Variant spellings - GAL EL - GALLEL

The letters featured in this piece are GIMEL LAMED ALEPH LAMED. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell GALEL.

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.

GIMEL is the 3rd letter, has a numerical value of 3, and makes a sound like the G in Give. It means CAMEL or REWARD and is associated the phrase GIMILUT HASADEEM – ACTS OF LOVINGKINDNESS.
(The Bahir, which may be the oldest kabbalistic text, is attributed to R. Nehuniah ben HaKana, a first century kabbalist. R. Akiva states in the text, the GIMEL has "three parts because it BESTOWS, GROWS AND SUSTAINS." The three parts are the head, the tail, and a pipe in the middle through which energy can pass. "The GIMEL draws from above through its head and disperses through its tail" (The Bahir. 1995. Tr. Areyah Kaplan. Northvale: Jason Aronson. lx, 8).

ALEPH is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of one. The meanings of ALEPH are: THOUSAND, MASTER, TEACHING, OX. The ALEPH makes no sound. The ALEPH is composed of a VAV (6) and 2 YUDS (20). Their combined value is 26 which is the numerical value of the name of God - YUD (10) HEY (5) VAV (6) HEY (5).

LAMED is the 12th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 30. LAMED makes a sound like the L in Like. LAMED means both TO LEARN and TO TEACH. The LAMED is the tallest and most majestic of all the letters. Indeed Rashi interprets A TOWER FLYING IN THE AIR (Hagigah 15b) - as applying to the upper stroke of the LAMED.
The LAMED is generally considered to be constructed of a CAF (20) with a VAV (6). In this configuration the LAMED has a GEMATRIA of 26 - the same as that of the YUD (10) HEY (5) VAV (6) HEY (5) name of God. Since LAMED means LEARNING, it would seem that this would constitute a direct connection between LAMED, LEARNING and GOD.

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This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.

The original 5x7 watercolor painting of this image is available at $155.

mat color:: red

stock number:: nm11-40