Biblical name - SAF was giant in the time of King David (I Chronicles 21:18).
The letters featured in this painting are SAMECH PEY. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell SAF.
Each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet has a special meaning and a story to tell. Here a few brief ones about the letters on this painting.
SAMECH is the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 60. It makes a sound like the S in Sun. SAMECH is shaped like a circle and means SUPPORT, TO TRUST, TO RELY ON.
Tradition tell us that the engraving of the letters of the 10 commandments went all the way through the tablets - from the front side to the back side. Therefore the SAMECH, since it is completely closed, should have fallen out. Because it did not, R. Hisda said that it stood there be means of a miracle (Shabbat 104a).
PEY is the 17th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 80. PEY makes a sound either like the P in Peace or the F in Food. PEY means MOUTH and is constructed of a CAF with a YUD situated at the top and rotated inward.
If one looks carefully at the PEY one can see that there is a BEIT, which makes up the empty space within it. The BEIT is the first letter of the word BERESHIT - IN A BEGINNING, which is the first word of TORAH. God opened up God's MOUTH and out came the BEIT - BEGINNING - CREATION.
PEY is one of 5 letters - CAF, MEM, NUN, PEY, TSADE - which have 2 forms. One form is used in the beginning and the middle of a word - the closed or bent PEY. The other form is at the end of the word - the open or straight PEY. This open and closed PEY - MOUTH allude to the verse in Ecclesiastics .3:7 - "...A time to be silent and a time to speak." This reminds us that there is great wisdom in knowing when to speak (Shabbat 104a).
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This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.
mat color:: blue
