The Letter Yod — study | Rav Ziegler zatsal
Letter study · י · value 10

The Letter Yod

The smallest, and the one everything starts from
A teaching of Rav Haim Ziegler zatsal · Éditions Gueoula
Translated from the French original; the French version remains the reference text.
The Letter Yod
The smallest, and the one everything starts from

The yod came forward because it is the first letter of the Name.

It was answered: it is enough that you are in My Name; you are too precious to come down at the world’s beginning.

The yod is a point: the smallest of the letters, and the one they all start from.

Its value is ten: the ten utterances of creation.

📖 Read the lesson
1 The Zohar account
“Master of the world, create the world through me, for I am the first letter of Your Name. I am the smallest of all, and yet I carry all that creation can be.”

The answer came: it is enough that you are in My Name and keep My purposes engraved in you. You are the point from which everything flows, and for that very reason you stay above.

2 The point, and the contraction

The yod has neither length nor breadth: it is a point. Every letter begins with a touch of the pen; all therefore come from it.

The yod is read with the tzimtzum: the infinite draws into a point to leave room. What is immense begins by making itself small.
3 The value ten

Ten as the utterances by which the world was created, and as the fingers that act.

Ten closes the first series of numbers: after nine one returns to one — but a one that holds everything before it.

Did you follow the study?

Four questions on the letter yod.

1
Why did the yod come forward?
“I am the smallest of all, and I carry all that can be.”
2
What answer did it receive?
It is the point from which everything flows.
3
What does the yod resemble?
Every letter begins with a touch of the pen.
4
What does the value ten carry?
And the ten fingers that act.

Result