The rabbis of the Midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) debated endlessly over the mystery of how God created the world — and what existed before creation began.
According to Bereshit Rabbah (ch. 65), God surveyed the vast emptiness that preceded existence and considered how to build a world that would endure. He had, the Midrash teaches, created and destroyed many worlds before this one. Each time, something was wrong — too much justice and not enough mercy, or too much mercy and not enough justice. The balance was never right.
Finally, God took a different approach. He created the Torah first — two thousand years before the world itself — and used it as an architect uses a blueprint. Every mountain, every river, every creature, every star was drawn from the letters and words of the Torah. The letter Bet, with which the Torah begins, became the foundation. The letter Aleph, silent and humble, stood behind it as the hidden support.
Exodus Rabbah (13:1) adds an astonishing detail: when God spoke the world into existence with the words "Let there be light" (Genesis 1:3), the light that appeared was not the light of the sun — the sun would not be created until the fourth day. This was a primordial light, a radiance so powerful that a person standing in Jerusalem could see from one end of the universe to the other. God saw that the wicked would one day misuse this light, so He hid it away. It waits now, stored up for the righteous in the World to Come.