Bible Studies

THE AMAZING WAW

by Jeff Van Hatten
08/06/25
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The Connections
Heaven and Earth:
The waw joins the heavens and the earth together, suggesting the connection between the spiritual and earthly matters. Its connection to the word, w’et (ואח), it alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth. And who does scripture say Yeshua is? 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that the mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, is “the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

The Man:
The waw is a picture of man who was:
• Created on the sixth day,
• works for six days,
• and who rules earth for six days (6000 years) before Messiah returns.
• The beast is identified as a man whose number is 666.

The Tabernacle and the Scroll:
The waw is the word used to depict the hooks that held the curtains of the Tabernacle together.
The tabernacle was the habitation of God in the wilderness and the Torah is the habitation of His Word so a Torah scroll is patterned after the Tabernacle.

The Hebrew word for curtain, yĕriy`ah [ יְרִיעָה H3407], is the same word for a sheet of parchment.
The Hebrew word for pillar or a post, ammuwd [עַמּוּד H5982], is the same word for a column in a Torah scroll.

Each curtain of the tabernacle was fastened by a hook, And on every Torah Scroll we find that:
• The waw starts each column of the text in a Torah scroll, thereby hooking the text to the parchment or scroll.
• There are 304,805 letters in 248 columns on roughly 50 “curtains” per scroll.
• There are 42 lines (6x7) in every column of a torah scroll with the first word in every column beginning with a word that begins with the letter waw hooking each column of print to a sheet of parchment!

The Belly of Torah:
Leviticus 11:42 – “Whatever crawls on its belly, and whatever walks on all fours, whatever has many feet, in respect to every swarming thing that swarms on the earth, you shall not eat them, for they are detestable.”
• An oversized waw, the only one in scripture, marks the center of the Torah in Leviticus 11:42.
• The word, belly, in which this oversized waw occurs, is gachown גָּחוֹן (H1512)!

The Messiah:
The first use of the waw in connection to Yeshua is in Genesis 1:1, where it is connected to the second aleph-tav in the sixth word. Its connection to the word, w’et (ואח), alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth. 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that the mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, is “the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

The Broken Waw in Shalom
All letters in the Torah must be written without error and must be well formed.

However, the amazing thing about the word peace which in Hebrew is the word shalom [שָׁלוֹם H7965] in Numbers 25:12 is that it has an anomaly in its spelling that is not found in any other place in scripture! The word shalom, is spelled with a broken waw!

The Connections
The Broken Man:
This broken waw represents a m an that has been broken in order to bring peace for the sake of the covenant of peace that brought atonement to Israel – a perfect picture of the Messiah who brings peace to us.

Yeshua, The Messiah:
Colossians 1:20 – “Yahweh made peace through the blood of Yeshua to reconcile all things unto himself.”
The broken waw represents the pierced hand of Messiah nailed to the cross to achieve our peace! The broken waw is also a perfect picture of Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, whose body is broken for us as stated in 1 Corinthians 11:24 – “When he had given thanks, he broke the bread, and said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in memory of me’.” It also represents the pierced hand of Messiah nailed to the cross to achieve our peace! Colossians 1:20 – “Yahweh made peace [shalom] through the blood of his cross, by the blood of Yeshua to reconcile all things unto himself.”

Phinehas:
Numbers 25:10-12 – “And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace.”

The word peace is the Hebrew word shalom [שָׁלוֹם H7965]. The amazing thing about the word shalom is that it has an anomaly in this verse that is not found in any other place in scripture!

The word shalom, is spelled with a broken waw and looks like this:

The letter waw is the sixth letter and represents man as man was created on the sixth day. The sages say since the waw has been broken, the top half looks like a yod and the bottom half is now a waw and they say it represents Phinehas hand holding the spear that pierced through Zimri and Cozbi. So here we have a man who has been broken to achieve a covenant of peace.

The Missing Waw in Towlĕdah
תּוֹלֵדוֹת In Genesis 2:4, the word towlĕdah (H8435) is used to describe the generations of the heavens and the earth: “These are the generations (תּוֹלֵדוֹת) of the heavens and the earth”.

