Va'era: Knowing Hashem
Va'era: Knowing Hashem

G-d spoke to Moshe and said to him: I am HaShem; and I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as E-l Sha-ddai, but by My Name HaShem I was not known to them. And I also established My Covenant with them, to give them the Land of Canaan – the Land of their sojournings within which they sojourned” (Exodus 6:2-4).

There is something very puzzling in these words which G-d spoke to Moshe: How could He say that the Name HaShem “was not known” to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? For sure, G-d had introduced Himself to Abraham (Genesis 17:1) and to Jacob (35:11) by His Name E-l Sha-ddai – but He had also told Abraham, “I am HaShem, Who took you out from Ur Kasdim, to give you this Land to inherit it” (15:7), and He had told Jacob, “I am HaShem, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; I will give to you and to your offspring the Land upon which you are lying” (28:13).

Was He not, then “known to them” by His Name HaShem as well?

The Midrash Lekach Tov and Midrash Sekhel Tov both explain this peculiarity by analysing G-d’s precise wording: He did not tell Moshe that “lo hoda’ti lahem” (“I did not make known to them”, or more idiomatically “I did not tell them”) the Name HaShem, but rather “lo noda’ti lahem” (“I was not known to them”). That is to say – though I told them of My Name HaShem, they did not comprehend Me by this Name.

Rashi cites this explanation, and continues: “I was not known to them in My attribute of trustworthiness, which is the basis for My Name being called HaShem – trustworthy to fulfil My words; because, after all, I had made promises to them which I had not yet fulfilled”.

The Rashbam says, more laconically: “I promised for the future time, but I had not yet fulfilled”.

Both the Midrashim cited above (Lekach Tov and Sekhel Tov) add: “I was not known by the power of the flaming fire, as I am now known to you [Moshe]”.

The Ba’al ha-Turim (Rabbi Ya’akov ben Asher, Germany and Spain, c.1275-1343) clarifies: “I appeared to them with both these Names: by the Name HaShem I promised to settle them securely in the Land, and by the Name E-l Sha-ddai I promised them that they would be fruitful and multiply, because this is the Name which denotes fruitfulness and greatness”.

It is, then, significant that both times that G-d introduced Himself to the Patriarchs with the words “I am E-l Sha-ddai”, He immediately continued by promising the respective Patriarchs that they would be fruitful and become great. As the Hebrew family grew, they “knew G-d”, meaning they perceived Him, as E-l Sha-ddai.

And it is equally significant that both times that G-d introduced Himself to the Patriarchs with the words “I am HaShem” (Genesis 15:7 and 28:13), He immediately continued by promising that they and their offspring would inherit the Land. He promised this, but as long as He had not yet fulfilled His promise, they did not yet “know” Him – meaning perceive Him – as HaShem.

At the beginning of our Parashah, when G-d introduced Himself to Moshe by His Name HaShem, He continued immediately with His promise to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt, to redeem them, and to bring them into the Land which He had promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (6:4-8). The inference is that HaShem becomes known by the fulfilment of His promise that the Patriarchs’ offspring would inherit the Land of Israel.

In last week’s Parashah, when Moshe and Aharon had come to Pharaoh with their demand, “Thus says HaShem, G-d of Israel: Send away My nation so they can celebrate to Me in the desert” (Exodus 5:1), Pharaoh’s arrogant response was: “Who is HaShem that I should listen to His voice, to send Israel away? I do not know HaShem, neither will I send Israel away” (v. 2).

The Targum Yonatan renders this: “HaShem’s Name has not been revealed to me for me to listen to His word, to send Israel away. I have not found the name of HaShem written anywhere in the book of angels. I do not fear Him, neither will I send Israel away”.

The Ohr ha-Chayim (Rabbi Chayim ben Atar, Morocco and Israel, 1696-1743) writes: “When Pharaoh said ‘Who is HaShem…’, he meant, What is His great power, that I should listen to His voice in this great matter, and send Israel away?” (Commentary to 5:2).

