The Names of God

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.

When God began to create heaven and earth—

Such is the story of heaven and earth when they were created. When the LORD God made earth and heaven—

ברא אלהים GOD [AS JUDGE] CREATED — It does not state 'ברא ה “The Lord (the Merciful One) created, because at first God intended to create it (the world) to be placed under the attribute (rule) of strict justice, but He realised that the world could not thus endure and therefore gave precedence to Divine Mercy allying it with Divine Justice. It is to this that what is written in (Genesis 2:4) alludes — “In the day that the Lord God made earth and heaven”.

One should concentrate in blessings of the meaning of the words. When mentioning the name HASHEM, concentrate on the meaning of the recital being lordship that He is the Master of all, and concentrate on the Yud-Hei that Was, Is, and Will Be. And when one mentions ELOHIM, concentrate on that He is Strength, Master of Wherewithal and Master of the powers of all.

And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you: This shall be My name forever, This My appellation for all eternity.

זה שמי לעלם THIS IS MY NAME FOR EVER — The last word is written without ו (so that it may be read לְעַלֵּם and it would mean “this is My Name which is to be concealed”) to suggest: Conceal it (this Divine Name), so that it shall not be read exactly as it is written (but should be read as אדני; cf. Pesachim 50a; Exodus Rabbah 3:7).

MISHNA: The Yom Kippur service continues: The High Priest comes over to the scapegoat, places both his hands upon it, and confesses. And he would say as follows: Please, God, Your people, the house of Israel, have sinned, and done wrong, and rebelled before You. Please, God, grant atonement, please, for the sins, and for the wrongs, and for the rebellions that they have sinned, and done wrong, and rebelled before You, Your people, the house of Israel, as it is written in the Torah of Moses Your servant, saying: “For on this day atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you of all your sins; before the Lord you shall be purified” (Leviticus 16:30).

And the priests and the people standing in the Temple courtyard, when they would hear the Explicit Name emerging from the mouth of the High Priest, when the High Priest did not use one of the substitute names for God, they would kneel and prostrate themselves and fall on their faces, and say: Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever. After the confession over the scapegoat, the priest passed the goat to the one who was to lead it to the wilderness. According to the halakha, everyone is eligible to lead it, but the High Priests established a fixed custom and did not allow an Israelite to lead it.

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name יהוה.

ושמי ה׳ לא נודעתי להם BUT BY MY NAME THE LORD WAS I NOT KNOWN TO THEM — It is not written here לא הודעתי [My name the Lord] I did not make known to them, but לא נודעתי [by My name, the Lord], was I not known [unto them] — i. e. I was not recognised by them in My attribute of “keeping faith”, by reason of which My name is called ה׳, which denotes that I am certain to substantiate My promise, for, indeed, I made promises to them but did not fulfill them [during their lifetime].

Know therefore this day and keep in mind that the LORD alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other.

ה׳ אלהינו ה' אחד means, The Lord who is now our God and not the God of the other peoples of the world, He will at some future time be the One (sole) ה׳, as it is said, (Zephaniah 3:9) “For then I will turn to the peoples a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord", and it is further said, (Zechariah 14:9) “In that day shall the Lord be One (אחד) and His name One" (cf. Sifrei Devarim 31:10).

34 (34) Said the Intellect - Now that we have returned to your hearts the order of HaShem's actions may he be blessed, All of the great actions He has done since placing man upon the earth (Job 20:4), and everything that her promised us to do through the holy prophets, behold that which is clear to us from this with complete clarity - is the might of His singularity may He be blessed. And you will see that all of the other characteristics of his completeness which is without limitation, are not clear to us at all, because we do not have the strength to grasp them. By example, We know that he is wise, but we cannot grasp the ends of his wisdom; we know that he is knowing, but we cannot grasp his knowledge. And therefore the Rabbis may their memory be blessed said (Prayer of Eliyahu, Tikunei Zohar, second introduction), "You are wise, and not with knowable wisdom, you are understanding and not with knowable insight", and since we are unable to understand these characteristics, a forbidding of examination of these emerges for us, for in regard to all like this it says (Chaggigah 13a in the name of Ben Sirah 3:21) "In that which is beyond your comprehension do not seek, in that which is hidden from you do not examine"; and similarly they said (Sefer Yetzira chapter 1), "If your heart runs - return to your place":

35 But His singularity, is just the opposite, it is revealed and clarified focus in complete clarity. And it emerges for us from this that it is not enough that it be clear to us, but that we are obligated to return this knowledge to our hearts, to embed it in our hearts completely settled without any doubt. And this is what we were commanded by Moshe our teacher may he rest in peace from the mouth of The Mighty One (Deuteronomy 4:39), "And you shall know today and return to your hearts that HaShem He is the G-d in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is no other". And the mouth of the One on high himself testifies and informs us that everything that is gathered from all the great occurrences that He overturns in his world, is it not the complete revelation of this - His singularity; as it says (Deuteronomy 32:39) "See now that I, I am He and there is no other G-d with me", and this passage is said after He included all the future revolutions of the globe that are planned to occur in the universe, that include everything in the words of this song of HaAzinu, and like the straightforward meaning of these writings themselves prove, and behold the ending of His vision ends with this language, "See now that I, I am He" etc. And in the words of the prophet Isaiah it is described explicitly (Isaiah 43:10-11), "In order that you know and believe me and understand that I am He, before me no G-d was created and there will be no other after me. I, I am hashed and there is no savior other than me"; and as it is written (Isaiah 44:6), "I am first and I am last and there is no G-d other than me"; and as it says (Isaiah 45:6-7), "In order that you know from the the east and the west that there is nothing other than me, I am HaShem and there is no other. The maker of light and creator of darkness making peace and creating the negative, I am hashed the maker of all of these". And behold, it is written "In order that you know", In order that you know and understand", meaning that He wants us to know with knowledge and understanding. And the purpose of all of the success that He promises to Israel is the explanation of His singularity to the eyes of all. And this matter is mentioned innumerable times in the words of the prophets may they rest in peace, (Isaiah 2:11), "...and haShem will be exalted on that day."; (Zechariah 14:9) "And haShem will be king [on all the earth] haShem will be one and His name will be one"; (Zephania 3:9) "For then I will overturn the peoples to all call in the the name of haShem and to worship him as one accord". And in the end, is this not always our testimony every day (Deuteronomy 6:4) "Hear O' Israel HaShem our G-d HaShem is One":

Is that to say that gracious and compassionate are sacred names? The Gemara raises a contradiction from a baraita: There are names of God that may be erased and there are names of God that may not be erased due to their inherent sanctity. These are names that may not be erased: For example, several variations of the name God [Elohim]: El, Elohekha with a second person singular suffix, Elohim, Eloheikhem with a second person plural suffix; I Shall Be As I Shall Be, alef dalet, yod heh, Almighty [Shaddai], Lord of Hosts [Tzevaot], these names may not be erased.