תוֹלֵדת In Genesis 5:1, this word is also used to describe the generations of Adam, but is spelled with a missing waw: “This is the genealogy (תוֹלֵדת) of Adam”. It continues to be spelled with this missing waw until the Book of Ruth.

תּוֹלֵדוֹת In Ruth 4:18, the “lost” or missing waw is restored: “This is the genealogy (תּוֹלֵדוֹת) of Perez”.

The Connections
The Messiah:
The waw was lost when the first man, Adam, sinned and was restored through the second man, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach. The restored waw is a picture of the Messiah who would descend from the “generations” of Perez. In Genesis 2:4, the word towlĕdah [תּוֹלֵדוֹת H8435] is used to describe the generations of the heavens and the earth. In Genesis 5:1, this word is also used to describe the generations of Adam, but is spelled with a missing waw: תוֹלֵדת. It continues to be spelled with this missing waw until Ruth 4:18, when the “lost” or missing waw is restored: תּוֹלֵדוֹת.

The Waw of Creation
Heaven and Earth:
The meaning of the letter waw is – hook. The waw joins the heavens and the earth together, suggesting the connection between the spiritual and earthly matters.
Its connection to the word, w'et (ואח), alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth.

And who does scripture say Yeshua is? 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us that the mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, is “the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

The Waw of the Tabernacle and Scrolls
The tabernacle was the habitation of God in the wilderness and the Torah is the habitation of His Word – so a Torah scroll is patterned after the Tabernacle.
• The Hebrew word for curtain, יְרִיעָה [H3407 - yĕriy'âh], is the same word for a sheet of parchment.
• And the word for pillar or a post is עַמּוּד [H5982 - ʽammûd ], is the same word for a column in a Torah scroll.
• Each curtain of the tabernacle is fastened by a hook – a waw.

And on every Torah Scroll we find that:
• There are 304,805 letters in 248 columns on roughly 50 “curtains” per scroll.
• There are 42 lines (6x7) in every column of a torah scroll with the first word in every column beginning with a word that begins with the letter waw hooking each column of print to a sheet of parchment!
• Every column of a scroll is fastened by a hook – a waw.

The Waw and Yeshua Ha’Mashiach
The name Yeshua would have been written in ancient Hebrew. The four letters that make up the name of Yeshua are: Yod, Shin, Waw, Ayin [יֵשׁוּעַ H3442]. The letter waw means hook. It can also mean nail. Yeshua was hung on the cross using three nails. In other words, three waws!

The first use of the waw in connection to Yeshua is in Genesis 1:1, where it is connected to the second aleph-tav in the sixth word. The sixth word in Genesis 1 is waw aleph tav – the God who is man, and who is pierced by man.

Its connection to the word, w’et (ואח), alludes to the connection between all letters, the connection to the Aleph-Tav who is Yeshua, and is therefore the connecting force of God, the divine “hook” that binds together heaven and earth.

And who does scripture say Yeshua is? 1 Timothy 2:5 tells us “There is one mediator between Yahweh and humankind, between heaven and earth, the man Yeshua Ha’Mashiach”!

Hebrews 8:6 confirms this – “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.”

Colossians 1:20 – “And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, Yeshua reconciled all things unto himself.”
The broken waw represents the pierced hand of Messiah nailed to the cross to achieve our peace!

The Waw in Yahweh’s Name
The four letters that make up the name of Yahweh are: Yod, Hey, Waw, Hey [יהוה H3068], can be translated to mean:
• • The Man With The Outstretched Arms and Nailed Hands Shall Be Revealed Twice.
• • Behold the Nail, Behold the Hand.
• • Behold the Nailed Hand.

The overall meaning of the word, YHWH is: salvation! Therefore, the four letters can also be translated to mean:
• • Behold – The Nailed Hand Is Salvation

Conclusions
The letter waw plays a very important role in scripture, which cannot be seen in the non-Hebrew translations. It is the hook, the nail, that joins the heavens and the earth together, suggesting the connection between the spiritual and earthly matters. It even points to deeper meanings when it is enlarged, broken, or missing – it is the belly of Torah, the broken man or messiah, the missing man or messiah of the generations. It is one of the most amazing letters of the Hebrew alphabet.