Talmud Bavli
Talmud Bavli

Quotation for Menachot 58:8

אמר ליה אנא הכי קא קשיא לי מאי שנא דכתיב ביה ולא כתיב יה

They add a vertical stroke to the roof of the letter heth, signifying thereby that He lives in the heights of the word.<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' The letter heth is the initial letter of the word , 'He lives', and the stroke or tower above indicates that the abode of the living God is on high. ohnkug rum 'v vhc hf');"><sup>12</sup></span> And they suspend the [inner] leg of the letter he for the reason given in the following discussion. For R'Judah the patriarch asked R'Ammi, What is the meaning of the verse, Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in Yah the Lord is an everlasting rock?<span class="x" onmousemove="('comment',' Isa. XXVI, 4. The latter half of the verse reads and this is interpreted as meaning 'for with Yah (i.e., with the letters yod and he) the Lord formed the worlds.'');"><sup>13</sup></span>

Ramban on Genesis

THESE ARE THE GENERATIONS OF THE HEAVEN AND THE EARTH WHEN THEY WERE CREATED. Scripture now relates the account of the heaven and the earth as regards rain and growth after they had been created and put in proper order, that the heavens shall give their dew276Zechariah 8:12. and rain, and the ground shall give her increase,276Zechariah 8:12. these making possible the existence of all living beings. And in the word b’hibaram (when they were created) — [which could be read as if it were two words: b’hei baram] — Scripture alludes to what the Rabbis have said:277Menachoth 29b., “He created them with the letter hei” [which is the last of the four letters of the Tetragrammaton]. It is for this reason that Scripture until this point mentioned only the word Elokim. This is explained in the verse: For all these things hath My hand made;278Isaiah 66:2. The last letter (hei) of the Tetragrammaton is in the Cabala considered the yad hashem (the hand of G-d). See my Hebrew commentary, p. 32. and so did Job say, Who knoweth not among all these, that the hand of the Eternal hath wrought this?279Job 12:9. This being so, the expression, in the day that the Eternal G-d made, refers covertly to the word bereshith (in the beginning).280See Ramban above at the end of 1:1 and see also Note 64.
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