Note 6 — II.

And lastly follow “the twenty-two letters, by means of which God, having drawn, hewn, and weighed them, and having variously changed and put them together, formed the souls of everything that has been made, and that shall be made.”6 (Chapter ii, Mishna ii.) These twenty-two letters of the alphabet are then divided into three groups, consisting respectively of, 1, the three mothers, or fundamental letters (‏שלש אמות‎), 2, seven double (‏שבע כפולות‎) and 3, twelve simple consonants (‏שניﬦ עשר פשוטות‎), to deduce therefrom a triad of elements, a heptade of opposites, and a duodecimo of simple things, in the following manner.