Tav — the 22th Hebrew letter
ת
Symbolism
Mark, sign, seal, covenant witness; completion — the last letter, the destination of the alphabet; four hundred — years foretold to Abraham
What the letter is built from
Traditionally a dalet joined to a nun — the door of the faithful; in paleo-Hebrew, simply two crossed strokes: a mark
Its first root in Scripture
The first tav root is tohu — the unformed state awaiting God's ordering word
Messianic thread
In Ezekiel 9 the faithful receive a tav on their foreheads — a mark that in the prophet's own paleo script was cross-shaped. The last letter seals: the Alef and the Tav, the First and the Last, span the whole alphabet in the mouth of the risen One.
In the mystical tradition
Tav is emet's final letter — truth carries the seal of God at its end. It ends the alphabet as death ends life: but as the seal of covenant, not erasure.
Wisdom of the letter
From alef to tav — the Hebrew 'A to Z' — appears in Scripture's phrase et (את), the untranslatable word woven through creation's first verse: the whole alphabet silently present when God creates.