Sometimes it takes a push from your wife to get you going.
At age 32, after having married and had four daughters with his wife Rochel, Rabbi Mordechai Zev Nemtzov of Los Angeles finally realized his long-time dream: to write a book about the mystical meanings of the letters of the Alef-Bais. Ever since he was a child, he felt bad that his teachers, when instructing him how to read, had never divulged the deep explanations behind the holy letters. After being exposed to Kabbalistic teachings, he was astounded to find that there is so much more to an Alef and a Bais than merely their sounds!
An Alef, as we find out in Nemtzov’s magnificently illustrated masterpiece titled The ARTiculated Alef-Bais, is made up of two Yud’s and a Vav, the upper Yud representing G-d, the lower Yud, the neshama (soul), and the Vav connecting the two, the Torah. The second letter Bais means bayis (house). G-d created the world to be His dwelling-place and the holy Temple, in particular, to be His house. These are just a couple of the many esoteric, tantalizing secrets that the author serves up.
We are treated to other secrets too. Each letter has a numerical value as well, the Alef standing for one, the Bais for two, etc. But it goes beyond that. Yud, the tenth letter, stands not only for the number ten, but for the Ten Sefiros (channels) through which the world receives its energy. Since man is created in the image of G-d, man, too, is made up of these Sefiros which in turn give him the Divine power to serve G-d and spread the light of His Torah. This book is full of not only knowledge as information, but knowledge as inspiration.
It’s been years since Nemtzov, who grew up, one of ten siblings, in Crown Heights and Lakewood, N.J., got it into his head to reveal his new-found knowledge to the public. (It’s possible that having a prolific author and scholar for a great-uncle, Rabbi Nissan Mindel, might have served as a stimulus too.) But the resolve to publish stems mainly from his years as a Hebrew school teacher, instructing young children to read the Alef-Bais. With his pupils he excitedly shared the secrets he had learned. He also drew sketches of the letters for them, embodying these explanations. These teachings and sketches turned out to be the embryo for the book.
It took, however, marriage and a wife who realized how much his idea was burning within him. One day Rochel finally told her husband, “That’s it. You’re doing the book. Don’t worry about anything else.” Nemtzov plunged into his work, persevering until it was done. He was fortunate to find sponsors who shared his passion for the Alef-Bais to help him with the expenses — the Rechnitz family of Los Angeles. The book is dedicated to their patriarchs Mr. Henry Rechnitz A”H and Dr. Benjamin Massouda A”H who emigrated from Poland and Egypt respectively to settle in Los Angeles and Toronto where they raised generations of Torah-educated Jews and generously supported the chinuch institutions in their communities.
Undoubtedly, the best part of the book are the colorful, vibrant illustrations on each of the glossy pages of the book which capture the personality of each letter. (His artistic abilities, Nemtzov insists, are inherited from his father Sholom Nemtzov, a portrait artist, whose portrait of the Lubavitcher Rebbe wearing tefillin is well-known.) Take the Dalet, for example, the root of which means dal or poor. It’s shaped like a bent-over person, its top arm reaching out, the implication being that a poor, humble person doesn’t mind asking for assistance. The Gimmel, the root of which means gomel or give, resembles a wealthy man, his extra-thick “foot” running forward to the neighboring letter (Dalet) to help him out.
Readers of all ages have much to learn here. One can spend hours poring over the pictures and delving into the insights. As the author never tires of reminding us: “These are just a few of the many secrets of these letters.”
The ARTiculated Alef-Bais is available at your local Jewish bookstore, online at AmazingJewishBooks.com and Amazon.com.
by Sterna Citron
