AYN, eye

Cm 25 x 25 x 5
Concrete, water, resin, paper, pigment
Hand made and signed by the italian jewish sculptor Gabriele Levy
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Ayn is the sixteenth letter of the hebrew alphabet.
Pronunciation: GR, guttural
Example: etz, tree
In gematria, ayn represents the number 70
The letter ayn represents vision and perception


The letter name is derived from proto-semitic ayn, "eye", and the phoenician letter had an eye-shape, ultimately derived from the IR hyerogliph.

To this day, ayn in hebrew, arabic, and amharic means "eye" and "spring" (ayno in neo-aramaic).

Because the sound is difficult for most non-arabs to pronounce, it is often used as a shibboleth by arabic speakers;

The word ayn, eye, ensures that this letter means perception and vision. Among all the organs, it is the eye that reveals most to men. And the wise say: "eino dome shmiya lereiya", "the sense of hearing is not comparable to the sense of seeing". (source: Mechilta, Exodus 19:9)

The word ayn related to maayan, fountain, means also spring of water. (Genesis 16:7). Like a spring brings water from the depth of the earth to sunlight, so the eye brings perception of the world to the mind of men. (source: rav Hirsh, Genesis 3:5)

Ayn implores us to open our eyes, to see beyond the physical. The ayn is meant to take us from dark to light.