Aleph (א) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Numeric value: 1
Sound: silent
Meaning: 1. master 2. teacher 3. wondrous
Story
The Alter Rebbe1 wanted to teach his son the aleph-bet. He called one of his disciples into his study to discuss the matter. “You have a mitzvah and I have a mitzvah,” he said. “Your mitzvah is to support your family. My mitzvah is to teach my son. Let’s trade mitzvahs. You will teach my son, and I will pay you so that you can support your family.” The Alter Rebbe went on to explain exactly how this instruction should proceed. “You’ll begin with the letter aleph. What is an aleph?” The Alter Rebbe continued melodically in Yiddish: “A pintele fun oybin, a pintele fun untin, a kav b’emtza—a dot above, a dot below, and a diagonal line suspended in between.”1
Design
What is an aleph?
If it were only a random arrangement of pen strokes designed to prompt the reader to say the sound “ah,”2 this question would be irrelevant. Every aspect of the aleph’s construction has been Divinely designed to teach us something. Contrast this with a child learning to read English for the first time. He is never taught why a capital “A” looks like a teepee and a lowercase “a” looks like a soap bubble stuck to a wall.
But Hebrew is different. The design of an aleph is actually made up of three different letters: the letter yud (or “a dot”) above; a yud (or dot) below; and a diagonal vav, or line suspended in between.
The yud below represents us, spirits of G-d that are earth-bound. The only way we can grasp G‑d’s wisdom—to the extent that a person is capable—is by being humble. When we realize that we are but a dot or a speck compared to the All-Mighty and All-Powerful G‑d, we become a vessel to receive His Divine wisdom.
The diagonal vav represents our faith—which unites us with G‑d.
It also represents the רקיע, the gap or space, a division between us and G-d, between the upper and the lower, heaven and earth.
Gematria
The gematria of aleph is one, representing the one (or oneness of) G‑d, the starting point of our faith.
On a more complex level, the form of the aleph comprises three letters: two _yud_s and a vav. The gematria of the yud is 10—two _yud_s being 20. A vav is 6; the sum of all three totaling 26. One of the great names of G‑d is the Four Letter Name י-ה-ו-ה, the Tetragrammaton, or Ineffable Name. The gematria of the Yud (10), the Hei (5), the Vav (6) and the Hei (5) totals 26, the same as the yud-vav-yud of the aleph. Through the connection of their respective numeric values, the aleph represents G‑d’s Ineffable Name.
Footnotes
Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi (1747-1812), founder of Chabad, known as the Alter Rebbe ↩︎