Mr. Aleph's Story

By - Judy Git

The time had finally come for all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to get together to talk about what their jobs would be in the Hebrew alphabet - who would say what sound, what rules they would have to follow. As the first letter in the alphabet, it was Mr. Aleph's turn to speak first. All the letters were a little bit worried, because Mr. Aleph was known as a chatterbox. Would he be able to stick to the point? Or would he go on and on and give everyone a headache.

Mr. Aleph got up, and with a large bow to the audience, he began to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen, letters and helpers, people of the WORLD..." he began. Oh, oh! This did not sound like he was going to stick to the point. "As the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, I feel it is my duty and responsibility to make a few introductory remarks."

"Huh?" said little Yud, who is only a child.

"Yes, yes, indeed," continued Mr. Aleph. "As the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, let me welcome you all here today on this important occasion of deciding on our jobs. From this day on we will all know exactly what we are to do. We will be respected and admired all over the world! Children in every country will study us!"

"Ah, that's very nice, Mr. Aleph," said Mr. Hay very softly. (Mr. Hay is a very soft-spoken letter.) "I'm sure we all appreciate your kind words, but could you tell us please, what job you would like to have in the alphabet?"

Many other letters nodded in agreement with Mr. Hay.

"Yes, yes, of course. Certainly, my DEAR friend Hay," continued Mr. Aleph. "I was just about to get to that. But first, let me tell you all a story about (ha, ha, ha,) the time I visited some of the letters of the English alphabet."

All the letters groaned. Mr. Aleph's stories were sooooo boring! Mr. Aleph, of course, didn't even notice that the other letters were not too enthusiastic about hearing his story. He went right on and told it. It took TWENTY-FIVE„ minutes, and by the time he was through, everyone was very bored and very annoyed with Mr. Aleph.

"Mr. Aleph!" said Mr. Pay pointedly, "Would you PLEASE tell us what job you would like to do in the Hebrew alphabet!?!"

This time ALL the letters nodded in agreement. There was a lot of murmuring and mumbling among the letters, as well.

"Yes, yes, of course," said Mr. Aleph. "I was just getting to that. Ahem! As the very first letter in the Hebrew alphabet, I feel that it is very important that I have an important job to do. As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be a bad idea if I were allowed to be in every single word in the Hebrew language. As for the sound I will make...hmmm...maybe I could say every sound, depending on the word I am in. Actually, perhaps I would be the only letter in the alphabet, and you guys could all just have a vacation, what do you think?" (The letters didn't think very much of THAT idea.) "Which reminds me," went on Mr. Aleph "of another story that I would like to tell you...."

This was too much. This was ABSOLUTELY too much. The letters had to do something fast, before Mr. Aleph took over the whole alphabet, and before he told another story! It was little Yud who finally came up with an idea. "I think we should sew his mouth shut, is what I think!" said Little Yud.

At first the letters thought that was not a good idea, but, when Mr. Aleph began telling his second story of the morning, a story which was even more boring than the first one, they did exactly what Little Yud had suggested; they sewed his mouth shut.

"But now he can't say anything at all!" said Miss Kamatz, one of the helpers. "What good is a letter that can't say anything at all?"

"Besides," added Mr. Tet, who was know as Tov, good at heart, "he looks so sad, now that he can't speak."

"But we can't unsew his mouth," said Mr. Mem as he finished his mouthful of matzah, "he'd never stop talking if we did."

"Maybe WE could help him talk just a little bit," suggested Miss Patach, Miss Kamatz's twin sister.

And that was how the letters solved the problem of Mr. Aleph. Ever since that day, whenever there is a helper around to help him, he can talk. But he can say only the sound that the helper makes. When there is no helper with him, Mr. Aleph is silent; he doesn't say anything at all.