Let My People Know

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz: “A tale within a tale within a tale.”

It is the very letters of the Bible, and not only the sentences, that reveal God’s will.

This is one of the characteristics of the Bible, making it the unique basis of Torah Scriptures and differentiating it from other sacred works like the Mishnah.

The holiness of the Bible is in the very letters of the text.

Naturally, this makes for a difference in relation to the study of these books, as tradition has shown.

Every letter and sign in the Bible is pored over as a Divine mystery waiting to be revealed.

The combinations of the letters in words and sentences are, of course, the manner in which their meaning is communicated to us. But it may well be a secondary meaning.

One may make all sorts of combinations, on a variety of levels, and obtain 600,000 possible revelations.

As the Ramban said, all of the Torah spells out the names of God.

It is a list of His names, very little of which has any meaning for us.

It is like a secret code with an infinite number of possible interpretations, a tale within a tale within a tale.

Each one is equally valid and holy.

–Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz