Rabbinic tradition asserts that every letter of every word of the Torah is a
word in itself. Author Stan Tenen demonstrates that each letter is also a hand
gesture, and it is at this level that Hebrew forms a natural universal language.
All people, including children before they speak and people without sight, make
natural use of these gestures.
In "The Alphabet That Changed the World, "Tenen examines the Hebrew text of
Genesis and its relationship to the alphabet. He shows how each letter is both
concept and gesture, with the form of the gesture matching the function of the
concept. There is thus an implicit