That is to say, Pharaoh’s not knowing HaShem was identical with not fearing Him. So all the subsequent demands and warnings to Pharaoh, the Ten Plagues (the first seven of which are in Parashat Va’eira), the Pesach Sacrifice which violated Egypt’s god (12:3-11), the Exodus itself, the Splitting of the Red Sea – all were directed to force Pharaoh to capitulate to HaShem, to fear HaShem, to know HaShem. Only thus would the monumental arrogance of this most powerful of all human kings be transformed into a monumental Kiddush HaShem (Sanctification of the Name of G-d) – which was the entire purpose of the redemption from Egyptian slavery.

That is to say, G-d becomes known by His fulfilment of His promises, and by His defeating the nations for the sake of Israel.

The Ohr ha-Chayim expounds on the opening verse of our Parashah: “When He said, ‘by My Name HaShem I was not known to them’, this means that He did not make known to them the knowledge of the unity of the two Names together”.

We pause for a moment in the middle of the Ohr ha-Chayim’s words to explain the implications of G-d’s Names. HaShem, the ineffable Four-Letter Name, refers solely to G-d, and denotes G-d in His attribute of mercy. The appellation Elokim denotes G-d in His attribute of strict justice, and is less personal, so to speak: it also refers to false gods (elohim acherim), to angels (e.g. Judges 13:22), to natural powers, and to human authority such as Moshe when confronting Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1) and to judges (Exodus 22:27).

We return to the Ohr ha-Chayim: “I was not known to the Patriarchs – meaning, the secret of the two Names combined; My Name, which is HaShem, combining HaShem with Elokim. How strict justice becomes mercy and mercy becomes justice I did not make known and understood to them”.

This world is riddled with apparent contradictions: the conflicting demands of justice and mercy, G-d’s infinite power and His concealment, G-d’s love for Israel and Israel’s oppression, G-d’s promises and His non-fulfilment of them so far, to name but a few. As long as these apparent contradictions abound, G-d is not “known” – that is to say, perceived – in this world.

As He began to fulfil His promise to the Patriarchs that He would redeem Israel from Egyptian oppression, He began to resolve these apparent contradictions. It was at that time that justice and mercy were combined, as true justice executed against the Egyptian persecutors was true mercy for Israel. It was at that time that G-d’s hitherto concealment and His infinite power became reconciled, as it became apparent that even those generations of oppression had been the expression of His will. It was at that time that His love for Israel became manifest.

The Midrash Sekhel Tov (cited above) adds an additional explanation as to why G-d “was not known” to the Patriarchs by the Name HaShem: “I was not known to them by driving the nations out before them”. His promise was that the Children of Israel would inherit the Land of Israel, which inevitably implies driving the other nations out from the Land. His promise, then, began to be fulfilled when He began the redemption from Egypt, which would culminate a generation later with the conquest of the Land of Israel.

And so, too, in our days: as long as Israel was scattered through the world, powerless, humiliated, persecuted, defenceless, G-d was not “known” – that is to say, perceived – in the world. Just as in Egypt, the pinnacle of His concealment was the Egyptian mass-murder of Jewish babies in the generation before the redemption, so too in our generations, the pinnacle of His concealment was the mass-murder of Jews in the final years before the beginning of the return to Zion and the beginning of the final redemption.

And G-d is known in the world as He begins to fulfil His promise that one day, after this long and wearying exile, the Children of Israel would yet return to the Land of Israel; He is known in the world as His nation is once again free and sovereign, powerful, proud, secure, holding their own weapons in their own hands to defend their lives and their Land.

Of course, this casts an awesome responsibility onto us. Our independence in the Land of Israel is not something capricious, our hold over the Land is not something we can haggle over or barter away for cheap popularity. Jewish sovereignty over the Land of Israel is the sanctification of the Name of G-d; more than this – it is, to paraphrase Rashi, the very manifestation of HaShem’s attribute of trustworthiness, which is the basis for His Name being called HaShem – trustworthy to fulfil His words; because, after all, He has made promises to Israel, which He is now beginning to fulfil.

And only thus does He become known in the world by His Name HaShem.