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Religious Pluralism \ Parashat Hashavua-- The Weekly Torah Portion

What's in a Name?

Parashat Va'era: Sh'mot (Exodus) 6:2 - 9:35

January 23-24, 1998 -- 26 Tevet 5758

ByRabbi Amy Levin

This week's parasha opens with an astonishing declaration to Moshe from God:

God spoke to Moshe and said to him, "I am YHVH. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhak and to Ya'akov as Ayl Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH. (6:2-3)"

God's intention is hard to fathom in these two short verses. If this moment is going to be the first time that God is going to use His name, YHVH, then how can He approach Moshe by declaring "I am YHVH" and expect to be recognized? And if the name YHVH is one that was known to the patriarchs of B'reishit (Genesis) and to Moshe heretofore, then what does He mean by saying that He had not made Himself known to the partriarchs by His name?

If this were, in fact, the first time that the tetragram (this four letter name for God, which is considered His explicit name) appeared in the Torah, then we could take these verses at their face value and accept that the book of Sh'mot introduces a new name for God.

The evidence of several verses discounts this reading of God's declaration to Moshe. In Parashat Lech-L'cha (B'reishit 15:7) God announces Himself to Avram with the same declaration:

The He said to him, "I am YHVH who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as a possession."

Again, to Ya'akov (in Parashat Vayetzei), God declares Himself -- and His relationship with Avraham and Yitzhak -- applying the same name to Himself:

And the Lord was standing beside him and He said, "I am YHVH, the God of your father Avraham and the God of Yitzhak: the ground on which you are lying I will give to you and to your offspring." (B'reishit 28:13)

But most striking, is the fact that God Himself instructed Moshe to use the name YHVH when establishing his leadership over the people Israel. This exchange took place a mere three chapters ago, and indicates that the people will recognize the name YHVH and will acknowledge the authority of the one who utters it:

And God said further to Moshe, "Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: YHVH, the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak and the God of Ya'akov, has sent me to you . . ." (Sh'mot 3:15)

What, then, can God be communicating to Moshe at the beginning of this week's parasha when He says: ". . . but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH."?

Not surprisingly, the classic commentators of the middle ages, those who have taught us how to delve into the text of the Torah in order to appreciate its richness, themselves recognized the difficulty of these opening verses.

Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra (the term "Ibn", meaning "son of" is an indication of his roots in the Arab-speaking Jewish world) and Ramban (Nachmanides -- 13th century Spain and Eretz Yisrael) both regard the apparent contradiction as an indication of the exclusive relationship that Moshe had with God. No one in all of the book of B'reishit (Genesis) spoke to God "panim el panim" (face to face) as Moshe would do. Although the commentators attribute prophetic qualities to the patriarchs and matriarchs (see, for example, Rashi's comment on B'reishit 20:12), none of them are considered God's direct prophet -- as Moshe is proven to be (Bamidbar [Numbers] 11:29). How, then, can the explicit name YHVH appear in the book of B'reishit? One suggestion that appears in Ibn Ezra's commentary is that although the patriarchs and matriarchs did not know the explicit name, Moshe did, and he received the Torah from God in His YHVH aspect. Thus, Moshe could pass on the Torah, from B'reishit onwards, using YHVH freely even though the patriarchs would only have recognized the name Ayl Shaddai.

Rashi provides what I think is a more penetrating comment. He states: " 'I didn't announce to them' is not written, rather: 'I didn't make known to them', I didn't make Myself known to them to My truest degree, in which I am called YHVH , in which I am faithful to My word, for I made promises to them, but I didn't keep them."

The fascinating suggestion in Rashi's comment is that humanity can gain access to different aspects of God's qualities through gaining access to different names for Him. Moshe, who would know the "true" name for God, YHVH, would be the one who would bring God and the people together to the brink of the fulfillment of those promises.

In another B'reishit story (in Chapter 32), we have already witnessed the significance of knowing someone's name. As you may remember, Ya'akov was approached at night, as he slept alone in the wilderness, by a mysterious adversary. The two struggled through the night, and neither could clearly gain the upper hand. As dawn began to break, Ya'akov insisted that his mysterious adversary bless him. In order to bless him, the rival needed to know Ya'akov's name. But, when Ya'akov asked his adversary's name in return (to bless him or to curse him?) the adversary refused -- as if allowing Ya'akov to know his name would somehow put him in Ya'akov's power.

In a very basic way, we acknowledge this power of knowing a name. One of the first things we teach our children when they reach an age where they can go to a playground by themselves or walk home from school is: don't talk to strangers, don't tell them your name.

We are also familiar with the phenomenon of different names indicating different levels of closeness in a relationship. I know someone who is Michael to his business associates, Mike to his friends and Mickey to his family. My brother calls me "Aym", -- no one else does -- and I always enjoy the special closeness I feel when he says it. And at this point, the name would sound strange -- even intrusive -- on anyone else's lips.

When God allowed Moshe to know Him as YHVH, He allowed him access to "truer" aspects of His being than anyone else in creation. That access to God's "trueness", says Rashi, is the key to the uniqueness of Moshe. Hence the partnership between Moshe and God to bring Israel out of Egypt. Hence the partnership between Moshe and God to bring the Torah to the people of Israel. Hence the partnership between Moshe and God to guide the people throughout forties years of life in the wilderness.

What does all this mean for us? Well, I hope it will help us develop an awareness that behind every name of every person we encounter there is an essence, a soul. We must acknowledge that in knowing a person's name -- as Jacob's mysterious adversary knew well -- we have the power to curse or to bless. I pray that we will learn to respect the power of knowing someone's name, and will take care to use our access to every person's essential being to bless -- and not to curse -- to bring out the "truest" qualities of the people we know.

Shabbat Shalom



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