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 relationship between the physical world of function and the conscious world of concept. Using over 200 color illustrations, Tenen demonstrates geometric metaphor as the best framework for understanding the deepest meaning of the text.
Such geometry models embryonic growth and self-organization and the core of many healing and meditative practices. Many subjects in contemporary science were derived from the methods and means available to the ancients; The Alphabet That Changed the World makes this authoritative recovery of the “science of consciousness” in Genesis accessible for the first time to the contemporary reading public.
Praise for The Alphabet That Changed the World
“It is my conviction, based on my professional background in modern geometry and topology, that Tenen's utilization of this difficult material is impeccable. This book is an important and original contribution to the scientific research literature. It may boggle the mind, but the detailed brief presented in full in this book leaves no easy escape from Tenen's theory: our alphabet was designed from a proto-language of hand gestures.”
—Ralph Abraham, Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and author of Foundations of Mechanics (with Jerrold E. Marsden) and Bolts from the Blue
“The Alphabet That Changed the World is a stunning and remarkable book. …[T]he investigation presented here will open up new vistas of understanding, not only of the Hebrew alphabet and Judaism, but also of the sacred texts of all the world's religious traditions. The amazing interdisciplinary scope of The Alphabet that Changed the World will serve as a model for future researchers and even for non-specialists who value the growth in consciousness on our planet.”
—Joseph P. Schultz, Oppenstein Brothers Distinguished Professor of Judaic Studies, Emeritus, and Director, Center for Religious Studies, Emeritus, at the University of Missouri, Kansas City
“I'm a career scientist and an Orthodox Jew. Frankly, I hold differing views on some of Stan Tenen’s historical speculations as regards the times and actions of the Biblical Ezra, as briefly proffered in his book. Nonetheless, in The Alphabet that Changed the World, Mr. Tenen has clearly been faithful to a pursuit of objective research. I am continuously amazed by his brilliance in the perception of deep, multifaceted patterns completely overlooked by everyone else. An intriguing theory that the fluid rabbinic form of the Meruba Ashurit letters derive from gestures of a meaningfully-shaped idealized hand, is supported by sufficient evidence to provide a haunting sense of truth. This book holds treasures of great value for both the secular and religious scholar, as well as the layman. Given a fair hearing, The Alphabet That Changed the World is likely to itself change the world.”
—Elliot Pines, PhD., former senior scientist and enginer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (California Institute of Technology/NASA)
