Showing posts with label yod. Show all posts
Showing posts with label yod. Show all posts

Thursday, September 12, 2013

The Talmud on the Creation of the World with the Letters Yod and Heh

"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?' He replied: It implies that if one puts his trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, behold He is unto him as a refuge in this world and in the world to come. This, retorted the other, was my difficulty: why does the verse say 'in Yah' and not 'Yah?' The reason is as was expounded by R. Judah ben R. Ila'i: Yah, he said, refers to the two worlds which the Holy One, blessed be He, created, one with the letter heh and the other with the letter yod. Yet I do not know whether the future world was created with the yod and this world with the heh or this world with the yod and the future world with the heh; but since it is written, 'These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created' read not 'be-hibare'am' 'when they were created', but 'be-he bera'am', 'He created them with the heh'; hence I may say that this world was created with the heh and the future world with the yod."

-- Talmud Bavli, tractate Menachot 29b