November 21, 2018 · 00:04:12
Tehilim Perek 119: Letter KUF Hello everybody, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. Today’s Nach Daily will discuss the letter KUF. Kuf represents a heKuf, border, a passageway, a point of integration and Kedusha, holiness. As the eye of a needle is called the Kof Hamchat, this all points towards transitioning and moving to another, higher plane. Kuf comes after the latter Tzaddik because Kedusha, holiness, comes only after one has reached the level of a Tzaddik. After we have worked on ourselves, and even refrained from some things that are permissible, we can begin to receive and experience the higher level of Kedusha represented by the letter Kuf, transitioning from one level to another. This transitioning of levels can also work in the negative. As the passuk says, “lo t’hey Kadesha m’bnos Yisrael, there shouldn’t be a harlot from among the daughters of Israel. We find here that a zona, harlot,is called a Kadesha, which means that this particular woman descended to a lower level by separating herself in a lowly manner. Both the word for Kedusha, holiness, and Kadesha, a harlot, share the same etymology. They both stem from the letter Kuf, a point of integration or moving from level to level in either direction, for good or bad. The first time that the letter Kuf is used in the beginning of a word in the Torah is when it says, “VayiKra Elokim la’or yom, v’lachoshech Kara lyla, God called the light day and the darkness night.” The act of