(yud rhymes with “should”)
SOUND: y
NUMERICAL VALUE: 10
Meanings
Yud is the smallest letter of the Aleph Beit. Nonetheless, Yud has tremendous primal force and energy. Yud is a dynamo, a powerhouse. Yud shares the same Hebrew root as 
, yad, which means both “hand” and “power.”
In fact, tiny Yud contains infinity. According to the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe, all matter emerged from a tiny point that exploded outwards, expanding and gradually coalescing into galaxies and solar systems. Yud represents that beginning point, that small seed from which the whole creation sprouts.
Yud is the elemental, initiating force of life. The Hebrew root for Yud also means “to thrust.” After the marriage of Chet and the conception and gestation of Tet, Yud thrusts its way into existence.
Yud is a cosmic letter. It’s the only letter of the Aleph Beit that is suspended in midair, not grounded in the soil of this world.
The Talmud teaches that God used the letter Hei to create “This World,” while the letter Yud was used to create “The World to Come.” In Hebrew grammar, Yud indicates the World to Come by denoting the future tense of verbs.
The primordial, initiating energy of Yud comes forth in some of the words it begins. Yud is the first letter of the most holy name of God, the 
, Yud-Hei-Vav-Hei (or YHVH). An abbreviation of YHVH, the honorific 
, usually read as Adonai and translated into English as “Lord,” is spelled with two Yud’s. Yud begins another common name for the Divine, 
, Yah. It’s also the first letter of the Jewish people, 
, Yisrael. This tiniest of letters sparks the mightiest of words.
Yud’s power is also reflected in its number. Yud equals ten. Children learn to count on the ten fingers of their yadayim, hands. (As in English, the Hebrew word for hand, yad, also connotes “power,” as in the phrase “the hand of God.”) Ten is the basis of the decimal system. With ten songs, the Holy created the world. There are ten commandments or utterances, ten sefirot or branches on the Tree of Life, and ten people needed to constitute a prayer quorum or minyan. The holiest day in the Jewish calendar is Yom Kippur, the tenth day of the new year. The basic, powerful number of Yud, ten, is one root of our ability to measure existence.
Application
Yud carries us fast, on a powerful wave of transformation, into the future, into the world to come. One writer describes Yud as “a cosmic messenger bringing movement and change into our lives.”1 The word for “exodus,” 
, yetziyah, begins with this letter. When Yud thrusts its way into our lives, we are being propelled, maybe willy-nilly, into a new level of experience. An exodus can be scary, exciting, tragic, promising. Yud shows that no matter how an exodus feels to us, it’s impossible to hold on to the past. Life continually propels us into the unknown.
The powerful energy of Yud is concentrated in its small form. This letter, not much more than a point itself, encourages us to come to the point, to concentrate. How can we best focus our energies in order to ride Yud’s wave of transformation as gracefully as possible and arrive safely at a new location? That’s little Yud’s big question. We may be called upon to prioritize, to let go of what is no longer needed, to become clear about what we truly want to carry with us into the future.
Yud is a letter of great force, yet, being so small, Yud is also the sign of humility. Yud is certainly not inflated, puffed up, ostentatious. Its power is contained, almost hidden. Yud is easy to underestimate. Moses, made shy by a speech impediment, and described in Torah as “very humble,”2 nonetheless led a whole nation on an exodus out of slavery to freedom. Mount Sinai, where this modest man spoke directly with God and received Torah, was a relatively small, unimposing-looking mountain. Even the Hebrews were (and are) a small tribe. The Torah describes them as “among the smallest of all the nations.”3
Smallness and humbleness don’t impede greatness, however. The Zohar says, “Whoever humbles himself, God raises.”4 Yud calls us to humble ourselves, to loosen attachment to ego, but at the same time not to underestimate our tremendous power and potential for creativity and love and liberation.
Micah gives a prescription for acting in accord with Yud’s energy: “Do justly, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.”5 Moving through the world with this type of attitude is an exodus out of narrow egoism to expansive freedom.
A poem by the Sufi poet Rumi expresses the paradox embodied by Yud:
I am so small I can barely be seen.
How can this great love be inside of me?
Look at your eyes. They are small,
but they see enormous things.6
Having humility is more easily said than done, of course. Once, two wealthy businessmen were competing to show who was the most devout. After the lengthy synagogue services were over and everyone else had left, each remained in his place, continuing to pray. There they stayed, while the temple shamash, or custodian, swept and straightened up around them. Finally, one of the businessmen stood up and loudly proclaimed, “In the eyes of God, I am nothing!” and sat down.
Soon, the second businessman stood up and shouted, “In the eyes of God, I am nothing!” Then, he sat down.
The shamash, very impressed, had been watching this, and inspired, he too yelled, “In the eyes of God, I am nothing!”
The first businessman then turned to the second, pointed at the shamash, and whispered derisively, “Look who thinks he’s nothing!”
Yud doesn’t call for false modesty, affected humility. Rather, it challenges us to feel aligned with the grand sweep of cosmic energy thrusting us and the universe forward and outward into the future. Hang onto your seat. Yud is taking you on the ride of your life!
Yud’s Shadow
As the only letter suspended in mid-air, Yud is the least grounded of the letters of the Aleph Beit. A danger of Yud is becoming un-grounded, or “spacing out.” If we’re focusing too much on the exodus, on moving into “the world to come,” we may be missing what’s right here before us. If we have our heads in the clouds, we may stumble on the rock in our path. We need to pay attention to the present, even as we move forward into the future.
The holy exodus that Yud embodies can become distorted and wind up as chronic displacement and restlessness. Yud calls us to move toward what we love instead of merely running away from what oppresses us.
Yud moves quickly and powerfully and brings these transformational qualities to our lives. Excessive and frenetic motion, however, can be upsetting or unhealthy. Sometimes change just grabs hold of us and we’re off! But other times, through focused intention or action, we can temper the change, slow it down a little to a more manageable pace and scope. Change for its own sake is often not helpful. But change is inevitable. Yud’s challenge is to feel settled, even in the midst of change.
Personal Comments
“Where are we going?” a little rascal asks Stymie in the old “Our Gang” movie series as the kids careen downhill in a makeshift go-cart. “I don’t know, brother, but we’re on our way!” replies Stymie.
When Yud thrusts me forward, and the wind is whistling by my ears, and I know some radical change is taking place and in fact is picking up momentum, I think of Stymie. “We’re on our way!” The World to Come is coming on fast. Humility arises naturally then as I realize I have no idea what’s going to happen next. At times like that, I pray for grace and composure in the face of change, and I cry out to Yah, to Yud-Hei, for protection and guidance.
Summary for Yud
Numerical value: |
10 |
Meanings: |
Hand. Power. Thrust. |
Application: |
Align oneself with movement and change by clarifying priorities and letting go of what is no longer needed. |
|
“Do justly, love kindness, walk humbly with your God.” |
Shadow: |
Becoming un-grounded, “spacing out.” |
|
Fleeing. |
|
Excessive and frenetic motion. |
Reflection: |
How can I best focus my energies in order to ride Yud’s wave of transformation as gracefully as possible and arrive safely at a new location? Am I holding onto opinions and ego attachments that might impede Yud’s transformational power or make for a bumpier ride? |
Suggested action: |
What kind of future do you want? This very day, take a small step toward realizing it. |