Tav

Tav is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet and thus represents completion, culmination, and the seal of truth. The Hebrew word for truth -- "emet" (אמת) -- is composed of the first letter (Alef), the middle letter (Mem), and the last letter (Tav) of the alphabet. This teaches that truth spans the entire range of reality, from beginning to middle to end. Nothing true can be partial; genuine truth encompasses everything. Tav, as the final component, represents the fulfillment and validation of all that precedes it. The Talmud (Shabbat 55a) relates that the angel of life marks the foreheads of the righteous with a Tav -- the seal of "tichyeh" (you shall live), written in ink. The wicked are also marked with a Tav, but in blood, for "tamut" (you shall die). Tav is thus the letter of ultimate judgment and ultimate redemption, the final seal that determines destiny. In the prophet Ezekiel's vision (9:4), God instructs the angel to "put a mark (tav) upon the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over the abominations." As the twenty-second letter with a gematria of 400, Tav represents the completion of the cycle that began with Alef. The twenty-two letters are understood in Jewish tradition as the building blocks of all creation -- the tools with which God spoke the universe into being. Tav, the final tool, seals the work. But completion is also a new beginning: after Tav, we return to Alef, and the cycle of learning, creation, and growth begins anew. This is why the Torah reading cycle, upon reaching the end of Deuteronomy, immediately restarts with Genesis -- Tav gives way to Alef in an endless spiral of renewal.

Tav is pronounced as a "T" sound in modern Israeli Hebrew, identical to Tet (ט). In Ashkenazi pronunciation and in some traditional readings, Tav without a dagesh was pronounced as an "S" sound (as in the Ashkenazi pronunciation of Shabbat as "Shabbos" -- the final Tav of "Shabbat" becoming an "S"). In Sephardic and modern Israeli Hebrew, this distinction has been eliminated, and Tav is always pronounced as "T." When writing Tav, it has a distinctive shape: a flat or slightly curved top with a left foot extending downward and a small extension or foot on the right side. It looks somewhat like an upside-down "J" attached to a flat roof. Tav should not be confused with Chet (ח), which has two legs of equal length, while Tav's left leg is longer and its right leg is shorter and may curve inward.