By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild, Landesrabbiner of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
When God introduces ‘Himself’ to Moses he makes a remarkable statement: “I am the God who appeared already to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as ‘El Shaddai’, but I was not known to them by my name YHVH.” This raises the obvious question: Why not? I won’t press the query as to whether Abraham had read Genesis Chapter 2 – as is well known, in the first Creation Narrative all is done by Elohim, in the second by YHVH. To make life more complicated, this section (Exodus 6:2f.) starts off with “
Vayedaber Elohim
”, “And God spoke…”
The Hebrew words for the names of God are always puzzling, starting with the obvious issue of why the word ‘Elohim’ is plural; whoever wrote Genesis Chapter 1 with a plural noun and singular verb “
Bereshit bara Elohim
…” wouldn’t get high marks in most Hebrew exams. ‘Shaddai’ is usually understood to be some form of quasi-demonic power, not necessarily linked to the word for Breasts (though why not, since for many men breasts also contain a near-demonic power…?) Christians sometimes find themselves reduced to singing poor transcriptions from the Greek without any idea what they mean. I find it almost amusing to have to explain that ‘The Lord Zebaoth’ effectively means ‘Military Commander-in-Chief’, as this abruptly wipes any pacifist shimmer off the text. The so-called Tetragrammaton (i.e., Greek term for ‘Four Letters’) arouses a superstitious awe that spreads its miasma over related terms in other languages; so we find persons who write ‘G-d’ or ‘L-rd’ or ‘the Alm-ghty’, even though no-one could claim that God in English is God’s Name; it is merely God’s title, or even job description, in a different and non-holy language, not the
‘Lashon Kodesh’,
‘Holy language’ and used as a form of address. I term such obsessive people ‘J-ws’. But look at many texts and you will find that God is represented by a letter Heh and a dash – and this is then carried yet further on the Atarah of a Tallit, for example, where the Heh is replaced by a Daled in the embroidered blessing! What have we come to when even a single letter is imbued with such divine power and danger?
In similar fashion ‘Elohim’ becomes ‘Elokim’, and ‘El’ becomes ‘Kel’. May one order a glass of ale without upsetting someone? Or better said: Someone?
Linked to this is the question as to what is exactly meant by ‘not taking God’s Name YHVH in vain’ (Ex. 20:7 and parallel in Deut. 5:11). Some pious Jews panic over disposal in a Genizah not just of old Sifre Torah or prayer books (termed ‘Shemot’ because the Name is contained therein), but even of photocopies with the divine name in ink, or even worry about computer screens where biblical texts have been summoned – may they be deleted?
We are left with the problem of how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton – which one tradition, popularised by An-Ski, holds was only spoken aloud by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. Is the
Shem HaMeforash
– the Name, also the Description, the Explanation of God? Since the tradition gives us four consonants there have been several attempts to add vowels to make the word pronounceable at all. Some will add the ‘a/uh’, the ‘o’ and ‘a’ from the word ‘Adonai’ – ‘My Lords’, also a problematic grammatical form – and get ‘Yehovah’. Some add ‘a’ and ‘e’ and get ‘Yahweh’. One could theoretically add an ‘o’ Before the Yud and and an ‘e’ between the last two consonants, but that would make ‘OYVEH’!
Many a chazan will sing ‘Adonai’ in the synagogue but play safe with ‘AdoiShem’ in a concert or on a Recording. And many pious Jews will use ‘
HaShem
’ – just ‘The Name’ – as their appellation for the Divine. (This is, as I have written in a short story, also the word ‘Moshe’ written backwards.)
The Rabbis pondered this issue at depth, seeing elements of Justice and of Mercy in the different names applied in different verses. Julius Wellhausen attempting a Germanic systematic textual analysis saw different strands of tradition which someone had very laboriously cut-and-pasted together. Liturgically a way was found to print the Name with just two Yuds, to avoid some problems at least, though when biblical texts are quoted liturgically the fuller version is retained. We can address God also as ‘our Father’ and ‘our King’, ‘
Avinu
’ and ‘
Malkenu’
, and with various other epithets. For feminists the word ‘Father’ is anachronistic and paternalistic anathema, and yet ‘Parent’ doesn’t have the same flavour; for republicans (small ‘r’) the term ‘King’ is monarchistic and inacceptable, but ‘President’ also fails to arouse the same sense of awe. So we are usually left with the traditional ‘Oh God!’ every time something goes badly wrong – or ‘Thank God!’ when something comes right.
In the end we are left with the question, “What names do WE know for God?” Well, let’s hope that this problem will be soon resolved. Be’ezrat Hashem!
