Let us ponder.

Why were the Ten Commandments given before the rest of Torah?

Also; In what way are the first ten commandments different than the rest of Torah - the 603 commandments that follow?

Let us begin by examining Torah itself.

Torah has two functions. One is to forge a connection between G-d and the Jewish People; to create a direct pathway between Man and G-d, from the purely terrestrial to the purely celestial.

The second, is to instruct Man on how to use that connection to perfect himself: to learn how to come closer to G-d, and how to bring the world to be more expressive of G-d.

When G-d spoke the Ten Commandments to the Jewish People, the first purpose of Torah was achieved. G-d spoke and the Jewish People listened. The connection was forged.

In the 603 commandments that followed - which G-d did not directly teach the Jewish People - G-d taught Man how to build on that connection. Man, now connected to the Divine, had the capability to now learn how to reach his personal potential - and how to bring the world to its potential.(2)

All we need to know about the mystical and physical worlds - morality, mortality, humanity and destiny - and about G-d himself - is contained in the five books of Torah. Torah is all the information the Creator knew the created would need. Torah is all the instruction that Man - the universe's player - needs to know.

Each letter in the Hebrew alphabet possesses a value. Aleph, the first letter of the alphabet, has a numeric value of 1. Its deeper meaning is unity, singularity and G-dliness.(3) The second letter of the alphabet, beis, has a numeric value of 2. It represents addition, expansion and multiplicity. As the first letter of multiple value in the alphabet, beis represents multiplicity most purely: in Judaism, the first expression of a value will always express that value most exactly.

If each letter in the Hebrew alphabet is indeed meaningful, it would seem appropriate for Genesis, the story of creation, and the Ten Commandments - Torah's instruction on bringing creation to completion - to begin with the same letter.

Yet they do not.

The law of Torah begins with an aleph (anochi).

The story of creation begins with a beis (bereshis).

Let us try to understand the depth of this puzzle.

Creation was a process of raw expansion. Myriads of physical entities were created, that expanded, seemingly, on G-d's previous Unity.

The story of creation is a story of expansion. Thus, it begins with the letter beis.(4)

Let us now consider the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are the root(5) of Torah. A commandment is a rule, a boundary, that demands an action or forbids an action. It is a limit on our activity, one that G-d instructs us to respect. Torah, with 613 perimeters, comprises a comprehensive structure: the Jewish People, its recipient, is told that by remaining within its framework, it will bring creation to be like, and more expressive of G-d.

Creation is a chaotic thing. Each player of the world is different, and desires to act individually. Torah is a single metaphysical structure that G-d ordered set onto a multiplistic creation.

Thus, while Genesis, the story of creation, must begin with the letter beis, the Ten Commandments, representing structure - unity in a multiplicity, must begin with the letter aleph.

2 The idea of the Ten Commandments connecting G-d and the Jewish People is represented by the composition of the Ten Commandments. The first five commandments relate to G-d and the second five commandments relate to Man. The two sets of commandments comprise one entity: Ten Commandments that unite G-d and Man.

3 God is Everything, and, thereby, Unity. Also: note that the written letter aleph is comprised of two yud's (one on bottom, one on top) and a vav - the numeric sum of which, equals 26 - the same numeric value as the name of Hashem.

4 The Talmud teaches that beis represents the word bracha (Y. Chagigah 2:2). The root of the word bracha is beis, reish, chaf. Each of these letters represents multiplicity, as each is the first multiple in its numeric category: beis = 2 (single digits), reish = 200 (hundreds), and caf = 20 (tens).

5 Maharal, ibid.