Where is God?

October 28, 2008 6:55 AM

Other than Rambam's "Mishnah Torah: Sefer Madah," what other famous book or work begins with the Tetragrammaton? In "hilchot yesode hatorah," the first four words of the chapter begin with the letters yud hay vav hay. Our teacher said there is some other famous book/chapter/text that uses words with the same four letters? Anyone know what it is? Thanks!
posted by andoatnp to Religion & Philosophy (5 answers total)

Best answer: The Friday Night Kiddush - Yom Hashishi, Va-Yochulu Hashamayim Ve-Kol Tzva-am.....
posted by watercarrier at 7:07 AM on October 28, 2008

In the Book of Esther there are many occurances - One example is where the words Yavo Hamelech V'Haman Hayom -- Hebrew for "Let the king and Haman come today" (5:4 in the traditional texts) form an acronym of the Tetragrammaton.
posted by watercarrier at 7:26 AM on October 28, 2008

Best answer: It has become sort of an unofficial tradition for Jewish authors writing Torah commentaries to start the book off with this accrostic, you will find that many, many Hebrew book begin this way (even some English ones, "You Have Various Hodge-podges...) It will be found most of the time in the introduction of the book, an example is the "Sefer Shev Shmaita" (Yitbarach Ha'echad Ve'yishtabach Ha'boreh)
posted by allfortheBoss at 8:08 AM on October 28, 2008

Psalm 96:11
יִשְׂמְחוּ הַשָּׁמַיִם, וְתָגֵל הָאָרֶץ

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
posted by watercarrier at 8:26 AM on October 28, 2008

Response by poster: To clarify, I am looking for sources that begin with the tetragrammaton, not just have it anywhere in the work.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!
posted by andoatnp at 1:51 PM on October 28, 2008