November 15, 2018 · 00:04:00
Tehilim Perek 119: Letter Pei Hello everybody, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. In today’s Nach Daily we’ll be discussing the letter PEI. The letter Pei represents Pesicha, opening, Pesach, an entrance way, and superficial externalities. The mouth is called the Peh after the letter Pei because the mouth opens. Your mouth is what allows you to eat and nourish the body. Without it you wouldn’t be able to communicate your thoughts and desires. The Pei therefore represents the faculty of speech which comes through the mouth. The ability to bring your penimiyus to the chitzoniyus, inner self to the outer self,” is essentially self-actualization. The first time that the Pei is used in the Torah is when it says “v’ruach Elokim mirachePhes al Pnai hamayim,” and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the water. Pei here is used to describe the surface, the outer part, of the water. When contrasting the letter Pei to the letter Beis, we see that the Beis represents the penimiyus, internality, or inside of a house while the Pei represents the external, front of the house. Look at the letter Pei written as in a Sefer Torah, and stare at the negative space within the letter itself. The letter Beis will emerge! It is actually contained in the negative space of the Pei because the Pei represents externality while the Beis represents internality. To go a step deeper: We know that everything in this word can be used to serve Hashem. Anything physica