The Significance of a Single Letter

In Genesis 17: 5, Abram receives a new name, Abraham, following the covenant enacted with God.

The Hebrew name Abram is rendered in Hebrew (or Aramaic) as alef-bet-resh-mem (אנרם) and means “exalted father.” The name Abraham is rendered alef-bet-resh-heh-mem ( אנרהם) and means “father of the multitude.” The change of the name is effected by the addition of a single letter, the letter heh (ה).

There is much symbolic significance of the addition of this single letter.

Consider first that the letter heh is used as the definite article in Hebrew – it is added to words in the same manner that we use the word “the” in English (although, in Hebrew the article adjoins the object, to form one word). There is, therefore, definition and specificity associated with the letter heh, just as “the chair” creates specificity and definiteness over “a chair”: the definite article expresses a known object, not a mere generalism. Thus, Abram’s receipt of the letter heh suggests a type of definitive expression or comprehension in the articulation of his new name.

The letter heh is also the letter repeated in the Tetragrammaton, the ineffable word ( יהוה). Resultantly, the Tetragrammaton is sometimes represented hieroglyphically by the letter heh instead of all four letters, since the letter heh is the only letter repeated in the Name.

Considering both these principles, consider further that when Rabbi’s read aloud the law, the four-lettered and ineffable name is vocalized – not as Jehovah (or Yahweh) – but as “Hashem” האשם, also denoted 'ה) meaning, literally "The Name." This is done to avoid desecrating the Holy Word or trivializing the Name of God by attempting to speechify it (equivalent perhaps to

the Commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain (Ex. 20: 7; Deut. 5: 11)). When a Rabbi reads aloud, “Hashem,” he means that the word being read in the text is the sacred, ineffable, four-letteredname of God. Not any name: The Name of God!

In Bibles translated into English, the fourlettered ineffable name is translated (or substituted) by the word “LORD,” in all uppercase letters. This signifies that the translator is constructing the fourlettered name (יהוה). When the word Lord is used (not in uppercase letters) the word “Adonai” (אדוני) is signified. The word “God” is used for “Elohim” (אלהים).

The use of the definite article “heh”, as “the” in vocalizing the four-lettered name as “Hashem,” both representing the four-lettered name hieroglyphically in the appearance of the letter heh appended to the word “name,” while providing the definite article to form “the Name,” should not be overlooked by the curious student.

Next, consider that, when depicted by itself, the letter heh also means “Behold!” In scripture it is often translated as “Lo!” Thus, there is an inference of witnessing and declaring (or testifying) by inclusion of this letter; a “beholding” of the “Tetragrammaton” in Abram’s name to render him thus, the “father of the multitude.”

The Semitic peoples lacked a numbering system distinct their alphabet – the letters

themselves were also used as numbers for quantitative purposes in setting forth measurement. The letter heh represents the number 5. It is the feminine principle in the Tetragrammaton that pairs masculine and feminine principles within the single word, yod-heh-vav-heh, יהוה.

The first letter of the Tetragrammaton is yod ( י), which, in Aramaic, has a numerical value of 10. Heh, the second letter, is one-half of 10 (or, in other words, there are two hehs to each yod). This is often taken to symbolize the apparent duality of being, as day and night, above and below, masculine and feminine, even electricity and magnetism (from a modern perspective).

The letter heh has, therefore, been associated with the “grace” of God (as in the balancing agent, the number 2 is an opposition of ones), and also the feminine principle, the “Shekinah,” the indwelling of Deity made manifest between the Cherubim upon the Ark of the Covenant as witnessed in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon.

Abram, the “exalted father,” thus receives the grace of God, by the witnessing of the LORD, and becomes Abraham, the “father of the multitude.”

This is further symbolized in the Gematria of the names Abram and Abraham. The addition of the number 5 to Abram takes the number of the name Abram from 243 to 248. There are 248 positive “mitzvot” (commandments) specified in the Torah (and 365 negative commandments).

Thus, the sum of Abraham’s new name is the sum of the good deeds required to fulfill the law.

In the principle of Gematria, a means of interpreting Biblical texts, words of like numerical value are supposedly associable and related. For example, the number of “mercy,” resh-chet-mem (רחם) is 248. So is the Hebrew phrase “in the image of God” (Gen. 1: 27; “in the image of God He created him”) (בצלם אלהים). (Interestingly, from the Masonic perspective at least, the number of the word caphresh-caph-bet-vav (“karkob”) ( כרכוב ), which means compass, is also 248. Consider also, that Abraham was given the covenant in flesh by performing circumcision.)

The number 3 raised to the fifth power is 243 (the number of Abram). Interestingly, there are five dimensions outlined in Rabbinical Judaism - the dimensions of space, time, and soul. Space comprises three dimensions (think of the x, y, and z axes) and time and soul one dimension each. Together they make five. This is outlined in the famous book, traditionally attributed to Abraham, the Sefer Yetzirah. The mastery of the dimensions of space, time, and soul is signified, the sages say, by the addition of the number 5 to create the name Abraham.

Genesis 17:4 reads: “As for me, behold (ה), my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” The “father of many nations” is synonymous with the name Abraham, which is then given to Abram in the next verse.

The Bible therefore introduces Abraham by introducing the letter heh first, and then enumerates the name with the letter heh included within. This is all the more interesting because Abram’s wife, Sarai (שָׂרָ֑י), is given the new name Sarah (שָׂרָ֖ה), and thereafter rendered fruitful to bear Isaac, by the substitution of the letter “Yod” (masculine) to “Heh”(feminine) (Gen. 17: 15).

Note the symbolism in this substitution. The division of yod into two creates two hehs by which the dual world was wrought, whereby through transformation and reconciliation, the whole may be joined together, just as the union of Abraham and Sarah produced Isaac, and, thence, the 12 tribes.