LAMED

Lamed is the tallest letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Beit, the only one rising above the upper line of the letters. With the letters immediately before and after it, the word KING is formed. The crown is painted on the full moon, signifying God, the King of Kings. Being at the centre of the Aleph-Beit, just like the heart is at the centre of the human body, lamed also stands for the heart. The word meaning heart really says "two lameds", (the letter beit is also the number 2) and, with its mirror image, forms the picture of a heart, open to receive the flame of God's love. The letter jud, the smallest of all the letters, is at the top of lamed. It is like a small flame, showing us God's humility, as He makes Himself small, so that we can receive Him into our hearts. The word 'heart', when reversed, says 'don't'. The Torah begins with the letter beit and ends with the letter lamed. The Sages say that between the two words of 'heart', signifying love and sincerity, and 'don't', i.e., awareness of what to avoid, the whole of the Torah, God's teaching on how to live our lives is fulfilled. This is symbolised on the painting by the two words on the beginning and end of the Torah scroll. In the centre of the scroll, the expression 'the HEART that UNDERSTANDS WISDOM' is written. The initial letters of these words are LaMeD, (Only the consonants are written in the Hebrew) so the name of this letter is short for the expression of 'a Heart that Understands Wisdom'. Lamed has the numerical value of 30, the number of the days of the month, signifying both the days of the waxing and waning of the moon, and the menstrual cycle of woman. Thus lamed stands for the moon and for a woman between the ages of 20 and 60. The word LAMED means both 'to learn' and 'to teach'. The great teacher comes down to the level of his student so that he can learn with him the transcendent mysteries of God. Through this learning we are to become perfectly transparent to God's Infinite Light, thus making us instrumental in the creation of a 'new heaven and a new earth'. The flowers of learning burst forth from the book and the Torah on the painting, surrounding everything with their vibrant, lifegiving green leaves and mysterious beauty. LAMED is the root of the word meaning 'oxgoad'. This instrument was used by Shamgar who slew "six hundred Philistine men". It is symbolic of the power to direct and control animal instinct, giving us the ability to overcome evil inclinations. The man at the bottom of the picture is looking at the oxgoad in his hand. In every generation, there are 36 tzadikim, holy men, whose prayers uphold this world, but in the World to Come, there will be 30 orders of these tzadikim. The earth on the painting is surrounded by 36 letters which stand for the tzadikim, who participate in some mysterious way in God's sustaining the world by His immanent(?) presence. The soaring tower represents man's ever-soaring desire to understand the universe. The 30 different stages of the waxing and waning moon are arranged in the shape of a womb, showing the intimate connection between all the elements contained in this painting, between love and knowledge, self discipline and participation in God's work of creating a 'new earth and new heaven', the importance of the feminine aspect of knowing God intuitively through clinging to Him by love.