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Shin, the fire with three branches

The twenty-two letters · article 22 of 23

Three hundred, mother of fire in Sefer Yetzirah. It opens the name Shaddai, but also the word sheker, and falsehood has no feet.

Shin is the twenty-first letter and its value is three hundred. It has no final form. Its shape carries three branches, and Rabbi Akiva relies on them: "just as this shin has three branches."

For Sefer Yetzirah, shin is one of the three mother letters, alef, mem, shin, "a great secret, wondrous and hidden." From shin comes fire, from mem water, and air, alef, decides between them, like the pointer between the two pans of a scale. "He made the letter shin king over fire, He bound a crown to it," and formed through it the heavens in the world, heat in the year and the head in the soul; for "the heavens were created from fire." In the classification of sounds, shin belongs to the letters of the teeth, zayin, samekh, shin, reish, tzadi.

The Talmud reports the reading of the alphabet that children once gave in the study hall, which the Sages came to relate to Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. "Shin: sheker, falsehood; tav: emet, truth." Why are the letters of sheker adjacent, and those of emet far apart? Because falsehood is found everywhere, and truth rarely. Why do the letters of sheker each stand on a single foot, and those of emet on a base as wide as a brick? Because truth stands, and falsehood does not stand.

The Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva gives two texts. In the account of the letters presenting themselves before the Holy One, blessed be He, before creation, shin pleads: through me Your name is called, as it is written "this is My name forever," and I am the beginning of the name Shaddai. The answer is no: vanity and falsehood, shav and sheker, are called through you; falsehood has no feet, and neither do you; how could the world be created through a letter that has no feet? And shin went out, downcast. In the other version, shin evokes the teeth, shinayim, of the wicked, which the Holy One, blessed be He, will break three times, in this world, in the days of the Messiah and in the World to Come, "just as this shin has three branches."

The sources make shin a letter of fire and of sharpness. It opens the name Shaddai and it opens the word falsehood; the Talmud and Rabbi Akiva both say that falsehood cannot stand. And Sefer Yetzirah recalls that the fire of shin never goes alone: air decides between it and the water of mem, like the pointer of a scale.

Source text

מפני ששוא ושקר שניהם נקראו בך, ושקר אין לו רגלים אף את אין לך רגלים, אות שאין לו רגלים איך אברא בו את העולם

Because vanity and falsehood are both called through you; falsehood has no feet, and you too have no feet. A letter that has no feet, how could I create the world through it?

Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Akiba, Aleph Bet of Rabbi Akiba (Version 2) 4, Otzar Midrashim, New York, 1915, Public Domain.

Key terms

HebrewTransliterationMeaning
שchinthree hundred; mother letter of fire
שקרchékerfalsehood
שדיChaddaïone of the divine names

Sources

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In the same section

The letters, stones of creationThree mothers, seven doubles, twelve simples. For Sefer Yetzirah, G-d formed the world by engraving and combining twenty-two letters.Alef, the first letterValue one, a breath. Alef complained that it did not open creation; G-d reserved for it the first word at Sinai.Bet, the houseValue two, the letter that opens the Torah. Closed on three sides, open to the front: a house, and a blessing.Gimel, the one who givesValue three. The foot of Gimel stretches toward Dalet, for the one who does good runs after the poor.Dalet, the poor oneValue four. Dalet makes itself available to Gimel, but turns its face away, so that the gift is given in secret.Heh, the open doorValue five. This world was created through Heh: open below for whoever wants to leave, with an opening above for whoever returns.Vav, the hook and six directionsValue six. A straight line that joins, the hook of the Tabernacle pillars, and the seal of the six directions of the world.Zayin, the crowned letterValue seven. Moses found G-d binding crowns to the letters, and Zayin is among those that carry three.Chet, life at the summitValue eight. Scribes draw a hump on the roof of Chet: He lives, at the height of the world.Tet, the letter of goodValue nine. The first Tet in the Torah is that of "it is good." Seeing a Tet in a dream is a good sign.Yod, the smallest letterValue ten. The world to come was created through Yod, for the righteous there are few, and their heads are bowed.Kaf, the palm and the crownValue twenty. Kaf is the palm and the pan of the scale; the children of the house of study read in it the crown promised in the world to come.Lamed, the heart that learnsThirty, the letter of Tishrei in Sefer Yetzirah. Rabbi Akiva reads its name as a heart that understands knowledge.Mem, water and the hidden wordForty, mother of water in Sefer Yetzirah. Open in the middle of a word, closed at the end: a revealed word, a hidden word.Nun, the faithful one bent, then uprightFifty. Bent in the middle of a word, straight at the end: the humble faithful one and the upright one. For Rabbi Akiva, the lamp of the soul.Samekh, support for those who fallSixty, a closed letter that stood by a miracle in the tablets. The children of the study hall read in it: support the poor.Ayin, the eye of the TorahSeventy, a letter of the throat. The children read in it the poor; Rabbi Akiva, the eye of the Torah, light of every light.Peh, the open and closed mouthEighty, bent in the middle of a word, straight at the end. The children of the study hall read in it: open mouth, closed mouth.Tzadi, the righteous one bent, then uprightNinety. The Talmud adds the bending of the righteous to that of the faithful: hence the Torah was given with bowed head.Kuf, holiness that waitsOne hundred. The Talmud reads in it the Holy One who turns His face from the wicked, yet turns His crown toward him and leaves him an open door.Reish, the head and the fallTwo hundred. Head of all things for Rabbi Akiva, the wicked for the children of the study hall: the same letter carries the beginning and the fall.Shin, the fire with three branchesThree hundred, mother of fire in Sefer Yetzirah. It opens the name Shaddai, but also the word sheker, and falsehood has no feet.Tav, the mark of truthFour hundred, the last letter. For the children of the study hall, truth on wide bases; for Rabbi Akiva, the first to come forward.

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