Why the Five Hebrew “Final Letters”?

One of the unique characteristics of the Hebrew alphabet is that there are five letters that take a different form when they appear at the end of words. They are:

What Is the Source of These Letters?

The Talmud1 refers to this set of letters by the acronym מנצפ"ך (mantzapach), stating that the alternate forms of these letters were communicated by the prophets.

After a discussion, the Talmud concludes that both forms of these letters existed at Sinai.2 It was only that in the time of the prophets, people had begun to forget which form belonged in the beginning or middle of a word, and which form belonged at the end. The prophets thus (re)established the proper usage of the forms.

Is There a Simple Function?

Some opine that the final letters served a very simple purpose. In ancient times, scribes did not always leave sufficient space between words. These final forms thus served as a signal to the reader that one word had ended and another had begun.

As elegant as this explanation may sound at first blush, it doesn’t really answer the question of why, out of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, only these five were selected. After all, the same could have been done for many of the other letters as well.

In Gematria

Every letter of the Hebrew alphabet is assigned a value, with the first letter, aleph, being 1, and the final letter, tav, being 400. The final letters are often used to continue the hundreds as so:

See: Everything You Need to Know About Gematria

Five Attributes of Severity and Source of Creation

We read in Genesis how all of creation came into being through G‑d’s speech. The Hebrew letters are thus the conduits through which G‑d makes space within Himself for each and every being.

The Kabbalah3 explains that these five final letters (which demarcate the end of a word) represent five gevurot, elements of “judgment” or “severity,” which serve to restrict the Divine light and create a space where otherness can exist.4

The kabbalists explain that this is reflected in the different sounds that the letters make, which can be divided into five different points of the mouth (throat, palate, tongue, teeth, and lips).5 Thus in essence, these five letters are the source through which all the sounds of the other 22 letters flow.6

The Human Body

The kabbalists7 go on to explain that each of the final letters represent another part of the human body:

• Final mem(ם) loosely resembles a human nose without the septum dividing the nostrils.
• Final nun(ן) resembles an arm.
• Final feh(ף) corresponds to the mouth, as the word feh literally means “mouth.”
• Final chaf (ך) corresponds to the hand, as the word kaf literally means “palm.”
• Final tzaddi[k] (ץ) resembles the fingers extending from the palm.

The Secret of Redemption

The Midrash8 provides mystical significance to these five double-formed letters, showing how they all relate to redemption:

• Chaf: When Abraham was redeemed from Ur of the Chaldees, G‑d told him lech lecha (לך לך), “Go for yourself,”9 which has two chafs.
• Mem: When Isaac was saved from the Philistines, he was told to leave because “you are much stronger than us,”10 mimenu me’od (ממנו מאד), using a double mem.
• Nun: The double nun appears in Jacob’s prayer prior to G‑d delivering him from Essau, in which he said: “Save me please,” hatzileni nah (הצלני נא).11
• Feh: This appears in G‑d’s assurance to Israel that He was about to redeem them from Egypt. To say “I have surely remembered you,” G‑d uses the words pakod pakadeti (פקוד פקדתי).12
• Tzaddi[k]: Regarding the future Redemption, the prophet Zechariah speaks of a man named Tzemach (צמח), who will “spring up” (יצמח), to build the Holy Temple.13

The Midrash goes on to describe how the secret of the Redemption as it pertains to these five final letters was passed down through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Joseph’s brothers, Serach (daughter of Asher), and finally to Moses.

To sum it up, these five unique final letters are the source of the creation process and contain within them the mystery of the final Redemption. May it be speedily in our days!