From the foregoing [exposition] the answer to the heretics [is deduced], and the root of the error of those who deny individual Divine Providence and the signs and miracles recorded in the Torah is revealed. They err, making a false analogy, in comparing the work of G‑d, the Creator of heaven and earth, to the work of man and his schemes. For, when a goldsmith has made a vessel, that vessel is no longer dependent upon the smith, and even when his hands are removed from it and he goes away, the vessel remains in exactly the same image and form as when it left the hands of the smith. In the same way, these fools conceive the creation of heaven and earth. But their eyes are covered [and they fail] to see the great difference between the work of man and his schemes— which consists of making one thing out of another which already exists, merely changing the form and appearance from an ingot of silver to a vessel— and the making of heaven and earth, which is creatio ex nihilo.

Indeed, this is an even greater miracle than, for example, the splitting of the Red Sea. For then, G‑d drove back the sea by a strong east wind all the night and the waters were divided and stood upright as a wall. If G‑d had stopped the wind, the waters would have instantly flowed downward, as is their way and nature, and undoubtedly they would not have stood upright as a wall, even though this nature of water [to flow downward] is also created ex nihilo, for a stone wall stands erect by itself without [the assistance of] the wind, but the nature of water is not so.

[Thus, if for the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea the continuous action of G‑d was necessary] how much more so is it in the creation of being out of nothing which transcends nature and is far more miraculous than the splitting of the Red Sea, that with the withdrawal of the power of the Creator from the thing created, G‑d forbid, it would revert to naught and complete non-existence. Rather, the Activating Force of the Creator must continuously be in the thing created to give it life and existence. [These Forces] are the "letters of speech" of the Ten Utterances by which [beings] were created.

And that is the meaning of the verse: ואתה מחי' את כולם . Read not 'מחי , give life, but מהוה bring into being, i.e., ex nihilo. The word אתה , You, indicates all the letters from Aleph to Tav, and the letter Hey, the five organs of verbal articulation, the sources of the letters. Although He has no bodily likeness, yet, Scripture itself ascribes to Him [anthropomorphic terms such as] "And G‑d spoke" or "And G‑d said," which denote the revelation of the twenty-two Supernal Letters to the Prophets and the enclothing [of the letters] in their intellect and comprehension in the prophetic vision, as well as in their thought and speech, as it is written, "The spirit of G‑d spoke in me, and His word is upon my tongue," as has been explained oy the Ari, of blessed memory, (in the Shaar HaNevuah). Similar to this is the investment of the letters in created things— as it is written, "By the word of G‑d were the heavens made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host,"— only [the enclothing of the letters in created beings] is through numerous and powerful descents until [the letters! reach the corporeal [world of] Asiyah; whereas the comprehension of the Prophets is in [the world of] Atzilut as it becomes clothed in the world of Beriah.