Letter study · פ · value 80
The Letter Peh
The mouth: what redeems can also destroy
A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula
Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.
The Letter Peh
The mouth: what redeems can also destroy
The peh came forward in the name of פְּדוּת (pedut), redemption: deliverance comes through speech.
It was answered that it also opens פֶּשַׁע (pesha), transgression.
The mouth that blesses is the same one that curses.
Its name means the mouth; its value is eighty.
1 The Zohar account
“Master of the world, create the world through me, for through me begins pedut, redemption. You deliver through speech, and I am the mouth that proclaims it.”
The answer came: redemption will indeed come through speech. But through you also begins pesha, transgression. You are too powerful to found the world.
2 The double nature of speech
The same mouth blesses and curses; the same word raises and lowers.
It is precisely the power of speech that makes it dangerous. What can create can undo.
3 The mouth, and the value
פֶּה (peh) means the mouth. The letter therefore carries the very instrument of creation by speech.
Eighty: the age of Moshe when he spoke before Pharaoh — speech that comes late, and delivers.
Did you follow the study?
Four questions on the letter peh.
1
Which word did the peh invoke?
“You deliver through speech.”
2
Which word was set against it?
The mouth that blesses can also curse.
3
What does the letter’s name mean?
The very instrument of speech.
4
What does the value eighty recall?
Speech that comes late, and delivers.