REISH Secets of the Letters

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Tehilim Perek 119: Letter REISH Hello everybody, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. In today’s Nach Daily we’ll discuss the letter REISH. The Reish represents the Rosh, leadership, head of something, the ability to rule and influence. Rochev denotes expansiveness and the ability to take over. The sequence of letters of Tzaddik, Kuf, and Reish explains that one who becomes a Tzaddik and attains a higher level of Kedusha, merits to be the Rosh, at the top or a leader. The first time that the letter Reish appears at the beginning of a word is the first word in the Torah, beReishis, in the beginning. Hashem is the Rosh, Head of the world. The Reish can also mean the head of something in a negative sense. It can be read as Rush, spelled reish, shin. “Rush v’ani, destitute and poor.” We can use our free choice to become leaders in a proper way of Kedusha, or use it to become extremely needy and dependent on other people as in the word, Reykanos, empty-headedness. This is all implied from the letter Reish. Rasha, an evil person, is also rooted in the letter Reish. A person can go either way, to become the “Rosh u’manhig, true leader,” or become a “Rasha, a base, evil person” who is Reik, empty of Mitzvos. The Reish also represents the Yetzer Hara, Evil Inclination. One of the reasons given as to why the Daled in the verse “Shema Yisrael, Hashem Elokenu, Hashem echaD, Hashem is One” is written larger than those before it, is so as not to confuse the Daled with the Reish, which would cause the word to be read as “acher, another” implying that there’s more than one Hashem. The Yetzer Hara tries to split our awareness of God by intimating that there’s more than one Cause and Source to our lives. The Reish can thus represent the Yetzer Hara, who can fool a person into becoming an evil Rasha. Kabbalistically, the letter Reish corresponds to the Sefira of Chochma, Wisdom. This is the Rosh, Head of all of the 10 Sefiros because wisdom begins in our minds. As the passuk says, “Reishis chochma yiras Hashem, the beginning of wisdom is to fear God.” The shape of the Reish is like that of a poor person bending over, but if you continue to draw its rounded top, you get a Chuf, which represents the most elevated of all the Sefiros: Kesser, Crown. This teaches us that we can elevate our Rosh, head and mind, to the level of Kesser. A crown can rest on our heads like that of a king. Furthermore, Reish is numerically 200, which is 10 times Chuf (Kesser) 20, to demonstrate that the crown rests on a person’s skull. Reish represents the Rosh, head, but it doesn’t signify with what the head is filled! It means the head itself. We can fill our minds with great lofty things, with Torah, Tefilah, Mitzvos and Kedusha, or with Rishas, evil, cynicism, jealousy, spite and malice. We can be absent minded, empty headed and fatalistic, or inspired, motivated, and energized by life. It’s really all a matter of what’s going on in our minds. Truthfully, there’s no better way to get ahead in life, to make it to the top, than to use our minds in a productive manner. This is the way to become a true Rosh, leader and Role model. Stay tuned for the next episode of Nach Daily as we move ahead to Shin. Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.