Book of Formation - Sefer Yetzirah

Chapter IV

Mishnah 4, part 1  (Mishnah 16 *)

Mishnah * IV.4.1.  How did He join them (the letters of the Hebrew alphabet)?

Two stones build two houses.

Three stones build six houses.

Four stones build twenty-four houses.

Five stones build one hundred twenty houses.

Six stones build seven hundred twenty houses.

Seven stones build five thousand forty houses.

 Companion

Mishnah IV.4.1.  [IV.16]  stones - The text is now calling each letter a "stone." Although all letters of the Hebrew alphabet are equal for the purpose of building words, this Mishnah only speaks about the doublets.

Two stones - Two different letters, which is to say consonants. The twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are all consonants. Readers supply vowels according to grammar and context. Sometimes, the location of a word in a sentence indicates that it is a noun, for instance. Someone who knows the Hebrew language associates the letters that they are looking at with a noun that they know. Similarly, context suggests that a word is a verb, a pronoun, or another type of word.

In Hebrew, verbs have elaborate conjugations when compared to English. A prefix, suffix, or both strongly suggest the meaning of a verb and how to pronounce it. In this case, a knowledge of grammar governs reading and pronunciation.

Two stones build two houses - The permutation of two letters is two sequences. A frequent example uses the letters Alef and Beit since both permutations spell Hebrew words. Alef-Beit spells 'father'. Beit-Alef spells 'come' (or 'came'). Each set of two letters contains a vowel between them. Vowels are the essence of a syllable.

One consonant stone is a voice sound to introduce a vowel, and then the vowel is tapered off into a closing consonant stone. A vowel is thereby flanked by consonants. Linguists call the voice sound that precedes a vowel the onset. The voice sound that follows a vowel is called the coda. Lessons in the Book of Formation concern the Hebrew language since the universe is created from the Hebrew words of the Book of Genesis.

A syllable is the unit of speech. Each of Hebrew's two-consonant syllables is a house – a word that may have content like a house with furniture. A house with utilities and/or furniture is livable. Some sequence of letters form houses without content – without apparent meaning in Hebrew. No one "lives" in these houses. These empty houses are available – in the real estate market. Someone may come along and attach meaning to the otherwise empty syllable or syllables.

For some syllables, the onset or the coda is the letter Alef. The letter Alef represents constriction of the throat so that no air passes the vocal cords and then into the mouth. The effort to constrict the throat is comparable to the effort of moving the tongue or the lips, for instance. Therefore, the letter Alef – the effort of silence – is as much a consonant as the other twenty-one letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Three stones build six houses - Most words in the Hebrew language are built from roots of three letters. In Scripture, one letter stands alone as a word one time. We've just seen words of two letters. Occasionally, the case can be made that a Hebrew root consists of four letters.

Since nouns have plural forms, verbs are conjugated, and so on, Hebrew words in practice are spelled with five, six, seven, or more, letters. A few longer foreign words appear in books of the Bible. Median and Persian words appear in the Books of Daniel and Esther, for example.

The total number of houses enumerated in this mishnah is 5,912. Does the Hebrew language only have 5,912 words?

No. Two letters build the framework for different words. Any of the ten vowels can be inserted between the two consonants. Two stones build two houses and each house supports ten vowels. This gives us twenty words in the language from just two letters.

* Definitions and Pronunciation