God’s Hebrew name is always a tough one. God is referred to with many words: Adonai (my Lord), Elohim (plural of gods), Avinu (our Father), Malkeinu (our King). But when Moses asks God directly at their first meeting at the burning bush, what should I call you? God says: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh (I will be what I will be).
This Hebrew name reveals a foundational Torah value: faith in the future.
I learned about this connection between God’s mysterious name and this essential Jewish worldview from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ z”l (bio here) book, I Believe.
Rabbi Sacks teaches, about the Exodus from Egypt:
“The greatest empire on earth was about to be overthrown. The most powerless of people – foreigners, slaves – were going to go free. This was not simply a blow to Egypt … it was a deadly blow to the very concept of time as … a series of passing shadows on a wall of reality that never changes.
History may repeat itself or … history can change. This is the innovation of the Torah.
Rabbi Sacks argues that in Exodus, “History became an arena of change. All this is hinted at in God’s name, I will be what I will be. I am the God of the future tense.”
This may sound a little abstract and philosophical.
But Rabbi Sacks’ teaching that God operates in the future means that even in the most difficult of present realities, the Jewish worldview is always towards an improved future.
Even more than belief in a better future, there is action.
Ironically, Judaism that treasures, even sanctifies the past – hence all of our holidays that stem from the Torah and Jewish history – also commands us to work towards a brighter future.
Rabbi Sacks says, like God’s name I will be what I will be, Humans can be what we will be if we choose the right and the good. And if we fail and fail, we can change because God lifts us and gives us strength.
God’s unique name from the Book of Exodus influences our understanding of God as unbound by time and the chronology of history. And God’s name also plants within us the spiritual mission to be God’s partners for a future golden age.
Shabbat Shalom & Love,
Rabbi Amy