Do not take God’s 99 names in vain

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” I think of this statement whenever I hear of suicide bombers targeting another group of innocent civilians. I think, and I shudder, because I too am a religious person who values personal commitment and self sacrifice for a religious cause. I also value and valorize those who like Rabbi Akiba and Rabbi Jacob of Mainz became religious martyrs in our Jewish tradition.

Was Pascal, the 17th century French philosopher who I just quoted, thinking of people like me? Or was he thinking of people who, in their political extremism or narrow-minded religious piety, ignore or trivialize the commandment, “Do not take the Lord your God’s name in vain.” .

This Mitsvah (Jewish religious duty) doesn’t refer to the important issue of perjury, or to the trivial issue of profanity. Perjury is prohibited in the ninth Commandment and profanity by itself isn’t serious enough to be placed in the Ten Commandments.

This commandment refers to the great harm done to religion, and to God’s reputation (name), when religious people do despicable deeds in God’s name. The burning of witches, the Inquisition, the Crusades and Jihad suicide bombers are examples of the religious misuse of God’s name.

This commandment warns religious people in general, and religious leaders in particular that, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

All religions condemn hypocrisy. But condemnation of our own religious fanatics and extremists as hypocrites, is much less frequent, because slackness is usually much more prevalent than excessive zeal. There are many people whose mind tends toward black and white thinking. For some it is ‘us verses them’ and any compromise is a betrayal of God.

Some Muslims say Allah is the Arabic word for God; so the word Allah can be used by non-Muslims to refer to their own religious concept of God. Others vehemently oppose this. They maintain that no believing Muslim should translate the English sentence ‘Zeus is a Greek God.’ as ‘Zeus is a Greek Allah’. It is absurd, sacrilegious, and an affront to Islam. Allah is the name of the one and only God and not just a word. Jews also have a very special name for God (YHVH) that is untranslatable; and has not even been pronounced verbally out loud by Jews for the last 2400 years.

In 1956, Shelomo Dov Goitein (1900-1985), a scholar of both Jewish and Arabic studies, wrote that the special name of YHVH derives from the Arabic root h.w.y (هوى), and the word hawaya (هوايا), which means “love, affection, passion, desire.” Goitein pointed to the passage in Exodus 34, which forbids Israel to worship other gods (Exodus 34:14) “For you must not worship any other god, because YHWH, whose name is Impassioned, is an impassioned God.”

Goitein thinks that “YHWH whose name is Impassioned” refers to the deity’s personal name YHWH, which means “the Impassioned One,” and that this name derives from a proto- Arabic term for passion. This reflects the idea that YHWH’s bond with his worshipers is one of interactive passionate love, and YHWH is upset if some of his worshipers “cheat” by worshipping other gods.

As Prophet David says in his Zabur (Psalm 5::13) “But let all who take refuge in You be glad; let them always sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in You.”

Yet the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions do contain anti-extremism statements that in our generation need to be loudly and frequently proclaimed. In the Talmud Rabbi Isaac condemned the extremism of self-imposed extra abstinence saying, “Aren’t the things prohibited by the Torah enough for you, that you wish to prohibit yourself additional things?”

A Muslim hadith tells us “Whenever Allah’s Apostle was given the choice of one of two matters, he would choose the easier of the two, as long as it was not sinful to do so, but if it was sinful to do so, he would not approach it.”

And Prophet Muhammad also told Muslims, “Religion is very easy, whoever overburdens himself in his religion will not be able to continue in that way. So do not be extremists, but try (only) to approach perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded (just for that).

If self-imposed extremism is condemned, how much more the extremism that hurts others. Indeed, all disgraceful activities by religious people reflect negatively on their religion and on God. In Judaism this is called Hillul Hashem- profaning God’s name/reputation.

In recent years we have seen riots between Hindus and Muslims in India, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria, the slaughter of innocent Muslims at prayer by an Orthodox Jew in Hebron, Muslim suicide bombers, in many lands and Bishops covering up the molestation of young boys in several countries.

These acts make religion seem valueless, and bring disgrace upon organized religion’s reputation. A Hassidic Rabbi (Michael) taught, “When the Evil Urge tries to tempt people to sin, it tempts them to become super-righteous.”

God tells us that such activity must not be covered up or sanitized by believers. It must be vigorously and publicly condemned since it undermines the very ability of religion to influence people to live according to God’s directives. People know that sometimes religious people can do dastardly things.

But when piety influences religious leaders to attempt to rationalize, sanitize, or cover up, rather than to publicly condemn these activities, people will increasingly reject organized religion and God. A religious piety that does not require morality, love and kindness is valueless and hypocritical, and thus as serious a sin as worshipping other Gods or idols, the two previous commandments in the Ten Commandments.

Fanatics believe the ends justify the means, thus subordinating God’s goal to their goal. Extremists believe that more is always better. To them the Talmud says, “If you grasp for all, you don’t grasp at all.”

Our Rabbinic sages extended the prohibition of misusing God’s name even to taking unnecessary oaths i.e. not required by a court, and making unnecessary blessings i.e. not required by Jewish law. Personal piety and sincerity do not justify excessive behavior even if self-limited. People should not misuse their piety by going beyond normal community limits and justify it in God’s name.

It is time to stress the importance of living according to this commandment and to translate it accurately:‘DO NOT MAKE VALUELESS THE NAME OF THE LORD YOUR GOD, FOR THE LORD WILL NOT SANITIZE ONE WHO MAKES HIS NAME VALUELESS.’ Exodus 20:7 and Deuteronomy 5:11 my translation

It is vitally important today for religious people, and especially religious leaders, to always keep in mind that millions of people in the past lived morally good and pious lives; even though they believed that it was true that the earth was flat. Good people can be mistaken about the Truth.

Claiming that you know the TRUTH is not the best way to reach God. Kindness, justice and spiritually humility together is the best way. “God has told you humans what is good; and what the LORD requires of you: only to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)