HaOt

HaOt will reveal and illuminate personal and cosmic healing and transformation.

The process and techniques for creating new awareness through HaOt are as ancient as creation and as new as each breath we take. Rabbis, sages, and scholars have taught that there is a deep and powerful potential found within and around the letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. Accessing this energy is accomplished through many different techniques, which all include focused contemplative meditative practice. The essence of this meditative prayer includes: deep breathing, intentioned awareness, consciously letting go of the attachment to the negative aspects of existence, and humbly accepting the beauty and blessing of each aspect of life.

HaOt was created by the merging of the two Hebrew letters.

The Shin and the four-pronged Shin (a letter whose origins are mysterious and whose sound is unknown) - found on the box of the Tefillin that is worn on the head are the two letters that were brought together. Tefillin are prayer phylacteries made of small square leather boxes containing scriptural passages. Tefillin are traditionally worn on the left arm and on the head during morning weekday prayers.

HaOt represents Tikkun Olam transforming and healing all time and space.

The famous sixteenth century mystic, Rabbi Isaac Luria, taught that we should change the world. He saw in those around him the pervasive feeling that the world was broken. He explained the reason for this condition with a mystical story of a cosmic shattering. Luria believed that we have the freedom to do what we please with our lives and our world. We can allow things to remain in pieces or we can hearken to the best within us and choose to bring wholeness to these fragments. Luria could have responded, like those around him, with despair. Instead, full of hope, he beautifully realized that the shards do not get magically put back together again: the world needs our help. Some say that HaOt represents the Olam HaBa, The World to Come, a messianic time when the entire universe and all in it will be in perfect harmony and balance.

HaOt reminds us that there is holiness in all space and time.

The Rabbis throughout the ages have struggled with its source. The origins of HaOt are connected to the receiving of Torah on Mount Sinai. In the Talmud, Menachot 35a, Rabbi Abaye said, “The four-pronged Shin of the Tefillin is a law given to Moses at Mt. Sinai.” This is the usual response that the Rabbis give when the written Torah does not provide a specific textual source for a law or ritual and yet its presence and value in the tradition are accepted.

HaOt was created when the Torah and Commandments were given to Moses on Mount Sinai. The Commentators to Talmud, Menachot 35a, discuss the creation of and shape of the four-pronged Shin and its intersection with the letter Shin. They taught that the letters on the Tablets of the Commandments were actually engraved into the stone. A section of the stone behind a letter Shin cut a certain way created the configuration of a four-pronged Shin.

Rashi, in his comments on Exodus 32:15-16, explains the creation of the HaOt. The Torah reads: “Then Moses turned around and descended from the mountain, and the two Tablets of the Testimony were in his hand, the Tablets were written on both their sides, on this side and on that side they were written; and the Tablets were God's making, and the writing was God's writing, engraved upon the Tablets.” Rashi asks: [What is the meaning of the phrase:] “on both their sides.” He answers by quoting Rabbi Chisda in Talmud Shabbat 104a: “on both their sides were the letters read and it was miraculous work.” The miraculous writing on the Tablets went all the way through from one side to the other. The hollowed out space around the letter Shin became the four-pronged Shin .

HaOt asks us to look beyond the temporal and to find meaning in both the obvious and in that which is veiled and hidden.

The Shin with four prongs is connected physically and spiritually to the Shin with three prongs. Rabbi Bachya in his comment on Exodus 32:16 says: “God engraved rather than etched the letters on the two Tablets because God wanted them to be read from both sides. Thus the two sides allude to the revealed and concealed dimensions of Torah.” The letter Shin represents the revealed Torah and the Shin with four prongs represents the concealed Torah. The concealed and the revealed are alluded to in The Song of Songs. In verse 2:9, the Poet refers to the hidden ways of God by describing God "looking through the lattices." God sees us, but we cannot see God. Just as the Shin with four prongs is seen by connecting it with that which it outlines; so too is God hidden from us and know to us only through the outline of creation and revelation.

HaOt leads us to humility and serenity.

Maimonides, in his philosophical work The Guide of the Perplexed, teaches that instead of limiting God by attempting to describe that which is indescribable, we would be wiser to contemplate God by sitting in silence. Maimonides writes in I:59: “The most apt phrase concerning this subject is the dictum occurring in the Psalms 65:2: ‘Silence is Praise to You’.” The four-pronged Shin asks us to look beyond the temporal and to find meaning in both the obvious and in that which is veiled and hidden.

HaOt is imbued with and fills us with Divine qualities.

The Shin is the silhouette of Moses raising his arm with his hands spread. The Torah tells us it was Moses’ prayers and prayerful stance that defeated Amalek. The Shin represents Divine Strength, as it is the symbol for the word Shaddai, (the Almighty) and Divine Shelter as it is the symbol for the word Shechinah, (the Sheltering Presence of God).

