Two Minute Torah Podcast

Vaera 5770 by Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein

I am Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein, Chief Israel Affairs Officer of the United Synagogue. Va'era opens with a verse that has been the grist for commentators throughout the ages.

God spoke to Moshe and said to him, "I am Adonai". I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as 'El Shaddai', but by My name "Adonai", I was not known to them."

But, God actually employed the name Adonai in an encounter with Abraham (Genesis 15:7) and with Jacob (Genesis 28:13). So, why would the text explicitly claim that God had not appeared with this name? Nachmanides and Ibn Ezra understand the words to mean that God has many characteristics and attributes Ðbut that He had not revealed Himself with this particular one until now.

In Midrash Shemot Rabbah, God is quoted as saying to Moshe, "is it my name that you want to know? I am called by my deeds......When I judge humanity, I am called Elohim......When I give man a suspended sentence, for his sins, I am called El Shaddai and when I have compassion on my world, I am called Adonai." The Midrash makes it clear that if we really want to know God, it is not as important to know His name as it is to perceive Him through the way He is experienced in the world. It is through the way that He acts, what He does and the way that He affects us that we come to know God.

But we have to recognize it.

When we want to relate to God and come closer to Him, our challenge is to look at the development of our world and appreciate it as the product of a creative God; to correct the errors in living our lives and feel touched by a compassionate God: to appreciate the wonder of mankind as the manifestation of a caring God; to appreciate the blessings we receive daily--- as gifts from a giving God; to be cured by the miracles of medicine and appreciate our relationship with a healing God.

May we all be blessed with the privilege to know God and appreciate his many gifts to humanity.