Imagine, if you will, a time long, long before time as we know it. Before the sun, the moon, the stars… before even the very Earth beneath our feet. What existed then? Well, according to some mystical traditions, the letters of the Hebrew alphabet did!
The Tree of Souls tells us that for two thousand years before creation, these letters were hidden away, cradled in the Divine Presence. Can you picture it? God gazing upon these symbols, delighting in their forms, their potential, the very building blocks of… well, everything!
Then came the moment of creation. According to this tradition, all twenty-two letters, engraved upon God's very crown, descended. They lined up, not in the order we might expect (aleph to tav), but in reverse, from tav to aleph. Each letter, in turn, had its chance to make its case.
First stepped forward the tav (ת). "O Lord," it pleaded, "create the world through me! For I am the beginning of the word Torah!" A pretty compelling argument, right?
God acknowledged the tav's worthiness. "You are deserving," God replied, "and in the days to come, I shall command that you be placed as a sign on the foreheads of the righteous." Imagine that! A protective symbol, a mark of grace. "When the destroying angel comes to punish sinners," God continued, "he will see the letter on their foreheads and spare them." That’s some serious divine protection.
But… the tav was crestfallen. It wouldn't be used to create the world itself. And so, it left God's presence, disappointed. As Ginzberg retells this story in Legends of the Jews, the tav was marked as the sign of Cain, a mark of warning.
One by one, each of the other letters approached, each with their own heartfelt plea. Imagine the shin, shimmering with the fire of shalom (peace), or the mem, murmuring the mysteries of mayim (water). But God, for reasons yet unrevealed, did not grant their wishes. The Midrash Rabbah echoes this idea, portraying each letter making its case, only to be turned away.
Soon, all that remained... well, we'll have to save that for the next episode, won't we? What could possibly be the criteria for creation? What letter did God ultimately choose, and why? And what does this all tell us about the very nature of language, creation, and the divine will? Think about it – the entire cosmos hanging in the balance, dependent on a single letter. What a thought!