Ayin — the 16th Hebrew letter

ע

Gematria value 70 · sounds: Silent in most modern speech — anciently a deep guttural from the throat; carries its vowel

Symbolism

Eye, seeing, perception; the spring; seventy — nations of the world, elders of Israel, faces of Torah

What the letter is built from

Traditionally a vav and a zayin joined in a rooted trunk — two lights channeled into one stem; the pictograph is simply an eye

gem: 13

Its first root in Scripture

The first ayin root is erev — 'and there was evening'

b: Gen · c: 1 · v: 5 · word: עֶרֶב · root: ערב · meaning: evening

Messianic thread

'The lamp of the body is the eye' — Yeshua's teaching on the single eye is ayin's sermon. Seventy nations will stream to the light; the suspended ayin of Psalm 80 hangs God's watching eye over the ravaged vine (see Text Anomalies).

In the mystical tradition

Torah has seventy faces; Israel's seventy elders drank from one Spirit. The eye and the spring share one name: what you gaze at, you drink.

Wisdom of the letter

Ayin tovah — the 'good eye' of generosity — versus the evil eye of envy: Hebrew locates the heart's health in how it sees.

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