The Ineffable Name of the Almighty and the Injunction not to attempt to Pronounce it (2 May, 2013, Iyar 22, 5773)
Duration ca. 19 minutes
The Holy Name was to be hidden as predicted. The Bible (Exodus 3:15) says that the Holy Name will be revealed in the future but for now is not known and attempt should not be made to know it!
God has a name. This name in Hebrew has four letters. It is never pronounced. It is forbidden to pronounce it. We come across this name in,
Exodus 3: 14 And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord [YYY] 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 to all generations.
The name of God is based on the Hebrew word-root HOVEH which means "to be". This links up with the Almighty describing Himself as 'I AM WHO I AM' and "I AM" .
It was prophesied that the Name of God would be hidden.
The four-letter name of God as it stands at present cannot be pronounced. It is forbidden. Even if we wanted to we would not know how since it can be pronounced in 10,000 or even 100,000 different ways. We do not know how the consonants were enunciated and we have NO IDEA were the vowels were!! Claims of different personalities to know how to pronounce the name are based on a misunderstanding of the Hebrew text.
God does not want HIS Name to be pronounced at present. In the Messianic Era things will be different. For the present we should refer to God as God, or as the Almighty, or as the Father, or as any one of a number of names were it is evident that God is meant.
Exodus 3: 14 And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord [YYY] 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 to all generations.
A key sentence is, "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). This as read from the Hebrew is implying, My name and my memorial shall be different from each other. The name is not the same as the memorial.
"This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). Taking all of the explanations of the Hebrew text together we obtain the following:
This is my essence and shall be my Name in the future. It shall be hidden for generations; and this other name will show my attributes and it will be used in the generations when my essential name is hidden.
"This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations" (Exodus 3:15). The word translated as "for-ever" in Hebrew is Le-olam which may be read as "le-elam" meaning to be hidden, or to hide. The name was meant to be hidden."This is My name to be hidden".
The explanation of le-elam as meaning "to hide" is derived from the Talmud Yerushalmi (Yoma 3:7) in one context and the Talmud Babli (Kedushin 71a, Pesachim 50a) in another. Both agree that the interpretation of le-elam as "to be hidden" is applicable. These are ancient sources.
Here is the relevant passage in accepted English Translation.
Exodus 3: 14 And God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. And He said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 Moreover God said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: The Lord [YYY] 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 to all generations.
We believe this passage as explained by the Sages (Kiddushin 71a, Pesachim 50a, Yerushalmi Yoma 3:a) as referring to the fact that the four-letters name of God (the Tetragammaton, the Ineffable Name) was destined to be hidden until the Messianic Age. This is indicated by Scripture and it is the will of God. Attempts to utter this name are against the will of God.
The context is important because Commentators stress that two aspects of the Holy Names were being indicated: (1) The essential four-lettered NAME of God. (2) Names and attributes of God as experienced (and to be experienced) by the People of Israel: I am, I am who I am, God of your fathers...etc.
Our key sentence is the last one: "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations" (Genesis 3:15). "Zeh shmi lo-olam ve-zeh zicri le-dor dor. It says "This (Hebrew, "zeh") is My name forever, and this (Hebrew, "ve-zeh") is My memorial to all generations". The Sages understood this passage as implying, "My name (as it shall be in the future) is not the same as by which I shall be recalled".
It says, This is My name forever, and this is My memorial.
It may be protested that this sound like a simple matter of literary style and could be understood as (as it sounds in English), "This is my name and my memorial forever" It does not however say this. It says "this is" meaning one thing, "and this is" meaning another. In order not to be accused of applying a meaning a meaning in one place for a certain expression and denying this same meaning in another we looked up the word "and this is" (In Hebrew "v-zeh") in the Concordance. We found it appearing 48 times. Every single time where the word "ve-zeh" (i.e. "and this") occurs in the Bible it is referring to something else. "this is... and this is..." in the Hebrew Bible ALWAYS REFERS TO TWO DIFFERENT THINGS! "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial" should therefore be understood as referring to two different names.
The word translated as "forever" should preferably be understood to mean "for the future". This Hebrew word "L-olam" translated as forever is derived from the same root "le-elam" to be hidden. The future is what is hidden (S.R. Hirsch).
