The Letter Gimel — study | Rav Ziegler zatsal
Letter study · ג · value 3

The Letter Gimel

The one who gives, and who needs the one who receives
A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula
Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.
The Letter Gimel
The one who gives, and who needs the one who receives

The gimel came forward in the name of גְּדוּלָּה (gedulah), greatness, and גְּמִילוּת חֲסָדִים, acts of kindness.

It was answered that it also opens גַּאֲוָה (gaavah), pride, and that it can do nothing alone.

Its value is three: the three fathers, the three pillars, what is born of two.

Its shape is a man walking, foot stretched toward the dalet: the rich running toward the poor.

📖 Read the lesson
1 The Zohar account
“Master of the world, create the world through me, for through me begins gedulah, greatness, and also gemilut hasadim, acts of kindness. The world must rest on generosity.”

The answer came: you are great and generous, but through you also begins gaavah, pride. And you need the dalet that follows you: the rich does not exist without the poor. Generosity assumes someone who receives.

2 The shape, and the movement

The gimel reads as a standing man: head and body in the upright stroke, and a foot stepping forward.

That foot reaches toward the dalet, the next letter — the rich man running toward the poor to give.

The gimel does not stand still: it moves, it acts, it gives. Greatness is measured by movement toward the other.
3 The value three

Three as the three fathers — Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov; three as the pillars of the world — Torah, service, kindness.

Three, too, as what is born of two: from the meeting of two terms a third comes.

The root גמל (gamal) means to do good, to repay.

Did you follow the study?

Four questions on the letter gimel.

1
Which words did the gimel invoke?
“The world must rest on generosity.”
2
What answer did it receive?
The rich does not exist without the poor: giving assumes someone who receives.
3
What does the shape of the gimel represent?
The rich man running toward the poor to give.
4
What does the value three carry?
And what is born of the meeting of two terms.

Result