peh

(You may have noticed the layout of this site has changed a bit. For a while I've been trying to figure out a way to make it more readable, and easier to find previous posts. Now that I've switched to the new version of Blogger, I think there's a big improvement. In addition to a different layout, note the expandable monthly archives link, and the new categories section. I'll try to give a "category" to every common type of posting to make it easier to see all of them together. If you have any questions or problems with the new layout, please let me know.)

Peh is the seventeenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The name derives from the word peh פה - "mouth", and this was the original shape of the letter. As we've seen earlier, peh can alternate with bet, vav and mem.

Besides "mouth", peh can also mean "speech", "opening" and "portion" (as in pi shnayim פי שניים - "double".)

Similar to the word yad (hand), peh makes up a number of prepositions:

• כפי - like, as
• לפי - according to
• על פי - in accordance with
• אף על פי - although