The Word "YOU"

The Hebrew word "Atah" means "you". This word is used as the second person masculine singular, but it is also the word used as a pronoun when addressing God in prayer. The Hebrew language believes that every "you" spoken contains within it echoes of the "Eternal You" inside your body. This language considers speech, or spoken words, as Holy.

Orthodox Jews believe that God created all the worlds by combinations of letters. The first two letters of "atah" are "aleph and tav". In Greek, Jesus spoke of this when He said, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning, and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." (Rev. 1:8)

In John 1:1-3 we read, "In the beginning (Alpha) was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things (aleph to tav) were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made."

When "aleph to tav" is combined as the only letters, the word becomes a particle (ET) used for a direct object. These two letters by themselves refer to creation only as objects. It is necessary to go to the third letter in "atah" which is "heh". "Heh" is used in "atah" to stand for the name of God. It is the breath of God that adds life to "aleph and tav".

"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (heh) of life; and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2:7)

When we speak the word "you", the breath of God in us takes the "it" and forms a "You" giving the "you" identity of the image of God that man was created in. The "aaahh" sound in "heh" draws us out as individuals connecting us together as one body.

The word "you" or "atah" addresses us as the living "word of God" on this earth, and not an inanimate or abstract object.