The letter Shin is associated with many Hebrew words, among them are: Shanen, sharpen or teach diligently; Shinui, change; Shabbat, the seventh day of creation; Shalom; peace, wholeness, completion, perfection, hello, and goodbye; Shalvah, serenity; Eish; flame and fire; Shema, hear; Shanah, year. The letter Shin has the numerical value of three hundred. This number has many mystical and spiritual meanings found in numerous texts of the Jewish Tradition. Many sages have elucidated the symbolism of the three prongs of the Shin. Shin comes to represent the three names of God found together in the liturgy: Helper, Savior, and Shield; the three blessings of the Shema in the morning prayers; the three angels who came to the tent of Abraham and Sarah; Jonah’s three day stay in the whale’s belly; the three groupings of Jews: the Kohanim, the Levites, and the Israelites; and the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

HaOt humbly reminds us that the finite mind cannot comprehend the infinite.

While all other Hebrew Letters have a numeric value, the numeric value of the the four-pronged Shin is beyond the imagination. We cannot count that which is uncountable. Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah provides a picture of the mold that is used for the construction of the box for the head of the Tefillin. This picture has a remarkable likeness to the four-pronged Shin. The four prongs of the Shin have been imbued with many meanings: The physical world has four directions: north, south, east, and west; Tallit has four sets of fringes; the Lulav has four elements; the physical world has four elements: earth, air, fire, and water; the four angels of God: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Rafael; the four blessings of the Shema in the evening liturgy; the four groupings of Jews: the Kohanim, the Levites, the Israelites, and the Righteous Converts; the Tefillin contains parchments with four passages from the Torah; and the Levush, commenting on, Orach Chaim 32:43, teaches that the four-pronged Shin represents the four Matriarchs: Sarah, Rebbecah, Rachel, and Leah.

HaOt teaches us that the unknown is bound together with the known.

The three-pronged Shin and the four-pronged Shin are inextricably joined together. The letter Shin grammatically connects one thought to another (like in English the words: that or which). Just as two separate thoughts help to define each other, so too does the Shin’s attachment to the four-pronged Shin helps to define it. The space around the letters and around our lives is a defining partnership. The three prongs of the Shin and the four prongs of the Shin total seven. In Judaism the number seven has many meanings. There are seven days of Creation; seven days of Passover and Sukkot; seven weeks of Sefirat HaOmer (the counting of the days between Passover and Shavuot); seven years of the Shmittah (sabbatical cycle); seven sets of Shmittah cycles for the Yovel (Jubilee observance); a bride and groom circle seven times during their wedding and recite seven blessings; and there are seven arms of the Menorah.

HaOt is a gentle reminder to bring holiness into all thought and action.

The Zohar teaches that before putting on the Tefillin one should look first at the Shin with four prongs and then afterward look at the Shin with three prongs. It is taught in the Mishnah Berurah that the entire Shin should be visible. To fulfill what is written in Deuteronomy 28:10 "And all the nations of the earth shall see that the name of God is called upon you." The three-pronged Shin stands for the name Shaddai, the Almighty and Gemara, Berachot 6a explains that the four-pronged Shin is a reference to Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh, the four letter unpronounceable name of God.

Orach Chaim 32 in the Beit Yosef, and Rav Yitzchak Abohav quoting Rav Natrunai, teaches that the and the four-pronged Shin on the box of Tefillin that is found on the head represent the 613 Commandments in the Torah.

613 is the total of the following numerological factors:

6	is the word sheish means 6;
3	has 3 prongs;
4	has 4 prongs
300	in Gematria;
300	because the four prongs of the Shin represent the four letters of Tetragrammaton. In a numerological system known ATBaSH – the Alef is exchanged with Tav and Bet with Shin) the Tetragrammaton becomes Mem-Tzadi-Peh-Tzadi whose numerical equivalents are 40, 90, 80, 90. Which when added together equals 300. Thus: 6+3+4+300+300=613.

HaOt reminds us to let go of the erroneous assumption that we are defective and our world is damaged.

The Rabbis have said that there are two alphabets: the one we read and the one we understand retrospectively. HaOt symbolizes a third alphabet, which is found in the spaces around the letters.

The Kabbalists of Sefer HaTemunah express the idea that our world is incomplete. This incompleteness is not because something is missing, but rather everything is already there and we are, for a variety of reasons, not able to see it. Learning to see the space around the letters is as important as seeing the letters themselves.

The Sefer HaTemunah tells us that the four-pronged Shin represents the next cosmic cycle which will be based on Chesed, kindness. The cycle will be created when we bring into our lives the kindness of accepting ourselves and our world as pure and whole.

In our Morning Prayers we say, “the soul you have given me is pure.” HaOt represents the transformative potential that occurs when we reject the false assumption that there is a cosmic defectiveness to us and to our world. The Sefer HaTemunah tells us that when we bring HaOt into our vocabulary and into our lives, we will realize that personal and cosmic wholeness already exists.

