22. “Bereshit, Rav Hamnuna etc.” Bereshit [“In the beginning”]. Rav Hamnuna Saba said: We have found in the words Bereshit bara Elohim et [“In the beginning God created”], an inverse order of their letters. First, it writes bet, and then [another] bet, that is, Bereshit bara, next it writes alef, and then [another] alef, that is, Elohim et. He answers: When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make the world, all the letters were still concealed, and two thousand years before the creation of the world the Holy One, blessed be He, was observing and playing with the letters**.**

Explanation: [Rav Hamnuna Saba] asks two questions: (a) Why are the letters alef and bet in reverse order at the start of the Torah, with the bet coming first and only then the alef? (b) Why are those two letters doubled, as the first two words, Bereshit bara, both start with a bet, and the next two words, Elohim et, each begins with an alef?

He answers: “When the Holy One, blessed be He, wished to make the world,” i.e., when the Holy One, blessed be He, which is Bina, wished to produce Ze’er Anpin and Nukba, which are called “world,” the letters, which are the vessels of Ze’er Anpin and Nukba, were “concealed.” That is, they were incorporated in the first three [sefirot of Bina of Atzilut], which are Abba and Imma Ila'in, and the [letters] were not [yet] known. And Ḥokhma and Bina are called “two thousand years.” Before He created the world, the letters of Ze’er Anpin and Nukba were incorporated in Ḥokhma and Bina. Therefore, this incorporation of Ze’er Anpin and Nukba in Ḥokhma and Bina is described as “two thousand years before the creation of the world the Holy One, blessed be He, was observing and playing with them.” At that point, Ze’er Anpin and Nukba were regarded as feminine waters in the two thousand years, which are Ḥokhma and Bina, and the feminine waters always bring playfulness to the upper realm. This is why [Rav Hamnuna] said that at that time, when [Ze’er Anpin and Nukba] became feminine waters in Ḥokhma and Bina, “the Holy One, blessed be He, was observing and playing with them.”