Variant spelling - TRYSTAN

Hebrew equivalents -
Feminine - Tzara; Kishon
Masculine - Achran; Kish, Kishoni

The letters featured in this piece are TET SAMECH TET NUN.. Taken together, and reading from right to left, they spell TRISTAN. This name has been transliterated into the Hebrew phonetically.

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.

TET is the 9th letter of the alphabet and has a numerical value of 9. TET makes a sound like the T in Truth. The shape of the TET is like a bowl. The left side of the bowl resembles a ZAYIN. The TET is frequently associated with the word TOV – GOOD.
According to Ginsburg the TET is “a vessel containing the blessing of peace.” He appears to arrive at this conclusion by associating TET as the 9th letter with YESOD, (foundation) the 9th Sephirah. Zohar correlated PEACE with YESOD. This interpretation fits with my experience in meditation. (Ginsburgh, Rabbi Yitzchak. 1992. The Hebrew Letters. Jerusalem: Gal Einai. 141).

RESH is the 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 200. RESH makes a sound like the R in Radiant. RESH means BEGINNING or HEAD. When one spells out the letter RESH in Hebrew, it is RESH YUD SHIN. YUD and SHIN spell YESH - THERE IS. The letter RESH means BEGINNING. So it is possible to say that the RESH literally means THERE IS A BEGINNING.
Sepher Yitzirah divides the Hebrew Letters into 3 categories: 3 mothers – ALEPH MEM SHIN, 7 doubles – BET GIMEL DALET CAF PEY RESH TAV and 12 elementals – HEY VAV ZAYIN CHET TET YUD LAMED NUN SAMECH AYIN TSADE KUF. According to the text, God created the world by means of these letters. The RESH is one of the doubles. “He made the letter RESH king over Peace and He bound a crown to it and combined one with another and with them He formed …the Universe…” (Sefer Yetzirah. The Book of Creation. Tr. Aryeh Kaplan. 1990.York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 5, 95, 145, 147, 159, 176).

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 tells 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).

NUN is the 14th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 50. NUN makes a sound like the N in Now. The NUN has the head of a ZAYIN. The body is an elongated Zayin. NUN means SHINE, SPOUT, SPREAD, KINDDOM in Hebrew and FISH in Aramaic.
The NUN is one of 5 letters [CAF, MEM NUN PEY TSADE] that have 2 forms - the regular [bent] form used in the beginning and middle of a word and the FINAL FORM - SOFIT - used as the last letter of a word. According to the ancient kabbalistic text The Bahir, the bent NUN represents the spinal cord through which the body is fed by the brain (Kaplan, Aryeh. 1979. Tr. The Bahir. York Beach: Samuel Weiser. 31).

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This work is accompanied by the kabbalistic explanation printed above.

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

mat color:: green

stock number:: nm23-176