חקקן בקול חצבן ברוחEngraved in Voice, Hewn in Breath

ḥakakan be-kol ḥatzavan be-ruaḥIn Gamatria ↗

Every letter a cut in the stream of breath.

The twenty-two letters are worked like stone. He engraved them, hewed them, combined them (the verb means to smelt), weighed them and exchanged them, and with them formed everything formed and everything still to be formed. In the Gra's reading He engraved them in voice, hewed them in breath and set them in the mouth in five places: אחה"ע in the throat, גיכ"ק in the palate, דטלנ"ת in the tongue, זסשר"ץ in the teeth and בומ"ף in the lips. Creation is pictured as speech, with each letter a definite cut in the stream of breath.

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