From The Hebrew Alphabet...

The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Bet

The letter Bet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In different Semitic languages the letter’s name means "house".

The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Bet is a representation of two different phonemes: there is a "b" sound (bet or /b/) and a "v" sound (vet or /v/). There is a distinguishing dot, which is called a dagesh, in the center of the /b/ but there is no dot for /v/.

The letter is called bet and vet because it follows the modern Israeli Hebrew pronunciation. In academic circles, which follow the Tiberian Hebrew pronunciation, it is named beth.

When The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Bet has a "dot" in the center, which is commonly known as a digest, then it represents /b/. Numerous rules in Hebrew grammar will let you know why and when a dagesh is used.

Bet symbolized the number two when it is used in gematria. In Rabbinic Hebrew, gematria is the numberology of the Hebrew alphabet and the Hebrew language and it is used to derive relative relationship or meaning.

When the letter bet is used as a prefix it may function as a preposition meaning "at". "in" or "with".

The very first letter that is used in the Torah is bet. Since bet refers to the number 2 in gematria, it is said to symbolize that two parts make up the Torah: the Oral Torah and the Written Torah.

It is to be noted that the letter bet is closed on three sides and is open on one side. This teaches that a person may have questions concerning what happened after the creation of the world, but a person should not speculate what happened before it.

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