When God was about to create the world by His word, the
twenty-two letters of the alphabet[10] descended from the
terrible and august crown of God whereon they were engraved with
a pen of flaming fire. They stood round about God, and one after
the other spake and entreated, "Create the world through me! The
first to step forward was the letter Taw. It said: "O Lord of the
world! May it be Thy will to create Thy world through me, seeing
that it is through me that Thou wilt give the Torah to Israel by
the hand of Moses, as it is written, 'Moses commanded us the
Torah.' " The Holy One, blessed be He, made reply, and said,
"No!" Taw asked, "Why not?" and God answered: "Because in days to
come I shall place thee as a sign of death upon the foreheads of
men." As soon as Taw heard these words issue from the mouth of
the Holy One, blessed be He, it retired from His presence
disappointed.

The Shin then stepped forward, and pleaded: "O Lord of the world,
create Thy world through me: seeing that Thine own name Shaddai
begins with me." Unfortunately, it is also the first letter of
Shaw, lie, and of Sheker, falsehood, and that incapacitated it.
Resh had no better luck. It was pointed out that it was the
initial letter of Ra', wicked, and Rasha' evil, and after that
the distinction it enjoys of being the first letter in the Name
of God, Rahum, the Merciful, counted for naught. The Kof was
rejected, because Kelalah, curse, outweighs the advantage of
being the first in Kadosh, the Holy One. In vain did Zadde call
attention to Zaddik, the Righteous One; there was Zarot, the
misfortunes of Israel, to testify against it. Pe had Podeh,
redeemer, to its credit, but Pesha: transgression, reflected
dishonor upon it. 'Ain was declared unfit, because, though it