Yood

Mathew 5:8

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

The “yood,” the tenth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is the smallest letter with one of the biggest meanings. Standing alone it can even mean the word “God.” The word picture for the ‘yood’ is a closed hand or even a forearm and it has the letter sound of “Y.” The visual picture of a “yood” is an apostrophe. All English words beginning with the letter “J” are a “yood” in Hebrew with the letter sound of a “Y.” As an example, in English the word “Jordan” as in Jordan River begins with the sound of “J” while in Hebrew it begins with a “yood” and is pronounced yar-den.

In Hebrew different words can become syllables and when put together form other words. An example of a “yood” word that is two separate words put together to form another word is: ya-shar. In Hebrew ya-shar means straight as in upright. The Hebrew spelling is “yood” with the letter sound of “Y” and a word picture of a hand or forearm, followed by the letter “shin” with a letter sound of “SH” or sometimes “S” with a word picture of destroy or devour, followed by a “reysh” with a letter sound of “R” and a word picture of a person. When put together the word picture for ya-shar is the hand of a person that is strong, as in a warrior. When these two words are separated, the “yood” alone stands for “God” and the “shin” and “reysh” form the word “sar” which means warrior or commander. When these two meanings are put together it can also have the meaning of “God the commander or warrior.

Another “yood” word “yad” which means hand. The “yood” with the sound of a “Y” meaning hand, followed by a “dalet” with the letter sound of “D” forms “yad” with a word picture of something that goes through the hand, something the hand does.