Appendix 2

Reshimos No. 169
From the Personal Notes of The Lubavitcher Rebbe,
Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson:
”The Letter Vav Is the Letter of Emes [Truth]“
(Zohar III, 2a)

[The letter] vav [has the numerical value of six]. It refers to Z’eir Anpin [lit. “small faces”—the six lower Divine attributes in the exalted spiritual world of Atzilus, the main attribute being Tiferes, in the middle between the extremes of right and left], which is [therefore] called emes [the path of truth].

Vav [6], when counted together with its previous numbers, [the numerical value of the letters] alef, beis, gimmel, dalet, hei [1-2-3-4-5], totals 21, and 21 squared [21 x 21 = 441] is [the numerical value of the word] emes (Ramaz, [commentary of Rabbi Moshe Zacuto on the Zohar] ibid.).

Vav [6] ends in the same digit even when it is multiplied by itself any number of times. 6x6 = 36, 6 x 36 = 216, 6 x 216 = 1296, and so on. The total always ends with 6.

[Six] is integrally equal to its parts ([i.e.,] half of it (3), to­gether with a third (2), and a sixth (1), total 6)—[as explained in the commentary of] Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra (Exodus 3:15). (Also 28—and other numbers—have the same quality, [i.e., half of it, 14, together with a quarter, 7, a seventh, 4, a four­teenth, 2, and a twenty-eighth, 1, add up to 28]).

Everything physical has six directions [equivalent to the end points of its three dimensions, height, length and width].For a dot, line and surface [which lack all six directions] are only pictures [but not reality].

Vav [which in Hebrew serves as a prefix denoting “and”] combines opposites (as in the vav of v’haNora [“and the Awesome One” in the first blessing of the Shemoneh Esreh prayer, which distinguishes it from the previous attribute]).

When you begin a word with vav [“and”] it adds to the previ­ous subject, and [also] separates from the previous subject.

Vav [as a prefix to a past or future verb in Scriptural Hebrew] converts from past to future tense and vice versa [future to past].

Vav [when spelled out phonetically—vav, alef, vav] has the same numerical value [13] as אחד, echad [“one”], for it [has the function of] combining and unifying.

Six [times the radius of a circle] equals [the circumference] of the circle [or three times its diameter, as we find in the Tal­mud:] “Whatever has a circumference of three hand-breadths has a width [diameter] of one hand-breadth” (Eruvin 13b).

Look up the introduction to Tzemach David1 [where some of the above-mentioned properties of “Six” are explained].