Spelling Sin

Hebrew Letter Aleph

Hayt, is the most common word for "sin" in the Bible. When transliterated into English the word ends with a "T", but in Hebrew it ends with a silent Aleph, the first character in the Hebrew alphabet. 

Things like a silent letter in such a powerful word did not go unnoticed by the Rabbis, whose specialty was squeezing profound meaning out of the smallest details.

Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, who is considered the father of Hasidic Judaism, was once asked by a student why the letter is even in the word. 

The Rabbi responded, "We all know that Aleph is the first letter of the alphabet and represents the first cause, root, and essence of all existence - God." 

He goes on: "The letter Aleph is silent in the word for sin in order to teach us that when a person commits hayt it is a sign that God's presence is not being 'pronounced' in his life. The sinner has temporarily forgotten the Aleph of the world."

It is a struggle to place God at the center of my life. But the more I acknowledge the Aleph the more I feel I am living as I was made to live.

Quote from R. D. Zaslow's Roots & Branches: A Sourcebook for Understanding the Jewish Roots of Christianity Replacement Theology, and Anti-Semitism.