Recent Issues
By: Rabbi Dr. Walter Rothschild, Landesrabbiner of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
When God introduces ‘Himself’ to Moses he makes a remarkable statement: “I am the God who appeared already to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as ‘El Shaddai’, but I was not known to them by my name YHVH.” This raises the obvious question: Why not? I won’t press the query as to whether Abraham had read Genesis Chapter 2 – as is well known, in the first Creation Narrative all is done by Elohim, in the second by YHVH. To make life more complicated, this section (Exodus 6:2f.) starts off with “
Vayedaber Elohim
”, “And God spoke…”
The Hebrew words for the names of God are always puzzling, starting with the obvious issue of why the word ‘Elohim’ is plural; whoever wrote Genesis Chapter 1 with a plural noun and singular verb “
Bereshit bara Elohim
…” wouldn’t get high marks in most Hebrew exams. ‘Shaddai’ is usually understood to be some form of quasi-demonic power, not necessarily linked to the word for Breasts (though why not, since for many men breasts also contain a near-demonic power…?) Christians sometimes find themselves reduced to singing poor transcriptions from the Greek without any idea what they mean. I find it almost amusing to have to explain that ‘The Lord Zebaoth’ effectively means ‘Military Commander-in-Chief’, as this abruptly wipes any pacifist shimmer off the text. The so-called Tetragrammaton (i.e., Greek term for ‘Four Letters’) arouses a superstitious awe that spreads its miasma over related terms in other languages; so we find persons who write ‘G-d’ or ‘L-rd’ or ‘the Alm-ghty’, even though no-one could claim that God in English is God’s Name; it is merely God’s title, or even job description, in a different and non-holy language, not the
‘Lashon Kodesh’,
‘Holy language’ and used as a form of address. I term such obsessive people ‘J-ws’. But look at many texts and you will find that God is represented by a letter Heh and a dash – and this is then carried yet further on the Atarah of a Tallit, for example, where the Heh is replaced by a Daled in the embroidered blessing! What have we come to when even a single letter is imbued with such divine power and danger?
In similar fashion ‘Elohim’ becomes ‘Elokim’, and ‘El’ becomes ‘Kel’. May one order a glass of ale without upsetting someone? Or better said: Someone?
Linked to this is the question as to what is exactly meant by ‘not taking God’s Name YHVH in vain’ (Ex. 20:7 and parallel in Deut. 5:11). Some pious Jews panic over disposal in a Genizah not just of old Sifre Torah or prayer books (termed ‘Shemot’ because the Name is contained therein), but even of photocopies with the divine name in ink, or even worry about computer screens where biblical texts have been summoned – may they be deleted?
We are left with the problem of how to pronounce the Tetragrammaton – which one tradition, popularised by An-Ski, holds was only spoken aloud by the High Priest in the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur. Is the
Shem HaMeforash
– the Name, also the Description, the Explanation of God? Since the tradition gives us four consonants there have been several attempts to add vowels to make the word pronounceable at all. Some will add the ‘a/uh’, the ‘o’ and ‘a’ from the word ‘Adonai’ – ‘My Lords’, also a problematic grammatical form – and get ‘Yehovah’. Some add ‘a’ and ‘e’ and get ‘Yahweh’. One could theoretically add an ‘o’ Before the Yud and and an ‘e’ between the last two consonants, but that would make ‘OYVEH’!
Many a chazan will sing ‘Adonai’ in the synagogue but play safe with ‘AdoiShem’ in a concert or on a Recording. And many pious Jews will use ‘
HaShem
’ – just ‘The Name’ – as their appellation for the Divine. (This is, as I have written in a short story, also the word ‘Moshe’ written backwards.)
The Rabbis pondered this issue at depth, seeing elements of Justice and of Mercy in the different names applied in different verses. Julius Wellhausen attempting a Germanic systematic textual analysis saw different strands of tradition which someone had very laboriously cut-and-pasted together. Liturgically a way was found to print the Name with just two Yuds, to avoid some problems at least, though when biblical texts are quoted liturgically the fuller version is retained. We can address God also as ‘our Father’ and ‘our King’, ‘
Avinu
’ and ‘
Malkenu’
, and with various other epithets. For feminists the word ‘Father’ is anachronistic and paternalistic anathema, and yet ‘Parent’ doesn’t have the same flavour; for republicans (small ‘r’) the term ‘King’ is monarchistic and inacceptable, but ‘President’ also fails to arouse the same sense of awe. So we are usually left with the traditional ‘Oh God!’ every time something goes badly wrong – or ‘Thank God!’ when something comes right.
In the end we are left with the question, “What names do WE know for God?” Well, let’s hope that this problem will be soon resolved. Be’ezrat Hashem!