Brethren,
In the time we devote as students of Freemasonry, as well as any additional esoteric or spiritual fraternity, one must undoubtedly learn that the Hebrew language is the one of the principal written lan- guages throughout. There are numerous others, as you may be well aware, but I have decided to devote this month’s trestle board to the Hebrew language. In brief Hebrew is a Semitic language and the one to be considered “the language of the Jewish people”, which is attested from the 10th century BCE to the late Second Temple period.  The core of the Torah (the first of the five books of the Hebrew Bible) is written in the Classical Hebrew, though much of the contemporary form is written Biblical Hebrew, which had flourished in the 6th century BCE around the time of the Babylonian exile.  It is for this reason that the Jewish people consider Hebrew to be the “Holy Language”. I can employ numerous trestle boards writing about the history of this vast lan- guage, so instead I would like to only focus more precisely the third letter of Hebrew, specifically gimel.

In Latin gimel is the letter “G”. Some speculate that the letter gimel derives from the word “gamal” meaning camel. The symbol, can be interpreted as a walking animal with its head, body and fore-legs. Through deeper learning  you can discover a more profound significance, one that we as masons may find stimulating. If we use gematria, a system of assigning numerical value to a word or phrase, gimel personifies  the number three. The significance is that it represents a vav with a yod attached as a  “foot”. Symbolically it characterizes a man in motion, more specifically a wealthy man who is in pursuit of  a pauper.  This is an act of charity which is shown in re- flection within the Hebrew alphabet by the placement of the letter that follows gimel which is delat which is a representation of a poor or lowly man. Moreover the word gimel is related to the word gemmul which means “justified payment”, that is the giving of a reward or punishment.

Let us quickly see how, mystically, gimel is used: As we have seen gimel is a vav with a yod as a foot, therefore in expression of its form it is symbolic of the expansion and contraction of the Infinite Light in the process of Creation.  In its name it is the soul nursing from its source. In the aspect of Divinity it is the obligation to emulate God through charity and Gods continuous bestowal of love on man. If we contemplate it being in the third position of the Hebrew alphabet it is numerically symbolic of balanceand stability, and the equilibrium found the within the primary elements found in Creation (air, fire and water). It symbolizes the three fathers, that of Issac, Jacob and Abraham and also the three parts of the Torah: The Five Books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Writings. It is clear that there is a deeper mystical connotation as to why the letter G is prominent among Freemasons. Coming from Hebrew it is obvious to us as a symbol not only of God and his love for us, but it is there also too remind us to practice charity and for us to keep a proper balance in our lives as men and as Freemasons. We should devote a brief portion of our days to sit back, close our eyes and quietly reflect on this humble char- acter and see if it does not invoke in us some desire to be more generous, not only in our wealth of fortune, but more importantly the wealth of our wisdom; to learn to be more loving, not just of oneself but to all who shall pass our way.  Love is the law …In charity there is no excess.   ~Sir Francis Bacon~

Fraternally,                                        
Michael S. Ramano         
Worshipful Master 2012