Bet – A Letter
Portrait
©1996 Stan Tenen
BET is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet (corresponding to the
Greek "Beta", the Arabic "Ba", and our English "B"),
and the first letter of the Hebrew text of Genesis. The meaning of the
name of the letter, "Bet" in Hebrew, is "House" – and
what a house does and represents. Thus, Bet represents the distinction
between inside and outside. This is the same distinction that generates
the alphabet from our model: the First Hand vortex inside, representing
a flame, with a tetrahedral "meeting tent" outside, representing
the vessel that holds and protects the flame. Our paper, The
Light in the Meeting Tent, explains how this inside/outside relationship
is also the relationship of asymmetry and symmetry, of mind and body, of
our private conscious inner world, and the objective outer world we share.
There is a traditional teaching that all of the Torah is contained in
the first letter. What is in the first letter is also in the first word,
and in the first verse, and in the first paragraph, and in the first chapter.
In modern terms, this teaching is telling us that the Torah is a hierarchical
structure, somewhat (although imprecisely) like a hologram. The image is
always the same; a larger hologram provides a sharper image. So, in principle,
if we understand the first letter, that should tell us a great deal about
what follows.
Mathematician G. Spencer Brown, in his Laws of Form, explains
how the "First Distinction," the distinction between inside and
outside, can in itself, in principle, generate whole worlds. Mathematicians
have shown that all of formal logic can be derived from the distinction
between inside and outside.
In the Talmud, a person of integrity is said to be toko k-varo, "their
insides are the same as their outsides" – they are morally transparent.
A person whose consciousness is in harmony with their place in the outer
world is a Tzaddik, a saintly person. This is because, with no distinction
between inside and outside, there is no motive for their personal will.
Such a person would, in a sense, be without willful ego. It is possible
that this is why Moses receives the Torah. Seemingly paradoxically, in
spite of his confrontations with Pharoah, and his leadership of the nation,
in the Talmud Moses is known as the humblest of persons. Thus, a person
who truly comprehends the meaning of the initial letter of the Torah has
the humility, the "righteousness," that qualifies them to receive
and carry it. |
– B) pointing (
– I) in itself (
– T).
BeT partitions ALePh. BeT, as the first possible distinction, distinguishes
what is within from what is without. From BeT on there is difference, complement,
counterpoint, and contrast. There is spirit and matter, flame and coal,
wave and particle. BeT is a BIT, it takes a BYTe, it parts ALePh in two
(Tween). BeT forms a BooTh BeTween BoTh. That is why BeT, two and duality,
is a House. As a prefix BeT means In or With. 