ספר בראשית

‎Genesis 12,2. “and be a blessing!” The letter ‎י-ה‎ in the word ‎והיה‎ is ‎an allusion to G’d, whereas he letters ‎ה-ו‎ are an allusion to the ‎Jewish people. As long as Avraham had not existed, there had not ‎been a human being who tried to “awaken” G’d’s largesse to be ‎dispensed in the lower regions of the universe. G’d’s largesse, ‎when it was dispensed for the good of mankind, owed this ‎exclusively to the Creator’s goodwill. As soon as Avraham became ‎active on earth, there were deeds on earth that “awakened” G’d ‎to dispense His largesse as a result of acts performed by His ‎creatures. In other words, prior to Avraham, G’d’s name could be ‎spelled in the order of ‎י-ה-ו-ה‎, whereas this order had now been ‎reversed and His name could be spelled as ‎ו-ה-י-ה‎. This is what the ‎author of Bereshit Rabbah 39,11 had in mind when he said ‎that the meaning of the word ‎והיה‎ is equivalent to the meaning of ‎the word ‎שמחה‎, joy, i.e. there had not been any joy on earth prior ‎to the appearance of Avraham on earth. The reversal of the ‎sequence of the letters ‎ו-ה‎ hints at this largesse having its origin ‎in the lower, rather than the celestial regions. [I have not found a ‎reference to ‎שמחה‎ joy, in our versions of this Midrash. Ed.]‎