Dear Friends,
How many names of God, from the Torah, Hebrew Bible or Jewish texts, can you name?
Try it! Did you get three – or four? ADONAI, Elohim, Melech, the Rock?
Jewish commentaries indicate that there are 100 names for God in the Hebrew Bible! Don’t feel bad if you only counted three or four.
And, please don’t be bothered by my writing God’s name in this email – the prohibition against writing God’s name is archaic and dates to a time when writing materials were scarce, bound books were scarce and expensive, and the sages instituted the prohibition to limit waste. They had no pretense that writing or erasing God’s name was a sacrilege. The only place where Jewish law requires burial of a text
is when a scribe makes an error in a sheet of parchment and writes God’s name erroneously, nor does Jewish law prescribe writing God’s name with a letter missing, so one can speciously claim that they did not actually write God’s name.
But – God does have many names, as do we all. Sometimes I am Rabbi, other times, Doug, or Son, or Daddy, or “Hey, You!” So, too, God, and we learn of God’s names in this week’s Torah portion, early in Exodus, when God is still becoming familiar to Moses. Torah writes, “God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Eternal (ADONAI)). I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai ((God all
Mighty), but I did not make myself known to them by My name, ADONAI.’” (Exodus 6:2-3)
Apparently, God required a new title here in Exodus. Previously, God was the Provider, the Creator, the Protector, and the Patriarchs mentioned in the text each relied on God accordingly. Yet, here, God undertakes a new role. God is now the Liberator and the Lawgiver. This merits a new name, one which reflects a power and strength, as opposed to the earlier name which treated God as nurturer. Hence:
ADONAI.
What does ADONAI connote? In the Hebrew, the name, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, is derived from the three- letter Hebrew root, Hey-Vav-Hey, which bears the meaning of “being” or “existent.” This name, therefore, offers a permanence, and establishment of God, and the will of God to follow-through on vows made earlier in Genesis. This God will be present and will redeem the Jewish people.
What is most apparent is that as God’s role changed, so, too, did God’s title. It is similarly to a human being, who progresses from being “baby,” to “child,” to “teen,” to “parent” or “partner,” and then maybe to “grandparent.” We are not static. We have myriad phases and moments, and who we are in each will require appropriate appellations.
Thus, as we consider God, let’s not let the relationship be static. No should we be stuck in a juvenile understanding of God. As we evolve, so too should our approach to God grow, and so, too, God’s name.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
How many names of God, from the Torah, Hebrew Bible or Jewish texts, can you name?
Try it! Did you get three – or four? ADONAI, Elohim, Melech, the Rock?
Jewish commentaries indicate that there are 100 names for God in the Hebrew Bible! Don’t feel bad if you only counted three or four.
And, please don’t be bothered by my writing God’s name in this email – the prohibition against writing God’s name is archaic and dates to a time when writing materials were scarce, bound books were scarce and expensive, and the sages instituted the prohibition to limit waste. They had no pretense that writing or erasing God’s name was a sacrilege. The only place where Jewish law requires burial of a text
is when a scribe makes an error in a sheet of parchment and writes God’s name erroneously, nor does Jewish law prescribe writing God’s name with a letter missing, so one can speciously claim that they did not actually write God’s name.
But – God does have many names, as do we all. Sometimes I am Rabbi, other times, Doug, or Son, or Daddy, or “Hey, You!” So, too, God, and we learn of God’s names in this week’s Torah portion, early in Exodus, when God is still becoming familiar to Moses. Torah writes, “God spoke to Moses and said to him, ‘I am the Eternal (ADONAI)). I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai ((God all
Mighty), but I did not make myself known to them by My name, ADONAI.’” (Exodus 6:2-3)
Apparently, God required a new title here in Exodus. Previously, God was the Provider, the Creator, the Protector, and the Patriarchs mentioned in the text each relied on God accordingly. Yet, here, God undertakes a new role. God is now the Liberator and the Lawgiver. This merits a new name, one which reflects a power and strength, as opposed to the earlier name which treated God as nurturer. Hence:
ADONAI.
What does ADONAI connote? In the Hebrew, the name, Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, is derived from the three- letter Hebrew root, Hey-Vav-Hey, which bears the meaning of “being” or “existent.” This name, therefore, offers a permanence, and establishment of God, and the will of God to follow-through on vows made earlier in Genesis. This God will be present and will redeem the Jewish people.
What is most apparent is that as God’s role changed, so, too, did God’s title. It is similarly to a human being, who progresses from being “baby,” to “child,” to “teen,” to “parent” or “partner,” and then maybe to “grandparent.” We are not static. We have myriad phases and moments, and who we are in each will require appropriate appellations.
Thus, as we consider God, let’s not let the relationship be static. No should we be stuck in a juvenile understanding of God. As we evolve, so too should our approach to God grow, and so, too, God’s name.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn