From The Hebrew Alphabet...

The Hebrew Alphabet Letter Zayin

Zayin is the seventh letter that you will find in the Hebrew alphabet. It has the pronunciation of "ZAH-yeen" and it has the sound of "z" like you would hear in ‘zebra".

In Modern Hebrew, you will see zayin appearing in three forms: manual print, book print and cursive. When you see zayin written in cursive, you will see that it is written as a ðescender" some of the time. This means that the bottom of the stroke descends below the baseline.

When you see a pictograph for the letter zayin, it will look like a sword. If you see zayin written in classical Hebrew script, you will notice that it is constructed of a vav that has a large "crown" on the top.

As was stated earlier, zayin is thought to be a "crowned" vav. Just as vav has the meaning of a straight light going all the way from God to man, therefore zayin means a returning light. Just as the Besht has said that a woman of valor is equal to the crown of her husband, therefore, zayin is the crown of vav.

The gematria of the letter zayin is 67 which has the meaning of understanding.

Since the letter zayin represents the number 7 as well as a sword, one should not be surprised that it is used to "cut up" or divide time into units of sevens:

- Shavu’ ot " 49th day after Passover
- Shemitah " 7th year of rest for all of the land
- The Millennial Kingdom " This refers to the 7th millennium of human history.
- Shabbat " the 7th day of the week
- Tishri " 7th month of the year
- Yovel " the 49th year

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