Tehilim Perek 119: Letter KUF
Hello everybody, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. Today’s Nach Daily will discuss the letter KUF.
Kuf represents a heKuf, border, a passageway, a point of integration and Kedusha, holiness. As the eye of a needle is called the Kof Hamchat, this all points towards transitioning and moving to another, higher plane.
Kuf comes after the latter Tzaddik because Kedusha, holiness, comes only after one has reached the level of a Tzaddik. After we have worked on ourselves, and even refrained from some things that are permissible, we can begin to receive and experience the higher level of Kedusha represented by the letter Kuf, transitioning from one level to another.
This transitioning of levels can also work in the negative. As the passuk says, “lo t’hey Kadesha m’bnos Yisrael, there shouldn’t be a harlot from among the daughters of Israel. We find here that a zona, harlot,is called a Kadesha, which means that this particular woman descended to a lower level by separating herself in a lowly manner. Both the word for Kedusha, holiness, and Kadesha, a harlot, share the same etymology. They both stem from the letter Kuf, a point of integration or moving from level to level in either direction, for good or bad.
The first time that the letter Kuf is used in the beginning of a word in the Torah is when it says, “VayiKra Elokim la’or yom, v’lachoshech Kara lyla, God called the light day and the darkness night.” The act of giving something a name is what causes it to transition and become something of permanence. When Hashem called the light, “Day, the name became official. When He called the darkness, “Night, the night also became a thing of permanence. It transitioned from a non-fact to a fact. This points towards the meaning of the letter Kuf, which is a transitional letter by definition as it’s the force of moving from one point to another.
Kof means a monkey. The connection here is that it appears to look as if humans came from monkeys. Monkeys would then be like an intermediate or transition from humans. Please don’t get me wrong—we did not evolve from monkeys! Conceptually, however, monkeys appear to look like humans and Kof, from the letter Kuf, looks like a transitional point between humans and animals.
The word for marriage is called Kedushin because in marriage a woman and man integrate and join with each other to become a new entity. Kuf is the point of integration.
The shape of the letter Kuf has two openings representing the ability to go up or down levels. It should be noted, however, that the bottom opening of the Kuf gets smaller, as if bent inwards. This is to teach us that a person who received Kedusha is guarded from falling all the way down, receiving extra Divine protection.
It also can be said that the shape of the Kuf looks like a face with a long beard. As Chazal say, “Hadras panim zaken, The beauty of a face is the beard,” which points towards Kedusha.
Numerically, Kuf is 100, which represents the peak of spiritual perfection that one can attain. The 10 of the letter Yud represents the spiritual perfection of Olam Habah which was created with it. The Kuf, however, represents haKadosh Barichu Himself! As the passuk says in Vayikra: “Kadosh Ani Hashem, I am God who is Holy!” Kedusha is the highest level of being, totally separate from everything. God describes Himself as Kadosh, lifted and exalted above all, even Olam Habah which is represented by the Yud/10. Kuf is 100 because it represents God, who is beyond Olam Habah. Ultimately, no one can ever see God because He is unfathomable, truly incomprehensible to the human mind.
