The Letter Dalet — study | Rav Ziegler zatsal
Letter study · ד · value 4

The Letter Dalet

The door, the poor, and the strength of what is lacking
A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula
Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.
The Letter Dalet
The door, the poor, and the strength of what is lacking

The dalet came forward in the name of דֶּלֶת (delet), the door, and דַּל (dal), the poor.

It was answered: if the world began with poverty, where would hope be?

Its value is four: the four directions, the four elements, the four worlds.

Its shape is a bent man — and an opening, below, through which the gimel’s gift enters.

📖 Read the lesson
1 The Zohar account
“Master of the world, create the world through me, for through me begins delet, the door by which one enters Your house. And I am also dal, the poor, who depends entirely on You.”

The answer came: you are humble, and it is precisely for that reason that you cannot begin. If the world began with poverty, where would hope be? And you need the gimel before you: the poor does not exist without the one who gives.

2 The shape, and the opening

The dalet reads as a man bent forward: the one who receives bows before the one who gives.

It is closed on three sides, with a small opening below — through which the gimel’s tzedakah passes.

The weakness of the dalet is its strength: it is through what it lacks that it can receive.
3 The value four

Four as the four directions of the world, the four elements, the four worlds of the tradition.

And the teaching that goes with it: whoever thinks himself spiritually rich is poor; whoever knows himself poor receives.

Did you follow the study?

Four questions on the letter dalet.

1
Which words did the dalet invoke?
The door by which one enters, and the one who wholly depends.
2
Why could the world not begin with it?
And because the poor does not exist without the one who gives.
3
What does the shape of the dalet represent?
The one who receives bows before the one who gives.
4
What is the dalet’s small opening for?
The weakness of the dalet is its strength: through it, it can receive.

Result