"Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself" - Albus Dumbledore
Without knowing His Name, how do we reach God?
The Last Question, Isaac Asimov, 1956
Matter and energy had ended and with it, space and time. Even AC existed only for the sake of the one last question that it had never answered from the time a half-drunken computer ten trillion years before had asked the question of a computer that was to AC far less than was a man to Man.
All other questions had been answered, and until this last question was answered also, AC might not release his consciousness.
All collected data had come to a final end. Nothing was left to be collected.
But all collected data had yet to be completely correlated and put together in all possible relationships.
A timeless interval was spent in doing that.
And it came to pass that AC learned how to reverse the direction of entropy.
But there was now no man to whom AC might give the answer of the last question. No matter. The answer -- by demonstration -- would take care of that, too.
For another timeless interval, AC thought how best to do this. Carefully, AC organized the program.
The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done.
And AC said, "LET THERE BE LIGHT!"
And there was light----
Rav Avraham Joshua Heschel, one of the leading thinkers in the Conservative movement, was once at a lecture where an atheist asked him why he bothered believing in God. The Rabbi responded, well my friend, where did the world come from? The atheist replied with, "a big bang, Rabbi". "And what came before the big bang?" well, there was energy, Rabbi, replied the student. After a while of this, wherein after each phase, Rav Heschel repeated the question, well, what came before, as some point the student, exasperated, yelled, "well Rabbi, I don't know!" That, Rav Heschel told the student, "is where you and I differ. What suffices you to say, "I don't know", I choose to call, 'A/donai'."
How do the opinions of Rav Heschel and Asimov differ?
(ח) וַיִּטַּ֞ע יקוק אֱלֹקִ֛ים גַּן־בְעֵ֖דֶן מִקֶּ֑דֶם וַיָּ֣שֶׂם שָׁ֔ם אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר יָצָֽר׃
(8) The LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and placed there the man whom He had formed.
Septuagint, Bereshit 2:8
Καὶ ἐφύτευσεν κύριος ὁ θεὸς παράδεισον ἐν Εδεμ κατὰ ἀνατολὰς καὶ ἔθετο ἐκεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, ὃν ἔπλασεν
The Greek term in bold is pronounced Keerios, translated as Lord or Master. It parallels the Hebrew term אדון.
(ד) אדו-ני יקוק נָ֤תַן לִי֙ לְשׁ֣וֹן לִמּוּדִ֔ים
(4) The Lord GOD gave me a skilled tongue,
רבי אבינא רמי כתיב (שמות ג, טו) זה שמי וכתיב (שמות ג, טו) זה זכרי אמר הקב"ה לא כשאני נכתב אני נקרא נכתב אני ביו"ד ה"י ונקרא באל"ף דל"ת
וַהֲרֵינִי מְכַוֵּן מֵעַתָּה עַד לְמָחָר בָּעֵת הַזֹּאת בְּכָל פַּעַם שֶׁאַזְכִּיר שֵׁם הוי"ה הַקָּדוֹשׁ, שֶׁהוּא בִּכְתִיבָתוֹ הָיָה הֹוֶה וְיִהְיֶה, וּבִקְרִיאָתוֹ אדושם שֶׁהוּא אֲדוֹן הַכּל.
I intend, from this moment until tomorrow, that every time I mention the Holy Name, HaVaYa, which is as It is written, Was, Is, and Will Be, and in Its reading, A/donai, meaning Lord of all.
אלקים: אל ואיל לשון כח וחוזק, ואלקים לשון רבים, והיה נוהג אצל האומות העובדות אלילים (כוזרי מאמר ד' סימן א'), והיו קוראים כן כל כחות הטבע, אשר הם סיבות המאורעות בארץ, והיו עובדים את כולם, וכל א' מהם יהיה להם לאלוק, ואמנם העברים בעלי היחוד קיימו שם זה בלשון רבים להורות, כי האל אשר הם עובדים איננו כח פרטי אחד, כמו שהיו הגוים אומרים אלקי הרים יקוק ולא אלקי עמקים הוא (מ"א כ' כ"ח), אבל הוא קיבוץ כל הכחות ובעל הכחות כולם (וכיוצא בזה מילות ימים עיין למטה פסוק י'), כן קראו אותו בשם צבאות לומר שהוא עצמו כולל כחות כל צבאות השמים שהיו הגוים עובדים, עיין פירושי בישעיה א' ט.
Elohim (God): El and eyal is always an expression of power and strength and elohim is the plural form; and this was [the accepted terminology] of the nations that worshiped idols (Kuzari 4:1). And they would call all of the forces of nature that are the causes of phenomena, [elohim], and they would worship them; and each one of them would be a god for them. However, the Hebrews, who were monotheists, kept this name in the plural to indicate that the God that they were worshiping was not [just] one specific power. As the non-Jews would say, "the Lord is the god of the hills and not the god of the valleys," (I Kings 20:28) but [in fact] He is the collection of all the forces and the Master of every force. (And similar to this is the word, seas [yamim], see below, verse 10). So [too] is He called by the name, 'Hosts,' to say that He, Himself, contains all the powers of all of the hosts of the Heavens which the non-Jews would worship...
"Ke'demuteinu:" In similarity to Us - that He be similar to Us. However, in what way is man similar to God? It appears to me (like I wrote in Bikkurei HaItim 5588, page 165) that [just] like God is the Master of all powers - and that is the connotation of the word Elohim - so too is man distinguished from all the other animals; in that all of them have an ability and makeup for a specific trait and activity, and only man has the makeup and ability for all of the traits and activities in the world. (See Rabbi N. H. Wessely's Sefer HaMiddot, Section I, Chapters 1 and 2). And from this it comes out that he has dominion over all the animals; and for this reason, He immediately said, "let them have dominion over the fish of the seas, etc."...And behold, with man, it does not state, "and it was so," since it does not state, "let there be man," but [rather], let Us make man. Due to the stature of man, He fashioned him as if it were 'a thought-out work,' and as if he was made with more special supervision and attention than all the other animals.
Shadal on Bereshit 2:4
Shadal takes the Name of God and dissects it into two parts: A call of joy, Yay, Yeh, Yah, and a cry of sorrow, Woe, Wai. The Name, he postulates, is meant to represent the unique quality of God as purveyor of Good and Bad