Hebrew
Because Kabbalah is such an important part of our beliefs, the Hebrew alef-bet is also an important part of our study. Hebrew letters are important for various reasons. The first is that each Hebrew letter has a meaning. This is much different then English where each letter is simply a sound. When looking at a Hebrew word not only can understanding come from the meaning of the word, but also from the meaning of each letter that compose it. In addition, each letter is also a number. In ancient Hebrew there was no separate way of writing numbers. The letters were the numbers. There is a practice called Gematria that can be used on Hebrew, Greek, Sanskrit, Aramaic, or any other language where the letters can also represent numbers. This practice is a way of finding yet more meaning in a word. The calculated sum of the letters gives a number that has spiritual meaning. Lastly, the Hebrew letters represent the paths (or Netivah) between the nodes (or Sefirah) in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
