<P> A popular interpretation of the name Shaddai is that it is composed of the Hebrew relative particle she - (Shin plus vowel segol followed by dagesh), or, as in this case, as sha - (Shin plus vowel patach followed by a dagesh). The noun containing the dagesh is the Hebrew word dai meaning "enough, sufficient, sufficiency". This is the same word used in the Passover Haggadah, Dayeinu, which means "It would have been enough for us ." The song Dayeinu celebrates the various miracles God performed while liberating the Israelites from Egyptian servitude . The Talmud explains it this way, but says that "Shaddai" stands for "Mi she'Amar Dai L'olamo" (Hebrew: מי שאמר די לעולמו)--"He who said' Enough' to His world ." When he was forming the earth, he stopped the process at a certain point, withholding creation from reaching its full completion, and thus the name embodies God's power to stop creation . The passage appears in the tractate Hagigah 12a and reads: </P> <P> Resh Laqish said: what is it that is written: I am El Shaddai (Genesis 35: 11)? I am he who said to the world "enough!". Resh Laqish (also) said: in the hour that the Holy, blessed be he, created the sea, it started to expand--until the Holy, blessed be he, reproached it . (Then) it dried out as it was said: He reproaches the sea and makes it dry; and all the rivers makes desolate (Nahum 1: 4). </P> <P> This account has two parallel variants with some minute changes . One appears in Bereshit Rabbah 5: 8, where Shaddai stops the world from expanding and in 46: 3 where he limits the earth and heavens . What is common to all these instances is the cosmogonic context and the exposition provided by Resh Laqish, who explains the appellation as a compound form consisting of she - and day . These passages have often been exposed in a sophisticated way as indicating the divine plan of drawing the borders between mind and matter, keeping the balance between his right and left hand or as an early manifestation of the kabbalistic idea of tzimtzum . It seems however, that they should rather be approached in their immediate context and in relation to another parallel narrative which comes in BT Sukkah 53 a-b and reads: </P> <P> When David dug the Pits, the (watery chasm) arose and threatened to submerge the world . David asked: "is there anyone who knows whether it is allowed to inscribe the (divine) name upon a (piece of clay), and cast it into the (watery chasm) that its waves would subside?" (...) He thereupon inscribed the name upon a (piece of clay), cast (Aram . שדי) it into the (watery chasm) and it subsided sixteen thousand cubits . </P>

Where does el shaddai appear in the bible