Lamed: The Hebrew Letter of Ox-Goad

Lamed is the twelfth Hebrew letter and a simple letter; its name means 'ox-goad' (a driving staff) and its value is 30. Lamed is the tallest letter, rising above the line, and is traditionally linked to teaching and learning (the root l-m-d). The Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation), the foundational text of Jewish letter-mysticism compiled in late antiquity, divides the twenty-two Hebrew consonants into three groups: three 'mother' letters (Aleph, Mem, Shin) assigned to the elements Air, Water and Fire; seven 'double' letters, each with a hard and soft pronunciation, assigned to the seven classical planets and to seven pairs of opposites; and twelve 'simple' letters assigned to the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve months. As a simple letter Lamed is assigned to the sign Libra and the month of Tishrei.

A separate and much later system, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (founded 1888), mapped the twenty-two letters onto the twenty-two trumps of the tarot along the paths of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. This tarot correspondence is a modern Western-esoteric overlay, not part of the ancient Hebrew or classical Kabbalistic tradition. The Golden Dawn assigns Lamed to Justice (trump XI in its ordering), whose scales suit the sign of the balance.