110
Ed Metzler
§
11. The most distorted letter to be restored by
filling a gap in the
didactic system of
the alphabetical order is
Samekh.27)
Unlike the last lessons of
the other schooldays, that are
obtained by slightly changing a
previous letter, the
Ayin following Samekh at
the end of the fifth school- day
cannot be derived from
it nor from Mem and
Nun in ancient Hebrew
script.28) This
de- viation from a
rule of didactic psychology
is removed by assuming
that Samekh looked
like the lips (Sefatayim)
of a mouth in front
view originally, for it may be turned
into an eye (Ayin) simply by adding
a dot in the middle.29) This
also
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27) The hissing sound of its voiceless
"s" may be taken as a
command of silence,
which was graphically
represented in ancient Hebrew
script by a vertical
finger on the three
horizontal lines of the lips
meaning Samekh Yad-kha al
Pi-kha "hold your mouth!" or
Sam-pi "shut up!", cf.
TORAH OF THE
ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 27,
and above Note 8.
28) Thus, on the first
schoolday Dalet is derived
from Gimel by closing
it at the bottom, on
the second Chet from
He likewise by closing
it, on the third
Tet from Taw by
surrounding it with a
circle, on the
fourth Resh from
Kof by moving
its vertical line
sideways, and on
the sixth schoolday
only two easy letters
remain (cf. Note 25 supra).
29) After the lips were
redesigned to read Samekh
"shut up!", the
distinguishing dot in the
eye was no longer
needed, and omitted,
see TORAH OF
THE ALPHABET (N.
1) p. 61.
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