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Ed Metzler
what the missing ones
looked like. By filling the gaps
in his periodic table of chemical
elements Mendeleyeff was
able to predict the
discovery of missing elements,
and by the same
method I was able
to restore distorted letters
in the original alphabet
from the systematics
of my didactic table of
alphabetical letters.22)
§
10. Upon closer examination
my two- dimensional table of
the alphabetical order, which was
deduced merely from the three
typical simi- larities of
the letters Mem-Nun,
He-Chet, and Tet-Taw, proved
to be a well-planned
curriculum for a one-week
course in alphabetic writing.23)
末末末末末末末末
22) Fortunately only the
letter Samekh is so
distorted as to be considered
missing (cf. Note 27 infra).
Some letters were restored from
proto-Sinaitic script, see above
Note 15.
23) This explains
the title and character
of my book TORAH
OF THE ALPHABET
(N. 1), for
he who claims
to have discovered a
didactic system should be
able to present
it in the form
of a schoolbook.
The well-known Hebrew
word t-Orah (whence
the Greek loan-word
theoria "theory")
means "teaching" (Aramaic
Oraita) like
m-Orah "female teacher", and
indicates the Israelite
origin of the
alphabet in the Torah
of Moses from
the Sinai (see
below p. 24).
Hence the alphabet may be
called "the oldest, and
most successful illustrated
school- book of the
world" (subtitle), because the
alphabetical order is a didactic
system, as already suspected
by H. Bauer-P.
Leander, Historical Grammar of
the Hebrew Language, (German
1922) p. 68.
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