Mem — the 13th Hebrew letter

מ ם

Gematria value 40 · sounds: M as in 'mother'; sofit ם seals words shut · has a final (sofit) form

Symbolism

Water, flow, womb, source; forty — the number of testing and transformation (flood, Sinai, wilderness)

What the letter is built from

Open mem: a kaf with a vav at its side, a wave with an opening; final mem: the same form sealed shut on every side

Its first root in Scripture

The first mem root is mayim itself — the waters the Spirit hovered over

b: Gen · c: 1 · v: 2 · word: מָיִם · root: מים · meaning: water

Messianic thread

Living water is mem's promise — and the one closed mem inside a word in all Scripture stands in Isaiah 9:6, sealed in the birth announcement of the Prince of Peace: the concealed King inside the open stream (see the Text Anomalies tool).

In the mystical tradition

Open mem is the revealed Torah, closed mem the concealed; forty is the weeks of formation in the womb and days of Moses on the mountain — mem gestates.

Wisdom of the letter

Mayim, the most common picture of Torah itself: 'everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.'

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