Nefesh Hachaim On YHWH and Exodus

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF Y-H-W-H
In all the pesukim mentioned in Part 1, God is consistently referred to by the tetragrammaton (for
convenience, henceforth written as YHWH). I would like to delve deeper into the significance of this
name, and thereby reveal the way in which this is particularly pertinent to the exodus.
The opening pesukim of Parshat Va’era are obscure, referring to God by a few different
names/epithets:
And Elohim spoke to Moshe, and said to him ‘I am YHWH. And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and
to Jacob as El Shaddai, but my name YHWH I did not make known to them.1
Not only are the meanings of these names as yet unclear, but ostensibly the above statement is
incorrect; God does indeed appear to Avraham with the divine name YHWH. However, upon further
scrutiny of the pasuk in question, a further oddity is revealed. The pasuk states:
And He said to him, ‘I am YHWH, who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldees to give to you this
land, to inherit it.’ And [Abraham] said, ‘Adonai Elohim, how will I know that I will inherit it?’ 2
God introduces himself as YHWH, and Avraham replies with the epithet ‘Adonai Elohim’. What did
God try to communicate to Avraham, and what message did Avraham receive?
The Nefesh HaChaim proposes a fundamental distinction between the terms YHWH and
Elohim, in the context of the Shema. The term ‘Elohim’ refers to God as the power that interacts
with the world, through nature, whilst the name ‘YHWH’ denotes God as the complete, indivisible
whole – a level of perception unfathomable to human beings, as this is God’s infinitude. 3 As long as
some physicality interposes between a human being and his or her perception of God, such as when
God acts through the natural world, this is an instance of perception of Elohim. Only when God is
perceived in His absolute infinitude is this an experience of YHWH.4 Many Kabbalists demonstrate
this idea through a play on the words and syntax of the opening pasuk of the Torah. Instead of
reading ‫ ְּבֵר אִׁ֖ש ית ָּבָ֣ר א ֱא ֹלִ֑ק ים ֵ֥א ת ַה ָּׁש ַ֖מ ִים ְוֵ֥א ת ָה ָֽאֶר ץ‬as ‘In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens
and the earth’, i.e. VSO (Verb  Subject  Object), they read ‘In the beginning, He created Elohim’,
i.e. [S]VO (Implied Subject  Verb  Object). This idea is coupled with a well-knows use of
gematria, in which the word ‘Elohim’ (86 = ‫ם‬+‫י‬+‫ה‬+‫ל‬+‫ )א‬is equated with the word for nature (‫ט‬+‫ה‬
86 = ‫ע‬+‫ב‬+), rendering a meaning along the lines of: In the beginning, YHWH created Elohim; that is,
the way in which we relate to Him through nature. With this in mind, Nefesh HaChaim explains the
difference in perception of God experienced by the Avot and by Moshe:
In general, we find the use of the name Elohim in relation to the perception of the Avot, e.g. ‘The
Elohim before Whom my fathers walked’ and ‘The Elohim Who shepherded me forever until this
day.’ Similarly, we call God ‘Elohei Avraham’, etc. - this is as I wrote about in relation to the holiness
of their level… their perception of prophecy was not to the extent that [worldly] powers were
nullified in such a way that they completely did not appear to exist... this is the concept of El
1
Shemot 6:2-3
2
Bereishit 15:7-8
3
See Nefesh HaḤaim, Gate III 11
4
Consequently, when reading the name YHWH, we pronounce ‘Adonai’, meaning ‘my master’, as the way in
which we relate to God, in His infinitude, is still constrained to viewing God as separate to us, exemplified by
the servant/master relationship.
Shaddai… [which is] also the concept of Elohim... however, the concept of ‘My name, YHWH, I did
not make known to them’ [on the level of] their perception of prophecy.
However, Moshe's perception of prophecy was on the level of the Name of God's Unified Essence -
YHWH. Therefore, no [worldly] power could act as a barrier to filter out the light of his prophetic
perception... as per ‘[You have been shown in order to know that YHWH is Elohim,] there is nothing
else besides him’.5
Although God did indeed reveal himself to Avraham as YHWH, this was imperceptible to him, and so
his experience was that of relating to Elohim.
Relating this back into the story of the exodus, we see now why the understanding that God
is YHWH is crucial to the theological message. The idea of God as Elohim was not unpalatable to
Pharaoh; in fact, this expression of God was already known to him, as the pasuk recounts: ‫ַוֹּ֥י אֶמ ר‬
‫ַּפ ְר ֹ֖ע ה ֶא ל־ֲע ָבָ֑ד יו ֲה ִנְמ ָ֣צ א ָכֶ֔ז ה ִ֕א יׁש ֲא ֶׁ֛ש ר ֥ר ּוַח ֱא ֹלִ֖ק ים ּֽבֹו‬, ‘and Pharaoh said to his servants, “Could we find
another like this one? A man in whom is the spirit of Elohim”.’6 The expression of God that Pharaoh
is unaware of is that of YHWH. At first, as discussed above, he is prepared to acknowledge the
existence of another deity. However, the statement God intends to make via the ten plagues and the
Exodus is to show His true essence, as expressed by the name YHWH; that is, of a single, omnipotent
God. The Zohar makes this observation, and adds that it was this specific point, the theology of
monotheism, that Pharaoh found impossible to accept.7
5
Nefesh HaḤaim, Gate III 13:2, trans. adapted from Avinoam Fraenkel, Nefesh HaTzimtzum, vol. 1 (Jerusalem:
Urim Publications, 2015), 554.
6
Genesis 41:38. Although whether this Pharaoh is the same as the Pharaoh of the beginning of the
enslavement is subject to dispute (see Ẹrubin 53a), this pasuq still indicates that a deity known as ‘Elohim’ was
known to the Egyptians.
7
Zohar I 195a

Nefesh Hachaim On YHWH and Exodus

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nefesh Hachaim On YHWH and Exodus

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Nefesh Hachaim On YHWH and Exodus

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF Y-H-W-H

You might also like