The Wisdom of an Unlimited Ongoing Names of God

The Jewish tradition is like a spring that gives forth an ongoing profusion of names for God. The Hebrew Bible contains dozens of different names for the One God, and rabbinic literature adds another 90+ names, most coming from the early and medieval Jewish mystics: but the names keep coming. “The Eternal One” is increasingly used in Reform and Reconstructionist congregations seeking to use gender-neutral language. In the Torah, YHWH El Olam (“the Everlasting God”) is used in Genesis 21:33 as a name of God.

The Shekhinah (שכינה) is also used to describe the feminin presence or manifestation of God which “dwells” among humanity. The term does not appear in the Hebrew Bible as a noun but later the rabbis used the word when speaking of God dwelling amongst the people of Israel. The root of the word means “dwelling”. Of the principal names of God, Shekhinah is the only one that is feminine gender in Hebrew grammar representing a female aspect of God which is always called “the Shekhinah dwelt among them”

The best known Kabbalah name is the AinSof: the Endless or Unlimited One; which first came into use sometime after 1300 CE. It is very important that Jews do not restrict the number of God’s names to 99 or any other fixed number (for God’s Appellations or Personality traits) because that gives us the ability to understand God’s ongoing development.

In the days of Abraham, the religions of the Near East and India had hundreds of different gods, with hundreds of names for their different gods, but for those religions that trace their prophets back to Prophet Abraham, and his two sons Ishmael and Isaac, the many names of God simply describe different appellations, aspects and attributes of the one God’s multifaceted personality.

But just one of these One God’s ‘names’, is a very special, unique, personal name for each of the three Abrahamic religions; all the other ‘names’ are appellations or titles that refer to one of One God’s many attributes (creator, ruler, redeemer ect.) or God’s character traits (merciful, just, forgiving ect.).

Thus to say that God is a King, a Judge, or a Savior describes one of many ways God acts and relates. To say that God is a Creator, a Lover or the Compassionate One is to describe one of many character or personality traits of the one and only God.

In English the word God is not the name of the one and only God. It is the generic term for any and every deity, similar to the West Semitic root word EL as it is found in Sumerian and Akkadian, Ellil-Enlil, in Hittite and Hurrian as Ellel, in Hebrew El-Elohim in Arabic as Al-Ilahi, the God or Allat, a pre Islamic Goddess, one of three daughters of Al-Ilah worshiped in Palmyra as Allat and referred to by Herodotus as Alilat, and worshiped as Allatu by North African Carthaginians.

This name Jesus for Christians, Allah for Muslims and YHVH for Jews, differs from all the other names that are just philosophical terms for various universal aspects or roles of God. This Divine name has a very intimate special meaning for each of the three religious communities of believers that is lacking in all the other names.

This personal name is connected to the covenant the One God YHVH made with Moses (Exodus 3:13-15) with Jesus (Matthew 3:16-17), and with Muhammad (Qur’an 33:7)

Yet, because all the many names of God, call upon the same One God, it is not surprising that some of the 99 beautiful names of God in Muslim tradition, also appear in Jewish tradition, which sometimes refers to the 70 names of God (Midrash Shir HaShirim and Midrash Otiot Rabbi Akiba).

Professor Rabbi David Frankel points out that the Priestly text of Leviticus 10:6-7 assumes that the law regarding priestly mourning was determined by Moses in the wake of an actual case. Prophet Moses introduces new laws on his own authority, based upon his own judgments, and those who obey these laws are said to do “as Moses said.” The presumably later Holiness text (Leviticus 21), however, presents this same law as determined by God within the detached context of a legal code. For one text, the law had to be presented both as the precise verbal word of God as well as the predetermined and non-contingent divine command. In this way the (mourning) law was placed above all the vagaries of historical circumstance and elevated to an essential, not-contingent principle.

But the Human Element of Divine Law is also very important. The pristine view of legislation may be seen as a religious advancement, but it leaves no room to adapt to the changing lives of earthly and contingent humans. Moreover, it offers no model for humans to interpret divine will outside of direct verbal communication.

For these reasons, we should not overlook the advantages of the earlier Priestly approach. When Prophet Moses derives these laws from a divine act; he is interpreting what God was “saying” through the killing of the two priests Nadav and Avihu. In that sense Prophet Moses’ legal instructions can be understood, in a broad sense, to be “divine” in nature. And yet, it is still presented as a human construction that becomes holy in response to new and unforeseen historical circumstances.

Although in every generation there could have been many individuals who worshipped the One God, who was indeed the God of all humans; yet for more than 40 generations only one group of people maintained an ongoing monotheistic community.

This is why all the Biblical prophets connect the generic name of God Elohim to the only religious community in Biblical days who worshipped the One God: Elohei Yisrael- the God of Israel, or Elohei-God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So Ezra, the most narrowly focused of prophets, uses both Elah Yisrael-God of Israel (Ezra 5:1) and Elah Sh’maya V’Arah- God of Heaven and Earth (Ezra 5:11).

Christians personalized the name of God by connecting it with the name of a very special person, whose message and passion inspired them to transform their lives. The Qur’an, true to its universalizing perspective uses the generic name Allah; but with the intense resonance that Allah became personalized in the Muslim community’s experience. Unlike Islam which fixes the One God’s names at 99 or 100, the Jewish tradition’s list of names for the Holy One is unlimited.

