Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you.
21. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.
22. From this [locust] category, you may eat the following: The red locust after its species, the yellow locust after its species, the spotted gray locust after its species and the white locust after its species.
23. But any [other] flying insect that has four legs, is an abomination for you.
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo ... ter-11.htm

Note that, despite carping from some quarters, it does not say that insects have four legs. It is talking about those that walk on four legs and have “jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs� used for hopping as being potentially kosher. What exactly the red, gray and white locusts are is apparently a Yemenite secret. And presumably so is the recipe.

Which non-kosher flying insects walk on four legs?

It seems that a distinction is being made between walking around and hopping. Im this scenario grasshoppers, locusts and any other hopping insects are considering to be walking on only four legs when not using their big hind legs for jumping. I am not sure that is really the case but it is a good way of identifying a whole class of bugs by sight.

[Thatguy]

Here is Leviticus (TaNaKh version of course) on the subject.

20. Any flying insect that walks on four, is an abomination for you.
21. However, among all the flying insects that walk on four [legs], you may eat [from] those that have jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs, with which they hop on the ground.
22. From this [locust] category, you may eat the following: The red locust after its species, the yellow locust after its species, the spotted gray locust after its species and the white locust after its species.
23. But any [other] flying insect that has four legs, is an abomination for you.
http://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo ... ter-11.htm

Note that, despite carping from some quarters, it does not say that insects have four legs. It is talking about those that walk on four legs and have “jointed [leg like] extensions above its [regular] legs� used for hopping as being potentially kosher. What exactly the red, gray and white locusts are is apparently a Yemenite secret. And presumably so is the recipe.

Which non-kosher flying insects walk on four legs?

It seems that a distinction is being made between walking around and hopping. Im this scenario grasshoppers, locusts and any other hopping insects are considering to be walking on only four legs when not using their big hind legs for jumping. I am not sure that is really the case but it is a good way of identifying a whole class of bugs by sight.

It's no big deal if you don't take the Bible as inerrant science text, of course. And just because we are right in classifying the big legs and the small legs on a grasshopper, locust or cricket as all being legs, that doesn't mean that for some other culture they couldn't call the big legs something other than legs. For solving the practical problem of being hungry and seeing some potential food, being able to check off the boxes and say "Big hopping leglike things? Check. Flying? Check? four undisputed legs to walk on? Check. We have vittles here. Tuck in" is handy enough. But there's that nagging intro, the strong implication that the set of flying insects who seem to have only four legs and fly but don't have large rear hopping leglike things is not an empty set. The general rule set forth is that such an insect ain't kosher. But how useful is it, or how observant is it, to write out the general rule that a set of insects that does not exist isn't kosher?

But I don't want to keep pushing it. The section could be read in such a way as not to be grossly inaccurate about the number of legs that insects have. It's all in the definition of "legs." Fortunately, not being bound by the laws of kosher means I don't have to worry and can eat any insect I want.

[greentwiga]

The script came out of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. They were adapted when a Semitic gro.up controlled lower Egypt, about 1700 - 1550 BC. The first letters are called ProtoSinaitic. They came into Canaan and began to spread out. Arabic was an early branch. So was Hebrew.

Hebrew still retained the meaning. "A" comes from the hieroglyph for ox and looks like an Ox especially if you turn it on its side. Aleph means ox. B for example shows a two room house (typical size back then) and Beth means house. By the time the alpha-bet reached Greece, the names remained similar, but alpha and beta are now meaningless noises. Scholars, not just Christians have traced the history and meanings.

Not only did the letters have meanings, but so did numbers. The word for seven is also the word for covenant.

Of course, this means Moses wrote in the ProtoSinaitic script, not Hebrew letters, which weren't invented until close to 1000BC. This puts most Christians in a tizzy. Not sure what it does to the Orthodox Jews.

Also, the vowel points weren't invented until 900 AD. The Kabbalahic meanings are also a recent (relatively) invention.

[cnorman18]

The script came out of Egyptian Hieroglyphics. They were adapted when a Semitic gro.up controlled lower Egypt, about 1700 - 1550 BC. The first letters are called ProtoSinaitic. They came into Canaan and began to spread out. Arabic was an early branch. So was Hebrew.

Hebrew still retained the meaning. "A" comes from the hieroglyph for ox and looks like an Ox especially if you turn it on its side. Aleph means ox. B for example shows a two room house (typical size back then) and Beth means house. By the time the alpha-bet reached Greece, the names remained similar, but alpha and beta are now meaningless noises. Scholars, not just Christians have traced the history and meanings.

Not only did the letters have meanings, but so did numbers. The word for seven is also the word for covenant.

Of course, this means Moses wrote in the ProtoSinaitic script, not Hebrew letters, which weren't invented until close to 1000BC. This puts most Christians in a tizzy. Not sure what it does to the Orthodox Jews.

Also, the vowel points weren't invented until 900 AD. The Kabbalahic meanings are also a recent (relatively) invention.

I'll vouch for all that. Pretty good information. Like I said, Hebrew is an alphabet pretty much like any other alphabet.

I had a Hebrew professor that began every year's classes with the remark, "This is the language that God speaks." I don't know that I agree with that. Richard Feynmann once used those same words in a conversation with Herman Wouk -- "That's the language God talks" -- but he was speaking about calculus.

[HebrewEnthusiast]

The Hebrew alphabet has a lot of meaning assigned to it, primarily by Kabbalistics and those who have studied the more hidden aspects of the Torah. There are a number of interested articles here, although they have not yet gotten to all of the letters: http://www.hebrewtoday.com/content/arti ... w-teachers

Hope it helps/piques your interest!