Building blocks of the soul

In this intensive study of Hebrew letters and words, Rabbi Matityahu Glazerson uses gematria (interpretive Jewish numerology) to reveal the mysterious correlation between Jewish ethics and practices, and the numeric values of the Hebrew words which name and describe them. This profound and lucid exploration uncovers the deep spiritual resonance of Jewish thought, and explains a variety of theological issues using the ancient Hebrew language as a key to understanding. Rabbi Glazerson compares the Hebrew letter to the atomjust as the atom is the basic module of physical life, so the Hebrew letter is the basic component that contains the essence of Jewish spiritual life. Hence, Jews have used gematria for centuries to understand spiritual and moral teachings embedded in the Hebrew language. The book begins with a detailed explanation of gematria, including: the basic concept that each Hebrew letter has an independent numeric value; the variety of ways in which the letters of a specific word can be explicated in order to compute the word's numeric value; and the relationship between seemingly unconnected words based on their related numeric values, which is the foundation of gematria interpretation. Anyone interested in gematria will find Rabbi Glazerson's introduction invaluable in both its scope and its accessibility. Rabbi Glazerson postulates that "Hebrew, the holy language, is the source of all languages," and he provides many examples of Hebrew words that are the roots of words in English and other languages. This hypothesis also opens a detailed discussion of specific Hebrew letters and their mystical significance, thereby providing a background for further investigation of the partnership between Hebrew letters and Jewish concepts and activities.