Letter study · ח · value 8

The Letter Het

Life and sin in a single letter

A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula

Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.

The Letter Het

Life and sin in a single letter

The het came forward because it opens חַיִּים (hayim), life.

It was answered that it also opens חֵטְא (het), sin.

Its value is eight: past the seven days of nature, what goes beyond it.

Its shape is made of two zayins joined above — two forces held together.

1 The Zohar account

“Master of the world, create the world through me, for through me begins hayim, life. I am the letter of life.”

The answer came: you are the letter of life, but through you also begins het, sin. You are open on one side, and the one who sins stays outside.

The same letter carries life and the fall. That is why it is also the letter of return, once the fall has happened.

2 The value eight

Seven is the count of nature: seven days, seven heavens. Eight comes after: what goes beyond nature.

Hence its link with what is given rather than produced, with grace rather than measured merit.

3 The shape

The het reads as two zayins joined above: two forces that alone would stand against each other, held together by a roof.

Hence the traditional link with the huppah, the canopy that joins two lives.

Four questions on the letter het.

Which word did the het invoke?

“I am the letter of life.”

Which word was set against it?

The same letter carries life and the fall.

What does the value eight mean?

Seven is the count of nature; eight comes after.

What is the shape of the het made of?

Two forces held together by a roof.