Part 11:Kaf or Khaf or Caph verses 81-88
The eleventh part is Kaf or Khaf or Caph, which is the eleventh letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
The following information is from the website BJE:Your Jewish Journey
“Having a numerical value of twenty, the letter KAF is the first of the double-figured letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
The letter KAF symbolises the keter (crown) of accomplishment that God places upon one who has achieved all the tasks that are collectively set out by the previous letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
As the initial letter of the word crown, KAF alludes to the three crowns in Judaism: priesthood, kingship and Torah.
The word KAF means ‘the palm of the hand’, implying productivity and potentiality. It also means ‘coerce’, implying the power of man to suppress nature with his physical labour.
There are two forms of the letter KAF, one being bent and the other long. The bent version can appear anywhere in a word besides at the end. The long KAF is used to end a word.
The kippah (skullcap headcovering worn by Jewish men) is derived from the root word of KAF.
KAF means cloud, symbolic of the physical power of nature” (“Kaf”).
The website Hebrew4Christians provides further information regarding the letter “Kaf”. Following are a few excerpts regarding the meaning of Kaf:
“The word Kaf means “palm” of a hand and also what might be contained within the palm of the hand. The word “spoon” in Hebrew is the word Kaf, which is a natural extension of the palm as a container. The gematria for the letter Kaf is 20, the same value for the word Yod (hand), and twice the value of the the letter Yod. Kaf comes from a root word (shoresh) Kafah meaning to bed or bow down, suggesting the concave shape of the body or the shape of a crown on a king’s head” (“Kaf/Khaf”).
Additionally, Hebrew4Christians dives into the “mystery of Kaf”.
“In Jewish Mysticism, the two letters of the word “kaf” are the initial letters of the two Hebrew words: koach (“potential”) and poel (“actual”), suggesting that Kaf enables the latent power of the spiritual (the potential) to be made actual in the physical…
The literal meaning of Kaf is “palm” which is considered the location where potential of the Yod (hand) is actualized (interestingly, the gematria for the word Yod is the same for the letter Kaf). For this reason we bless children with palms facing them and we envision God as having His palms over us, for this image suggests the calling forth of the latent power of the spirit within for manifestation in the physical world” (“Kaf/Khaf”).
Works Cited
Henry, Matthew. “Psalm 119.” Matthew Henry’s Commentary On the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition. Volume 3, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., March 1996.
Holy Bible: Giant Print with Study Aids. Dugan Publishers, Inc., 1984.
“Kaf”. BJE: Your Jewish Journey. NSW Board of Jewish Education, https://bje.org.au/knowledge-centre/jewish-languages/hebrew-alphabet/kaf/ , Accessed 24 June 2025.
“Kaf/Khaf”. Hebrew4Christians. John J. Parsons. https://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Kaf/kaf.html, Accessed 24 June 2025.
© 2025 Angela Hormberg
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