This is My name forever, and this is My memorial. The word "my memorial" is "zicri" i.e. "by what I shall be recalled". My name (as it shall be in the future) is one thing and the name by which I shall be recalled is another.
We are dealing with the sentence translated as,
"This is My name forever, and this is My memorial."
We already see that two different names are being spoken of.
In addition to that the Sages also said:
Where it says, This is My name forever. The word forever is "le-olam". Usually this word has an extra consonant. Here it does not. There are however a minority of cases (ca. 10%) in which the expression occurs "le-olam" in which the consonant is also missing, like it is here.
Nevertheless with the consonant missing you need the insertion of the vowel to read it as "le-olam" meaning forever. Without the insertion of the vowel it is read as "le-elem" i.e. "to be hidden". In a Torah Scroll (as read in the Synagogue) there are no vowels. All vowels as found in printed editions of the Hebrew Bible derive from special manuscripts that were written down in the 600s to 1000 CE, i.e. close to our time. Before then ALL VOWELS were derived from oral tradition as transmitted by the Rabbis. Whether the expression is to be read as "le-olam" (meaning "forever") or as "le-elem" (meaning "to be hidden") depended on what tradition passed on by the Rabbis said. In this case the Rabbis said that BOTH meanings were applicable. It was to be read "le-olam" meaning forever or for the future BUT it was also to indicate that in future generations it would be hidden! This fits in with "This is My name forever, and this is My memorial" referring to TWO SEPARATE NAMES. One name was to be hidden for a while and the other was to be remembered!
This is my name l-olam [i.e. forever, or as it will be in the future] which shall be hidden [l-elam] in future generations. The Hebrew as it is written encompasses all of the above. We do not find these two double meanings anywhere else (were the form "le-olam" is found) because they were not needed elsewhere! In Exodus 3:15 it was intended that both "forever" and "to be hidden" should be indicated by the same letters in the same word. And so they were!
Not only that but we have the principle of contextual consistency. Is says, 'This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations. My name and my memorial refer to TWO DIFFERENT names. We have to understand the verse as saying, This is My name [as it will be in the future, forever] [which is to be hidden] and this is my memorial to all generations.
This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations (Exodus 3:15).
We have shown in the article above that "my name forever" and "my memorial" are referring to two different renditions of the same name. One was to be pronounced for a certain number of generations and the other was to be hidden but later used in the future. We proved that two different renditions of the name were intended, as the Sages tell us, by using statistical comparisons.
The claims made may be defined as two points:
(1) The expression "to be hidden" is not found elsewhere in the Bible in the same form we have shown it to be indicated here. (2) The reading of le-elem instead of Le-olam is not applicable anywhere else.
The letters spelling l-elam meaning to be hidden were intended to connote BOTH "to be hidden" and "forever". This is what it does. The verbal-root "elem" to be hidden is found in the Bible but it is not found in the particular conjugation we are applying it. It should be enough that is used in various verbal forms and that the conjugational form we apply to it is one used in the Bible.
Grammatically "le-elem" meaning to be hidden is consistent with Biblical Hebrew. It also NEEDS to be able to double and have a secondary meaning of "le-olam" i.e. forever. This form spelt as "le-elem" (to be hidden) and pronounced as "le-olam" is found elsewhere and there only means (in the other places) forever and not "to be hidden". This however is not a point against our understanding since in the other places it does not have to mean anything else. Here it does and the Sages agreed that it does.
Two different renditions of the name are being referred to: This is My name forever [to be hidden], and this is My memorial to all generations (Exodus 3:15). The verse says that one of the names is to be hidden. This is the name denoting the Essence of God. The other name is to be retained as "by which I shall be remembered" referring to attributes in general.
This explanation was given us by the Sages who after the Jews returned from Babylon decided what books would be included in the Bible and what not and what interpretation difficult passages would have. This assembly included Prophets in its ranks. Their decisions are what made the Bible. They are a continuation of the Bible. If one does not believe in the Bible then that is another problem.
God exists. God who exists is the God of our fathers. HE is the God Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is how HE reveals HIMSELF to the world, through Israel. See: Elders. Rabbinical Authority
