In today’s parasha of Vaeira ("And I made Myself seen") God talks to Moses and says: ‘I am YHVH. I made myself seen to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, by the name of El Sha-dai, but my name YHWH I was not known to them.’ The problem there is that earlier in the torah, YHVH is used in association with the Fathers.
Rashi explains this apparent contradiction by saying that the promises made to the Fathers in the name of El Shadai is only going to be manifest to Moses in the name of YHVH. The Fathers didn’t yet grasp God’s quality of truthfulness where the promises made to them will be fulfilled by later generations who understand God’s quintessential truth. Rashi twice uses the term emet or truth. A thousand years after Rashi, Richard Elliot Friedman wrote Who Wrote the Bible. Friedman teases out different authors of the bible with different perspectives telling the same story twice or even three times. J, E and P he calls them.
He says that this opening in our Parasha today is first time in the P or Priestly text that God's personal name VHVH is introduced. He notices that in the J and E texts, God is merciful. God is Erech apayim. Whereas in the P texts God is seen as Emet or Truth. And that certainly fits with Rashi’s explanation where Rashi says כַּרְתִּי לָהֶם בְּמִדַת אֲמִתּוּת שֶׁלִּי,
There’s a lot more richness to be seen where the Torah itself is seeing the same story twice. On top of that, the interpreters of the Torah see things from their own perspectives too. On top of that, we see things from our own perspectives as well. Together, it’s as beautiful as seeing a prism of 70 colours refracted from a single undivided ray of light. We need J, E and P. We need the Rashi and the Richard Friedman and we need everyone here today. Nobody alone can see the whole story.
I was lucky enough to hear Dr Dror Bondi speak at New North London Synagogue just after kiddish last Shabbat morning. He had a great metaphor for what we see when we say the word God. He said it’s like the difference between a map and the topology the map describes. Us humans are mostly limited to describing the map but it’s essential to know it’s not the topology. The topology is the light, the map is the prism. The topology is what we point to. The map is made of language.
None of us really know what our friends see when they say the word God or any versions of that name, because that is the topology. But sometimes in rare moments in prayer, in love, in listening or in studying together, face to face or even over the internet, we catch a glimpse of something more transcendent. We need to look between the lines and between ourselves. We need to have modesty to see our single view is not the whole story. We need that multiplicity of vision when we walk down the stairs, and when we talk about God and what God wants from us. Because only in that shared gap is our capacity to glimpse the light.
Shabbat Shalom.
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Chabad website: G‑d also says: "By My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them." This is understood by the commentaries as G‑d saying to Moses: "I did not reveal My quintessential truth," represented by the divine name Y-H-V-H, to the Patriarchs; they knew Me only by the name El Sha-dai which represents a more limited manifestation of My being. They accepted that they could never comprehend My infinite, unknowable essence. You, on the other hand, to whom I have revealed My truth, question My ways.
God had made a promise to the Patriarchs. He had promised them the land of Canaan but the time had not been ripe for its fulfilment. This is the meaning of the phrase that God had not yet appeared to them by His name. The attribute of Divine fulfilment implied in this name of God had not yet been realized in history (Nechama Liebowitz, New Studies in Shmot, 135)
Rashi- G‑d also says: "By My name, Y-H-V-H, I did not make Myself known to them." This is understood by the commentaries as G‑d saying to Moses: "I did not reveal My quintessential truth," represented by the divine name Y-H-V-H, to the Patriarchs; they knew Me only by the name El Sha-dai which represents a more limited manifestation of My being. They accepted that they could never comprehend My infinite, unknowable essence. You, on the other hand, to whom I have revealed My truth, question My ways.
Rabbi Ḥanina ben Gamla says: the reason why Moses fell to his face in front of God is that he saw the attribute of slow to anger; and the Rabbis say: He saw the attribute of truth. (Sanhedrin 111)
Who Wrote the Bible? Richard Elliot Friedman, Harper One, 1987
