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Hebrew:

AlephBeitGeemelDaletHayVahvZaiyinChaitTait
YoadKafLahmedMameNuneSahmekAiyinPay
TzahdayQoafRayshS(h)eenTahv


Dalet

Spelling: dalet lahmed tahv

The first uses of the word ‘door’ (pay tahv chait) occur in Genesis IV (sin coucheth at the door) and dalet is the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. As a door, dalet symbolises transition between dimensions or realms of experience. Birth and death are the two most significant of these transformations for incarnate beings, and during both we are entirely helpless. The word dal (dalet lahmed) in Hebrew denotes ‘not having’ (poor, weak, powerless). Geemel is often portrayed as chasing dalet in order to bestow benificence upon it, which results in hey — dalet with an ‘additional leg’.

Dalet is associated with knowledge due at least in part to its beginning the Hebrew words for know and knowledge. It is often true that suffering and austerity lead to knowledge, thus ‘the impoverished are the living vessel of understanding’. Humilty is the door to the living wisdom our hearts continually seek in every other place.

Dalet is often construed as being constructed of two vahvs, perhaps representing thought and speech.

Interestingly, in the Tree of Life, the term da’ath — knowledge — is associated with a position between Keter and Tiphareth which has no formal sephiroth of its own and is often exlcuded from the Tree entirely. The similarity with our English word death is notable, and not without meaning. In the Garden of Eden, the progenitors were warned that eating of the Tree of Knowledge would result in death — a strange (to them) form of experiencing separability.

 

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dalet beit raysh — To speak or consult. Also: A thing or matter.

dalet lahmed — Impoverished, weak, helpless.

dalet mame — Blood or guilty of its shedding.

dalet mame mame-sophit — To be silent, astonished, or dumb (mute).

dalet ayin — Know

dalet ayin tahv — Knowledge

 

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Family: Archetypal: A seed or primieval force from which the existential and supernal are actualized. Existing outside of space and time. The first 9 letters.

Archetypal: Dalet

Existential: Mame

Supernal: Tahv

Position: The Fourth letter. Third of ‘the doubles’, letters which have a dual pronunciation (hard or soft) with the exception of reish. This can be understood as a polarity between a quality and its derivative opposite, and also a harsh or lenient perspective of judgement.

Common associations:

Primary Significations: A door which is open.

Secondary Significations: Fertility/sterility. Knowledge/ignorance or birth/death. Transits, particularly through portals. Access.

Body: The right nostril.

Planet: The Sun

Archetype / Tribe: Jacob

Element:

Path on the Tree of Life:

Traditional: Keter / Tiphareth

Hermetic: Chockma / Binah

Dalet


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Hebrew:

AlephBeitGeemelDaletHayVahvZaiyinChaitTait
YoadKafLahmedMameNuneSahmekAiyinPay
TzahdayQoafRayshS(h)eenTahv