The Talmud relates that the Torah preceded the creation of the world by many years. The Kabalah – the source of our mystical teachings – relates that when G-d was ready to create the world He peered into the Torah using it as a blueprint for creation.
When G-d gave us the Torah He commanded our leader Moshe to write the Torah scroll beginning with the letter Bais. This letter is scribed in a large bold font for it is the start of the Torah.
It is a bit surprising that the Torah begins with Bais, the second letter, rather than with Alef, the first letter.
In fact, the Medrash relates that when G-d decided to create the world all the letters of the Alef-Bais begged G-d that they be used as the first letter to be scribed in the Torah.
When G-d chose the letter Bais, the letter Alef complained, “Why was I skipped over?” G-d explained to the Alef, since the word Arur – curse, begins with an Alef, “I preferred not to begin the Torah with a letter associated with curse, I therefore chose the letter Bais which is associated with the word Brocha – blessing so that the world be blessed.”
G-d however appeased the Alef by telling it that in the future He would reveal Himself at Mount Sinai and proclaim the Ten Commandments. At that time He would begin them with the letter Alef. Alef is the first letter of Anochi – I am Hashem Your G-d who took you out of the land of Egypt.
We may ask, how was this an appeasement for the Alef? After all, it wasn’t the first letter of creation. This can be explained based on the words of Rashi who quotes a Medrash that embedded in the word Beraishis, the first word of the Torah, there is a hint that the entirety of the creation was for the purpose of G-d giving us the Torah as an instruction how to live our lives.
The Alef was satisfied with this arrangement because it was only because of the Alef of the Ten Commandments that the world was created with the letter Bais.
The Torah details what G-d created in each of the six days of creation. When the Torah concludes describing the sixth day of creation, it segues into the seventh day when G-d saw His work complete and recognized that the only thing the world lacked was rest. He therefore ‘rested from creative activities’ on the seventh day – Shabbos.
Our Sages point out something very interesting. The last two words of the sixth day of creation are – Yom Hashishi ― the sixth day. This is followed by the description of the seventh day which begins with Vayechulu Hashomayim ― and the heavens were completed. The beginning letters of these four words spell out G-d’s four letter name.
Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin o.b.m. explains that there is a message embedded here. G-d’s name is encoded connecting the six days of work to the seventh day of rest, the holy Shabbos. This is because the six days of work would be purposeless and bereft of sanctity without a connection to the holiness of the Shabbos. The Shabbos would also be without meaning if there was no way to contrast it with the creative activities we perform during the six days of the week.
Rashi points out that the Torah highlights the sixth day of creation for it doesn’t call it a sixth day like it does with the other days of the week, rather, it calls it, Yom Hashishi, ‘the sixth day.’ The word “the” is added using the letter Hey as a prefix. Rashi explains that the value of the letter Hey is five, for at the end of creation G-d made a condition that all He created would depend on the Jewish nation accepting the ‘five’ books of the Torah.
Additionally, the sixth day is highlighted as a reference to a future event that would take place on the ‘Sixth’ day of Sivan, for that is when the Jews actually accepted the Torah at Mount Sinai 2448 years later.
It has been G-d’s intention since creation to entrust us with the study and observance of the Torah. And it is our loyalty to the Torah that keeps the world alive!
