Lamed
The Heart that Understands
- The Heart of Chave

Contemplation of the Heart

In the Letters of Rabbi Akiva, the full spelling of the letter lamed, lmd, is read short for the phrase: “Lav Mayvin Daat”, means, “a heart that understands knowledge.”  The numerical value of this phrase is 608 equals the ‘heart’ Lev 32 x Eve Chave 19 = The heart of Eve.
 
Avraham Ibn Ezra likens Adam to the secret of the brain, Chave, the secret of the heart and Satan the secret of the liver. 
 
Adam and Chave, male and female, are the prototype spiritual forces of giving and receiving.  The martial union and gift of male and female relates to the secret of knowledge, as is said, “And Adam knew his wife Chave.”  For this reason Adam and Chave are often seen to represent teacher and pupil.  The teacher contracts his intellect into a point (yud) in order to convey his teaching to his students, whereas the student nullifies his previous levels of conception to become a fitting vessel for the new, wondrous teachings of his teacher.
 
In particular, the form of the lamed represents the aspiration of the truly devoted pupil to learn from the mouth of the teacher.  The literal meaning of the letter lamed is “to learn” or “to teach.” The seed of wisdom, alluded to by the letter yud, descends from the brain of (Adam) to impregnate the full consciousness of the heart (Chave).  The heart aspires upwardly to receive this point of insight from the brain.  This is the secret of the form of the letter lamed, the heart ascending in aspiration to conceive and comprehend (understand knowledge) the point of wisdom, the yud situated at the top of the letter lamed. 
 
The Ba’al Shem Tov would place the palm of his hand on the heart of a Jewish child and bless him to be a warm Jew.  The palm, the power to actualize potential, becomes manifest—at the inner spiritual level—in the will “crown, keter” of the heart—to conceive and unite God’s will, the teachings of Torah.  The lamed, the heart, aspires upwardly and connects to the yud of Divine insight.  This is reflected in the form of the letter lamed, a kaf reaching upward to a yud.  This is also the secret of spiritual sequence hinted at in the letters of the word “kaley” (kaf-lamed-yud), a “vessel.”’ The vessel is the power to actualize potential and it is manifest in the aspiration of the heart that reaches upward to conceive the secret of Divine wisdom.  Throughout the Torah the heart symbolized the primary concept of the vessel, the secret of Chave.

Glossary:  Chave—Eve.