The letter Dalet is the 4th letter of the Hebrew AlphaBet. Being the fourth letter, obviously its numerical value is four.
Dalet Letter meaning in Kabbalah
The letter Dalet in Kabbalah means a number of things: one is a door “Delet”, another one is a poor person “Dal”.
A poor person represents, someone who is in a state of humbleness, because of their being poor they are in a lowly position. Yet, in Jewish tradition humbleness is one of the greatest of characteristics.
In fact we can tie the two meanings together, by saying that the door, the entryway into true spirituality and relationship with God, and others as well, is to a deep sense of humbleness.
We can see this in one particular person, King David, whose name begins and ends with a Dalet. Despite the fact that he was king and a tremendous power, when we look at the Book of Psalms, we see so many descriptions and statements by King David about his feeling of humbleness, and lowliness in the face of an infinite creator.
Yet, it did not make him sad it did, not make him depressed he was in love with God and in praising God all of the time.
Nullification of The Ego
This idea of the Dalet, speaks about what’s called self-nullification.
When looking at the shape of the Dalet, you’ll see that there’s a little point on the right that sticks out, and we’re told this is the point of ego, even within a humble person.
Everyone has ego, and when left unchecked it gets out of hand, and the doorway into true
spiritual service is what’s called nullification of the ego.In relationship to God it’s as if the whole creation is in a state of humbleness, is a state of self- nullification, because we’re told that if God for even a split second would withdraw the energy that is continually keeping the world going, the entire world would cease to exist, so in relationship to God the world is in a state of humbleness.
Here’s a beautiful connection because the letter Dalet equals four , and so many descriptions of our physical world have to do with four.
We have the four directions, we have the four seasons, we have the four descriptions of types of creation such as, a mineral, vegetable, animal, and human.
In physics we have the description of the world, as consisting of four basic forces: gravity, the electromagnetic, force the strong nuclear force, and the weak nuclear force.
In fact, in modern science the number four is extremely important, because of the attempt to find the unified field theory that will unify all four of these forces.
In the ancient tradition we have the idea of four in the four elements: fire, earth, air, and water.
On the higher level of divinity, we have the idea of the most essential name of God, the ineffable name which is made up of four letters.
On the level of soul, we have the idea of the four mothers, and in the story of Passover, we drink four cups of wine at the “Seder of Passover”, in order to remember the four languages of redemption mentioned in the Torah. i.e- I will save you, I will take you out, I will redeem you, and I will take you to me to be a people.
So the level of four and the level of world’s souls and divinity are cardinal numbers, and it’s very interesting to connect this two, that even though there’s infinite interpretations to the Torah, the most classic model of how to learn Torah is called “Pardes”.
Where we learn the Torah according to the “Pshat”, which is the simple literal meaning, The “Remez”, which is the alluded to hinted to meaning, the “Drush” the allegorical and parable type of meaning, and the “Sod” the mysterious secret Kabbalistic meaning. So our doorway into the Torah, is through these four interpretations.
In Conclusion- Meditation
A beautiful meditation on the letter Dalet, is to concentrate on feeling of true state of humbleness and gratefulness to God, and at the same time feel like a king, as King David was.
