Cytowanie Komentarza do Psalmów 29:3

[Ps. 104:6]: “You made the deep cover it as a garment”: The deep coexists with the world like a pot and its lid. Thus [the verse continues] “the waters stood above the mountains.” How were the waters gathered to one side? For you rebuked them “and they fled from your rebuke” [Ps. 104:7], as in: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters, the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over the mighty waters” [Ps. 29:3]. That is why it repeats the word: “Water, water.”¹⁷⁴The repetition in Ps. 29:3 is not direct. There may be an allusion here to the tale of R. Akiva’s ascent to the pardes, as described in b. Ḥagigah 14b.

"Upon the well of water" - In the Tanakh, it is said: "And he said, 'Hagar, Sarah's maid, from where did you come, and where are you going?' And she said, 'I am fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarah.'" (Gen. 16:8) Here and there, behold, I am standing over the well of water. It is good to pray over the water, as it is written, "the voice of splendor is in the waters" (Psalm 29:3), meaning that there the righteous give charity in the name of God. Similarly, prayer is compared to water, as it is written, "Pour out your heart like water before the presence of God" (Lamentations 2:19).

I have heard that the “swallowing” consisted of the individual words alluding to the Unity of G’d, i.e. words containing the letters in the word י-ה-ו-ה, to appear with the vowel pattern familiar from the word אליהו הנביא, or ישעיהו הנביא, and similar examples. In other words, the meaning of “swallowing the letters,” is to pronounce them with vowels other than the ones designated for them. This is also the meaning of the expression מבליעין described in Kidushin 71 where the Talmud says that the name of G’d consisting of 12 letters must not be revealed to anyone except the most chaste of the priests. The name consisting of 42 letters was revealed only to people possessing the following three qualities: 1) chastity, 2) humility, 3) at least 35 years old, 4) not given to anger, 5) not given to drunkenness. 6) not insisting on what he feels is his due. The chaste priests to whom the 12-lettered name of G’d had been revealed would “swallow” it i.e. utter it at a time when because of the four-lettered name of G’d uttered by the other priests at the same time the 12-lettered name could not be heard or identified by the listeners.
According to the opinion of those who hold that the High Priest did indeed utter the tetragrammaton he did so using the traditional vowel pattern, even though the ultimate holiness of that name is dependent on the vowel pattern [the one we have changed and is read as elohim, especially when the letters of the tetragrammaton (consonants) appear in the Books of the Prophets. Ed.] There is a tradition amongst the Kabbalists that when the Holy Name is divulged to qualified students this is done only על המים, near the water; this is based on Psalms 29,3: “the voice of the Lord is over the waters.” In other words, the waters are to act as purifying agent for the name when it is “handed over,” much as a ritual bath acts as a purifying agent.