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- Today's date is September 06, 2010
27 Elul 5770. - Scheduled completion of sefer Torah:
in 115 days
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In the second column of the first yeriah you will find the first of several letters that must be written small. This is the letter “hey” in the word behibaram, “…when they were created”:
Why is this letter small? What must any letters be written small?
There are several different ways of interpreting these small letters…
- The small letter’s purpose it to split its word into two; these new words are then interpreted (usually midrashically/homiletically) and the small letter ignored.
- Ignore the small letter, reading the word as if it is spelled without it.
- The small letter indicates that the word’s meaning is weakened or diminished from its usual understanding.
- Each letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is a self-contained universe of meaning and associations. There is some aspect of the reduced letter itself that we are supposed to learn.
The Meor ve-Shemesh explains the reduced “hey” according to the latter method, pointing out that the Gemora in Menachos 29b tells us that the physical world was created via the letter “hey.” The reduced “hey” teaches that a fundamental concept of creation is that a person should reduce his connection to the physical world and its pleasures.
Alternatively, the Gemora (ibid.) also learns from the letter’s structure that “hey” connotes teshuva, “return to G-D. “ Therefore, the reduced hey indicates that the world was created for the sake of returning to closeness with Ha-Shem (G-D).
Alternatively the Midrash (Bereishis Rabbah) understands the reduced “hey” as a reference to the patriarch Avraham. If you ignore the reduced hey, then you are left with the letters:
באברם
Which spell “for the sake of Avram,” hinting that the world was created for the sake of Avram, the first person to recognize the oneness of G-d and spread that knowledge to the world.
As we write this sefer together, I intent to post explanations for all of the small & large letters as well as the other assorted scribal oddities that we’ll run into.
Check back here daily for more updates, articles, and features!
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