500 is the numeric value of the Hebrew letter ך (final Kaph), the written form of the letter taken when it appears at the end of a word. Kaph means "palm" or "hollow of the hand," and its final form value 500 carries the weight of completion and severity. In the Sepher Yetzirah, Kaph is associated with the sphere of Saturn and the month of Shevat.

Position on the Tree of Life

Five hundred occupies the fifth Sephirah, Geburah, the sphere of severity and judgment. As the expansion of the number 5 (the simple value of Kaph) through the power of the decade, 500 intensifies the martial and restrictive qualities of that sphere. The Sephirah Geburah is the force of discipline, limitation, and the breaking of forms—a necessary counterpart to the expansive mercy of Chesed.

Astrological and planetary correspondence

The sphere of Geburah is assigned in the Hermetic Qabalah to the planet Mars—the red planet of war, strength, and purification through fire. The number 500 thus carries the essence of the sword and the scourge, the power to cut away the unnecessary and to impose the law of the higher self upon the lower nature.

Historical context

The value 500 emerges in the Qabalistic system of gematria, wherein each Hebrew letter possesses both a simple and a final (or full) numeric value. The letter Kaph in its final form (ך) is 500, distinct from its standard form (כ), which is 20. This distinction is observed in the Masoretic text of the Torah, where certain letters at the end of words take these variant shapes. The text of the Torah itself, containing such final forms, is considered by Qabalists to encode hidden numerical relationships.

In the medieval text of the Bahir, the letter Kaph is related to the concept of the palm as the instrument of receiving and of active grasping—linking it to the power of judgment. Later, in the Zohar, the final letters are seen as representing the higher, more concealed aspects of the Sefirot. Kaph final (500) thus pertains to the deepest level of severity and judgment, the root of limitation in the physical world. The number 500 itself is the sum of 5 times 100, multiplying the severity of the number 5 by the completion and wholeness of 100 (which itself represents Keter, the Crown).

In the practical Qabalah of the Renaissance, such as that of Johannes Reuchlin, the numeric values of letters were used for meditation and for understanding the divine names. The name of God associated with the Sephirah Geburah is Elohim Gibor—"God the Mighty," whose letters sum to a value rich with martial power. The number 500 appears in the gematria of certain words of judgment and power, such as the Hebrew word for "the wing" (הכנף, HaKanaf), which sums to 500—a reference to the covering of the divine throne, itself a symbol of strict judgment.

Closing

In Liber 777, the number 500 appears as the numeration of the Sephirah Geburah on the scale of column LI. It is the number of the principle of severity made manifest, the final form of the hand that holds the sword—closed, complete, and ready to strike.