The mystics understood this symbol as a key to paradigmatically changing our lives and the world. When we figure out how to pronounce the four-pronged Shin we will be able to create the words and ideas which will lead us to the actions that will radically move us toward wholeness.

Day after day the Stonecutter labored. The Stonecutter’s sweat and toil produced shapes carved from the rocks of the mountainside. Fashioning the rocks gave the Stonecutter unexplained purpose. Yet these shapes seemed useless and meaningless and so, within the Stonecutter’s heart there was emptiness. Something was missing from the shapes and from life. The Stonecutter’s tears bore witness to inner pain and struggle. At times the sadness, anxiety, and craving were too much to bear.

Overcome with spiritual exhaustion, the Stonecutter fell into a restless sleep and began to dream.

The weary Stonecutter’s mind sought out a better existence. The Stonecutter began to imagine a life of wealth, fame, and power. The Stonecutter became a wealthy powerful Sovereign dressed in beautiful clothing and enthroned on a pile of money. The Sovereign momentarily rejoiced in this newfound life, but the money and power quickly turned friends and lovers into resentful servants. The heavy clothing of arrogance grew hot and uncomfortable in the midday sun. Looking up to the sky the Sovereign blamed this great distress on the sun. Perhaps, the spent Sovereign thought, my feelings of angst and despair will be removed by becoming the sun.

The Sovereign became the Sun. The Sun brightened the world and created warmth and light, but the light didn’t brighten the internal darkness that the Sun felt and so the Sun began to blaze out of control with anger. This natural inclination for consumption burned everything and then burned out. With nothing left, the Sun became easily frustrated when a cloud drifted in front of it and oversha-dowed its light as if it were a veil. Perhaps, the Sun beamed, I will feel better as a cloud.

A new Cloud appeared on the horizon. For a few brief moments the billowy Cloud safely hovered in the sky. Floating and wandering aimlessly seemed serene, but it was not long before the Cloud’s deep feelings of emptiness prevailed. The cloud began to swell with tears and without warning uncontrollable sobs of rain quickly spewed out into the universe. The joy of this flooded release was short lived, as a wind quickly pushed the Cloud off into a haze. Perhaps, the Cloud huffed; if the wind can move a Cloud then I should become the wind.

A new Wind danced over the earth. The Wind tossed and turned in breezy somersaults. The freedom the Wind felt still did not release the inner turmoil. The Wind grew strong and began to spin and twist. The breeze became a swirling dust storm, then a tornado, and finally grew into a mighty hurricane. All of creation moved out of the way of the Wind except for a gigantic mountain. Perhaps, the Wind moaned, I should become a mountain.

A Mountain of stone pushed up out of the earth. The Mountain towered over the world. Wealth, Sun, Clouds, and Wind could not move this Mountain. The mountain stood silent and unmoved. In the motionless quiet there was still an unexplained emptiness that would not go away. Even though the mountain had a thick rock armor, the Mountain ached from deep within. The Mountain looked down its slope and saw a stonecutter carefully shaping rocks from the Mountain’s side. Perhaps, the Mountain thought, I should become a stonecutter so that I will be able to give shape to my own existence.

The Mountain turned back into the Stonecutter. The Stonecutter awoke from the dream refreshed and renewed. The feelings of emptiness and loneliness had disappeared.

The Stonecutter gazed upon the mountain and saw for the first time that it was the space around the rocks that defined their shapes into meaningful forms. As the Stonecutter’s consciousness grew there occurred a soulful recognition that the shapes of carved rock that once had seemed meaningless and useless were actually sculpted letters and that these letters could be formed into words and that words could guide actions. In a defining moment the Stonecutter realized that it was not the rocks that had been transformed, but rather it was the Stonecutter’s ability to see the world in a new way.

The Stonecutter felt the holiness and the blessings of the universe. The profound gift of the Stonecutter’s dream was the realization that wholeness and meaning are discovered within.

The availability of literature that will reveal and conceal the Shin is extensive. Gateways to wisdom, excellent text, bibliographies, and notes are contained in:

The Alef-Bet by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg; The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet by Rabbi Michael L. Munk; Sefer Otiyot: The Book of Letters by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner; The Oracle of Kabbalah by Richard Seidman; The Hebrew Alphabet: A Mystical Journey by Edward Hoffman; The Spice of Torah Gematria by Gutman G. Locks; On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism by Gershom Scholem; Tefillin by Dovid Oratz; and the original Hebrew texts especially Torah, Talmud, Codes, Commentaries, and the Kabbalistic Texts: Sefer Yitzirah, Sefer HaTemunah, Sefer HaKanah; Sefer HaBahir; and The Zohar.