If God had a
business card, what would it say?
The job
description could be: “Creator of the Universe,” “Redeemer of Israel,” “Healer
or the Sick” or simply, “God.”
And what
would God’s name be: “Adonai,” “Holy One” or “Source of Life?” Actually, God’s proper name is:
יו"ד–ה"א–וא"ו–ה"א Y-H-V-H
An ineffable
name of which a poet wrote: “The mysteries of Your name cannot be
explicated.”
Fortunately, Unetanah
Tokef is not a legal text, because I would like to offer some explanations.
At the
burning bush, God said to Moses
Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh – I Will Be What I Will Be… Thus shall you say to the Israelites, “Ehyeh – I Will Be sent me to you.”
God calls
Godself “אהיה
– I will be” in the first person, as the speaker
When Moses
reports to the people he switches to the third person “יהיה – He will be,” because God is unseen.
The letter vav substitutes for the second yod (as proposed by the medieval commentator Rashbam),
yielding:
יו"ד–ה"א–וא"ו–ה"א Y-H-V-H
This is name
is derived from the state of being verb Is-Was-Will be.
The spelling
with a vav can be understood as bringing together all three Hebrew tenses: future, present, and past, because God is God for all time.
At the bush
God spoke in the first person. Moses spoke about God in the third person, and
we approach God in the second person, “You” as if God were present.
Filled with
awe by the mystery, we do not pronounce this name, but it is printed in our
prayer book.
When praying quietly,
try not to rush to “Adonai” immediately. On occasion, take a moment to wait in
wonder, in the presence of God who Is-Was-Will
be, who Speaks, is Present and is Unseen.
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Note: in
Hebrew grammar, the first, second and third persons are also known as “speaker,
present, unseen (or hidden), respectively
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