The Amazing Sixth Hebrew Letter

Genesis 1:1 – “בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָֽרֶץ” (“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth”).

The waw is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it is used in scripture for the first time in the sixth word. The meaning of the word is – hook, as a connecting hook used when the tabernacle was assembled. It can also mean – nail. In ancient times, it was pronounced as a “w”, but has become to be pronounced today as a “v”, and has the numerical equivalent of six.

There Was No Vav In The Ancient Hebrew
When the ancients wanted a ‘v’ sound, they would use the Bet/Vet, the second letter of their alphabet, not the sixth letter. Ancient Hebrew did (and still does) indeed have a letter ‘W’, the sixth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet, originally pronounced waw. Hence, if you said the letters of Elohim’s name in Ancient Hebrew, it would be “Yod-Hey-Waw-Hey” (YHWH). The name YHWH appears 6,829 times in the Hebrew Scriptures. Only if you are using a modern mispronunciation would you say “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey” (YHVH).

Jews that primarily speak Arabic have the same letter in Arabic which they pronounce like the English word wow. In Hebrew it becomes waw, pronounced very similarly. Hello! Hebrew and Arabic come from the same root – they both stem from Abraham and his sons – Isaac and Ishmael, who all spoke the same language! This fact should not ever be dismissed, as many are wont to do.

The Change From the Waw to Vav and the Yah to Jah or Jeh
According to Nehemiah Gordon of the Berean Patriot, when scholars went around the Jewish world in the 1800’s they documented how the Jews of that time pronounced every letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hey; all of those were identical, no matter what nation the Jews were living in. But not the waw.

Heaven and Earth:
The waw joins the heavens and the earth together, suggesting the connection between the spiritual and earthly matters. Its connection to the word, v’et (ואח), it alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth. And who does scripture say Yeshua is? 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that the mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, is “the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

The Man:
The waw is a picture of man who was: Created on the sixth day, works for six days, and who rules earth for six days (6000 years) before Messiah returns.

The Tabernacle and the Scroll:
The waw is the word used to depict the hooks that held the curtains of the Tabernacle together. The tabernacle was the habitation of God in the wilderness and the Torah is the habitation of His Word so a Torah scroll is patterned after the Tabernacle. The Hebrew word for curtain, yĕriy`ah [ יְרִיעָה H3407], is the same word for a sheet of parchment. The Hebrew word for pillar or a post, ammuwd [עַמּוּד H5982], is the same word for a column in a Torah scroll.

Each curtain of the tabernacle was fastened by a hook, and on every Torah Scroll we find that:
• The waw starts each column of the text in a Torah scroll, thereby hooking the text to the parchment or scroll.
• There are 304,805 letters in 248 columns on roughly 50 “curtains” per scroll.
• There are 42 lines (6×7) in every column of a torah scroll with the first word in every column beginning with a word that begins with the letter waw hooking each column of print to a sheet of parchment!

The Belly of Torah:
Leviticus 11:42 – “Whatever crawls on its belly, and whatever walks on all fours, whatever has many feet, in respect to every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, you shall not eat them, for they are detestable.”
An oversized waw, the only one in scripture, marks the center of the Torah in Leviticus 11:42. The word, belly, in which this oversized wawoccurs, is gachown גָּחוֹן (H1512)! The beast is identified as a man whose number is 666, or triple waw. i.e.: ןןן.

The Messiah:
The first use of the waw in connection to Yeshua is in Genesis 1:1, where it is connected to the second aleph-tav in the sixth word. Its connection to the word, v’et (ואח), alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that the mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, is “the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

In Genesis 2:4, the word towlĕdah תּוֹלֵדוֹת (H8435) is used to describe the generations of the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 5:1, this word is also used to describe the generations of Adam, but is spelled with a missing waw: תוֹלֵדת. It continues to be spelled with this missing waw until Ruth 4:18, when the “lost” or missing wawis restored. The restored waw in the word towlĕdah תּוֹלֵדוֹת is a picture of the Messiah who would descend from the “generations” of Perez. The waw was lost when the first man, Adam, sinned and restored through the second man, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach. The waw is portrayed by the symbol of a nail, peg or hook.

The four letters that make up the name of Yeshua are: Yod, Shin, waw, Ayin [יֵשׁוּעַ H3442]. The letter waw means hook. It can also mean nail. Yeshua was hung on the cross using three nails. In other words, three waws! The waw signifies the nailed hands and feet of Yeshua on the cross.

Yahweh’s Name:
The four letters that make up the name of Yahweh are: Yod, Hey, Waw, Hey [יהוה H3068], can be translated to mean:
• The Man With The Outstretched Arms and Nailed Hands Shall Be Revealed Twice.
• Behold the Nail, Behold the Hand.
• Behold the Nailed Hand.
The overall meaning of the word, YHWH is: salvation! Therefore, the four letters can also be translated to mean:
• Behold – The Nailed Hand Is Salvation

The Completion:
The Waw is the symbol for: Completion, redemption and transformation. It has the numeric value of six, a number that denotes physical completion.

The Broken Waw in Shalom
All letters in the Torah must be written without error and must be well formed. However, the amazing thing about the word peace which in Hebrew is the word shalom [שָׁלוֹם H7965] in Numbers 25:12 is that it has an anomaly in its spelling that is not found in any other place in scripture! The word shalom, is spelled with a broken waw!

Phinehas:
Numbers 25:10-12 – “And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace.”

The waw in the word שָׁלוֹם shalom (H7965) however, is broken. This broken waw represents a man that has been broken in order to bring peace for the sake of the covenant of peace that brought atonement to Israel. The sages say since the waw has been broken, the top half looks like a yod and the bottom half is now a waw and they say it represents Phinehas hand holding the spear that pierced through Zimri and Cozbi.

Yeshua:
Colossians 1:20 – “Yahweh made peace through the blood of Yeshua to reconcile all things unto himself.”
The broken waw represents the pierced hand of Messiah nailed to the cross to achieve our peace! The broken waw is also a perfect picture of Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, whose body is broken for us: “When he had given thanks, he broke the bread, and said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me’.” (1 Corinthians 11:24).

The Missing Waw in Towlĕdah
Genesis 2:4 – “This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created.”
The waw was lost when the first man, Adam, sinned and was restored through the second man, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach. The restored waw is a picture of the Messiah who would descend from the “generations” of Perez. In Genesis 2:4, the word towlĕdah [תּוֹלֵדוֹת H8435] is used to describe the generations of the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 5:1, this word is also used to describe the generations of Adam, but is spelled with a missing waw: תוֹלֵדת. It continues to be spelled with this missing waw until the Book of Ruth. In Ruth 4:18, the “lost” or missing waw is restored: תּוֹלֵדוֹת.

Conclusions
The letter waw, today pronounced “vav”, plays a very important role in scripture, which cannot be seen in the non-Hebrew translations. It is the hook, the nail, that joins the heavens and the earth together, suggesting the connection between the spiritual and earthly matters.   It even points to deeper meanings when it is enlarged, broken, or missing – it is the belly of Torah, the broken man or messiah, the missing man or messiah of the generations. It is one of the most amazing letters of the Hebrew alphabet.