Proceeding along this illuminating path, we will now elaborate on the the Chasam Sofer’s comments regarding the letter “vav” being the midpoint of the letters of the Torah. We will begin by introducing what is brought down in the sefer Ba’al Shem Tov (Zot HaBerachah 4). The holy Ba’al Shem Tov asks a question concerning HKB”H’s admonition to Adam HaRishon (Bereishis 2, 17): "ומעץ הדעת טוב ורע לא תאכל ממנו כי ביום אכלך ממנו מות תמות"—but of the Eitz HaDa’as Tov VaRa, you must not eat thereof, for on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. This implies that Adam could have chosen not to eat from the Eitz HaDa’as, and then he would not have died.
This is difficult, because we learn from the Midrash (B.R. 8, 2): The Torah existed two thousand years prior to the creation of the world. If that is true, then how could it be written in the Torah prior to the creation of the world (Bamidbar 19, 14): "זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל"—this is the Torah of a man who dies in a tent? How could the matter of death be written several times in the Torah before the world was actually created? Perhaps Adam HaRishon would not have sinned and would not have had to die.
The Ba’al Shem Tov answers that prior to the creation, HKB”H wrote the Torah with different combinations of letters that made no mention of death. Then, when Adam HaRishon sinned and was sentenced to die, the combinations of letters was modified resulting in the combinations familiar to us today. Hence, it was possible to write: "אדם כי ימות באהל". Similarly, all the sins and punishments mentioned in the Torah are combinations of letters that changed after the initial sin.
Undoubtedly, the answer of the Ba’al Shem Tov is based on the commentary of the Ramban (Introduction to the Torah). The Ramban reveals an amazing fact concerning the combinations of letters of the Torah that HKB”H wrote in the form of black fire etched upon white fire. Here is a translation of his sacred words:
We have yet another mystical tradition (Zohar hakadosh, Yisro 87a) that the entire Torah is comprised of names of HKB”H, and the letters of the words can be rearranged into other divine names. For example, the passuk "בראשית ברא אלקים"” can be rearranged to form other words such as "בראש יתברא אלקים". This applies to the entire Torah except for the permutations and gematriot of the holy names . . .
It appears that the Torah which is written with (letters of ) black fire upon a background of white fire was in this form that we have mentioned—namely, that the writing was contiguous, without being broken down into words. Thus, it was possible for it to be read by way of divine names and also by way of our normal reading relating to the Torah and the mitzvos. It was given to Moshe Rabeinu using the division of words which conveys the mitzvos, and it was transmitted to him orally as it read consisting of holy names.
Based on this sublime introduction, we can begin to comprehend the answer of the Ba’al Shem Tov hakadosh. For, we are taught in the Midrash (ibid. 1, 1): HKB”H would look in the Torah and create the world. In a similar vein, the Zohar hakadosh says (Terumah 161a): "כד ברא קוב"ה עלמא אסתכל בה באורייתא וברא עלמא"—when HKB”H created the world, He looked in the Torah and created the world.
Thus, it is evident that everything that was created in the world originates solely from the power of the letters of the Torah; HKB”H looked at them and created the world. Hence, the fact that death exists in the world is because it is mentioned in the Torah: “On the day you eat of it, you shall surely die.” Similarly, all the diseases in the world exist because they are mentioned in the Torah in the tochachos and the curses in parshas Bechukosai and parshas Ki Savo. Accordingly, based on the original version of the Torah before the world was created—according to the Ramban, before it was divided up into words, when is consisted of permutations of holy names capable of imparting every sort of good to the world—death and disease would not have existed.
According to this understanding, if Adam HaRishon had not sinned, he would have indeed lived forever. Because we would have been privileged to receive the Torah with the arrangement of letters that does not mention death or any form of illness. Yet, since he did sin, and it was decreed that he must die, HKB”H rearranged the letters of the Torah broken down into words, as we find in our sefer-Torahs today. Accordingly, death and punishments exist to atone for man’s sins.
This is hinted to brilliantly in the passuk: "זאת התורה אדם כי ימות באהל". Now, the Ba’al Shem Tov asked how could death have been written in the Torah before Adam HaRishon sinned; perhaps he would not have sinned and would not have died. Therefore, HKB”H answers this question as follows: "זאת התורה"—only in this Torah, as it appears before us today, is it written: “If a man dies in a tent.” In its original form, however, before the world was created, the Torah consisted exclusively of contiguous permutations of holy names without division into words; there was no mention of death.
Now, this illuminates for us the explanation of the Chasam Sofer concerning the midpoint of the letters of the Torah— the “vav” of "כל הולך על גחון". Before the “cheit Eitz HaDa’as,” the letters of Torah were arranged without being broken down into words. Accordingly, it did not say that the nachash would ambulate on its belly—“gachon.” Had it not enticed Adam and Chava to sin, it would have had legs with which to serve man. In other words, the letters would not have been arranged with the words "הולך על גחון"; instead, they would have only been combinations of holy names.
