Last week we began to explore the first letter of Torah and offered that the sequence of Alef to Beit reveals a transition from the experience of oneness to separation and individuation. A few of you shared ideas which helps form the following inquiry into the importance of language and more specifically, the Hebrew letters.

Danielle Friedman shares that Beresheet begins with a Beit because the closed side ( in its shape- the back) represents what is hidden from us-before Torah- and the open side represents the knowledge G-d reveals to us.

The idea that as much as is revealed there is much hidden, is also reflected in Dean Barron's quoting from the mystical text of the Bahir that there is an embedded Beit on the "tail" of the Alef. In his words, " It is fitting that the Torah begins with a Beit, since the Alef itself begins with a little Beit".

A beauty of the Hebrew letters is their hidden shapes, meanings and numerical values to be discovered by us. The Talmud and Midrash describe the "letters of creation" as Black Fire on White Fire. As we look at the Hebrew letters, another mystery is the letters and shapes that are in the white (negative) space in and around the letters ( if you draw a page full of Alefs, Beits will fill the negative space between the Alefs). The most obvious "shape" in the negative space of a letter is the white Beit inside the letter Peh ( meaning mouth). The black letter Peh makes a wonderful stencil for drawing the letter Beit.

Now we have a further question: What is the Beit doing inside of the Peh? Another Midrash relates that the large black Beit of the word Beresheet is surrounded by a white Peh, representing the Beit coming from the "mouth of G-d". What is being revealed by the "hidden" Beit inside the Peh? A novel approach emerges from an attempt to answer a seemingly naive question- why do we need a written language?
It would seem that a verbal or sign language would be more than sufficient to communicate ideas, feelings and even commandments. And we fully well know that the Torah is only complete with the oral traditions transmitted verbally from generation to generation. Why do we need a written Torah?! ( your comments are welcome).

While there are many answers to this last question, the answer we would like to focus on is the gift of the Hebrew letters that comprise the Torah. Perhaps if Hebrew was like any other language, a social convenience for communication, then the Torah could have been only a verbal inheritance. The Torah though is given to us with the same letters with which G-d creates and sustains the world. The letter Beit inside the mouth of the Peh is letting us know that it is not merely a verbal language that comes out of our mouths but a "written" language that emerges as well. The letters, words and sentences have shape and inner meaning and spiritual force!

In the words of Mike Radigan, " the letters are timeless and charged with an identity that is beyond being stuck in time, the Hebrew letters are carriers of G-d's mystery".