Taf

Impression

Taf, the twenty-second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, has the numeric value of four hundred. There were four hundred years of exile in Egypt and the dimensions of the Land of Israel are four hundred parsah by four hundred parsah. Avraham (Abraham) purchased the Cave of Machpelah to bury  his wife Sarah with four hundred pieces of silver. There were four hundred gates of knowledge shared among the four couples buried in the Machpelah.

Taf is shaped like a stamp or a seal, representing physical impressions, such as fossils and footprints. Taf concludes the Hebrew alphabet, and thus symbolizes the seal of creation. It also represents the music of creation, the Divine patterns and rhythms of the universe.