Energy, Life, and Light

Each of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet possesses three distinct creative powers, which in the teachings of Chassidut are termed: energy (כח), life (חיות ), and light (אור ).

Physical matter, as now understood by modern science, is no more than concentrated energy. In organic matter, the mysterious phenomenon called life becomes manifest. In the mind and soul of higher life-forms, Divine Consciousness, here referred to as light, becomes revealed.

In the creative process, the Hebrew letters appear at each of these three levels:

• As the energy building-blocks of all of reality
• As the manifestation of the inner life-pulse permeating the universe as a whole and each of its individual creatures ("pulsing" every created being, instantaneously, into and out of existence), and
• As the channels which direct the influx of Divine revelation into created consciousness.
  

Throughout all of Creation, the letters can be envisioned as standing as building-blocks, speaking with lifeforce (the secret of the verse, "And man became a living soul," which Onkelos renders as "a speaking spirit"), and thinking with meditative power to convey Divine influx.