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Kaf, the palm and the crown

The twenty-two letters · article 12 of 23

Value 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.

Kaf is the eleventh letter and has the value twenty. Its name is a common word: kaf means the palm of the hand and the pan of a scale, and Sefer Yetzirah speaks of "kaf zekhut and kaf chovah," the pan of merit and the pan of guilt. Kaf has a final form, written at the end of a word; the Talmud teaches that these final forms, Mem, Nun, Tzadi, Peh, Kaf, had been forgotten and that the prophets restored them. Sefer Yetzirah places it in the group Gimel, Yod, Kaf, Kof.

In Sefer Yetzirah, Kaf is one of the seven doubles, with a hard or soft sound. G-d "made the letter Kaf reign and bound a crown to it," and through it formed Chamah, the sun, in the world, the fourth day of the week in time and the left ear in the body. Like each double, it stands between a good and its opposite, which the book lists: life and death, wealth and poverty, dominion and servitude.

In tractate Shabbat, the children's sentence comes to its end: "if you do so, the Holy One, blessed be He, feeds you, is gracious to you, does good to you, gives you an inheritance, and binds for you a crown in the world to come." Kaf gives keter, the crown. The whole sequence, from Zayin to Kaf, flows from "gemol dalim": do good to the poor.

What is this crown of the world to come? Tractate Berakhot reports a saying Rav often had on his lips: "The world to come is not like this world. There is no eating or drinking there, no commerce, no jealousy, no hatred, no rivalry; but the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads and delight in the radiance of the Shekhinah." One may bring this saying together with the crown promised by the children of Shabbat 104a. The Alphabet of Rabbi Akiva sees in Kaf the palm struck against the other, in great joy, at the feast of the righteous in the world to come.

Twenty, the open palm and the crowned head. The word kaf means the palm and the pan in which merit is weighed; the Talmud reads in the letter the crown awaiting the one who gives. One may read these two images together: the palm that opens for the poor, and the crown placed on the head of the righteous.

Source text

ז"ח ט"י כ"ל ואם אתה עושה כן הקב"ה זן אותך וחן אותך ומטיב לך ונותן לך ירושה וקושר לך כתר לעוה"ב

Zayin Chet, Tet Yod, Kaf Lamed: if you do so, the Holy One, blessed be He, feeds you, is gracious to you, does good to you, gives you an inheritance, and binds for you a crown in the world to come.

Shabbat 104a:5, Wikisource Talmud Bavli, CC-BY-SA.

Key terms

HebrewTransliterationMeaning
כkaftwenty; palm, pan of a scale
כתרketercrown
כף זכותkaf zekhoutthe pan of merit
חמהhamathe sun, which Sefer Yetzirah associates with it

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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