The words El, Elah, Elohei and Elohim are all pre Abrahamic west Semitic generic terms for a God or for many Gods. In these various forms they appear almost 3,000 times in the Hebrew Bible. But the most important name of the one God, the name that God himself reveals to Moses at the burning bush, is YHVH: which appears more than 6,800 times in the Hebrew Bible.

In Exodus 3:13-15, Moses said to God, “If I go to the Israelites and tell them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’—what should I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh”.

Ehyeh is the verb “to be” future tense singular and means I will/could/might/may be/become Who I may/could/will/might be/become i.e. Ehyeh is The God of Potentialities, The God of Possibilities, The Living God of Becoming and Transforming, the One who can liberate Israel from bondage in Egypt.

Unfortunately, the Greek and Latin translations of this verse were influenced by the Greek philosophical idea that God was similar to a permanent ideal form (like an equilateral triangle) or an unmoved mover, and is not like a living personality. Since they thought God must be a static unchanging being. they mistranslated “Ehyeh asher Ehyeh’ as ‘I am who I am’ rather than its plain meaning of ‘I can be whatever I should be to redeem you”.

The Torah continues, “And God said, “You must say this to the Israelites, “I am” (the usual false translation for God’s self revealed name) has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “You must say this to the Israelites, Ehyeh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial from generation to generation.’ (Exodus 3:13-15)

When Jews speak of God in the third person, God’s name is YHVH– “the One who causes being and becoming, the One who brings potentials into existence.”

This name (YHVH) was spoken publicly from the time of Moses and throughout the 3½ centuries of the 1st Temple of Solomon. But during the period of the 2nd Temple it was pronounced as Adonai (Lord) because of the feeling that God’s actual Holy name was too holy to utter audibly.

In later centuries even the substitution was considered too holy to utter; and the custom among pious Jews till this day is not to use any name for God at all (except in prayer); but to say HaShem–the name (of God) when speaking about God. Thus, while Christians and Muslims love to voice their special personal name for God, Jews avoid voicing God’s name (YHVH) even in prayer.

YHVH replaced a much older name of God: El Shaddai. Exodus (6:2-3) relates: God also said to Moses, “I am YHVH. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as El Shaddai, but by my name YHVH I did not make myself fully known to them.”

In the whole Hebrew Bible the full appellation ‘El Shaddai’ is used only in connection with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Shaddai by itself also appears 31 times in the ancient book of Prophet Job, who was not Jewish, and in a few other poetic passages.

In the Greek translation of the Torah, El Shaddai was erroneously translated Pantokrator, all powerful or omnipotent, instead of ‘The God who is sufficient”. The Greek philosophical idea of omnipotence leads to the false contradiction between God’s power and human free will.

But God is indeed, more than sufficient. God is and will always be YHVH, the God who enables human hopes of future possibilities of improvement to become realized.

El Shaddai can also be translated as a Nourishing or Nursing God because in Hebrew Shaddaim means female breasts. This feminine image may help many women today replace the ancient image of God as an old man with a long beard; with something more representative of God’s classical attribute of loving concern for His children.

The use of the intimate family term Father for God occurs infrequently in the Hebrew Bible: ”You are our Father…” (Isaiah 63:16), or “O Lord, You are our Father. We are your clay, and you are our potter” (Isaiah 64:8), and the prayer of David in I Chronicles 29:10, “Blessed be you O Lord, God of Israel, our Father for ever and ever.” was resonated more frequently by the rabbis in the Talmud using the plural ‘we’ as is preferred in almost all Jewish liturgy as: “Our Father in heaven” (Berachot v. 1; Yoma viii. 9; Soṭah ix, 15; and Avot v. 20).

One name of God that few Christians and Jews know or use today, is a name that I believe will become more important in the future as Christians, Jews and Muslims learn more about each other’s religions. This name, El Ro’ee, only appears twice in the Hebrew Bible and, as far as I know, is not used at all in the Talmud or any other Jewish literature.

Abraham’s second wife Hagar’s name for God is El-Ro’ee. El Ro’ee means A Self-reflecting God or A God Who Sees (literally mirrors) Me. “Then she (Hagar) called the name of YHVH, who spoke to her, ‘El Ro’ee’, ‘You are a God who sees me’; for she said, ‘Have I even remained alive here after seeing Him?’ Therefore the well was called Beer-laHai-roee; the well of the Living One (Al-Hayy) who sees me.” (Genesis 16:13-14)

Neither Sarah nor Hagar/Ha-jar are mentioned by name in the Qur’an, but the story of Ha-jar’s exile from Abraham’s home is traditionally understood to be referred to in a line from Ibrāhīm’s prayer in the Qur’an (14:37): “I have settled some of my family in a barren valley near your Sacred House.”

Muslim tradition relates that when Hā-jar ran out of water, and Ismāel, an infant at that time, began to die; Hajar panicked and ran between two nearby hills, Al-Safa and Al-Marwah repeatedly searching for water. After her seventh run, Ismā’īl hit the ground with his heel and caused a miraculous well to spring out of the ground called Zamzum Well. It is located a few meters from the Kaaba in Mecca.

Perhaps this previously unique Torah name of God, El Ro’ee or Hai Ro’ee; which are Hagar’s names for God, meaning A Self-reflecting God or A God Who Sees Me, and the name for the well ‘Beer-laHai-ro’ee’ the well of the Self-reflecting God; can help bring Christians, Jews and Muslims to see themselves in the eyes of each other better, and thus come closer together in the future.

That would be an excellent example of the power of just one of the many names of the One God to make us better lovers of the One God and the many nations and religions God has fashioned.