orah Portion

B 'H

START YOUR WEEK RIGHT!

c aid By His Name
We Shall Know Him

archs were also granted the ability to
"see" God as YHVH. To top it off,
according to the simple explanation of
the biblilcal text Pshat, Moses had also
been granted a divine apparition of God
as YHVH previously in Shernot, at the
burning bush. (Exodus 3:2-6). And if
aera begins with a divine
anybody can be said to have seen God,
speech where God spoke to
YHVH, directy it is Moses as he is said
Moses and said to him, "Ani
to have seen YHVH face to face.
Adonai (I am YHVH).
So it appears the text in Vaera is in
"Vaera, I appeared to Abraham, Isaac
contradiction when it mentions the fact
,TA Jacob as El Shadai, but I did not
that God never revealed His name
ake myself known to them by My
YHVH to the patriarchs before. The
name YHVH." (Exodus 6:2-3).
truth of the matter is that
We are told of this ancient
when one translates literally
c lose relationship between God
the first key word in Vaera,
and the patriarchs and conse-
and I (God) was seen," one
quently the Am Israel, the
realizes that a definite distinc-
Jewish people, and the three-
tion between two evolution-
fold promise He made to give
ary stages in pekeiving God
'them the land of Israel.
is being introduced.
While this sedrah contains a
The revelation that the
large number of subjects to be
patriarchs experienced was
dealt with in depth, I will con-
probably more the type of a
CANTOR
centrate on the revelation of
vision of God, a dream. They
BEN-ZION
God's new name YHVH.
have yet not experienced God
LANXN ER
Why do we need so many
fully as panim el panim, face
Special to The
different names for one God?
to face, as the text precisely
By reading carefully the begin-
Jewish News
points out that God did not
nino-
make Himself "known" to
b of our sedrah, it seems
mat a previously unrevealed
them, as He did to Moses.
and unknown divine name, YHVH, is
The Torah seems to suggest that the
now being revealed to Moses a name by
patriarchs were at a different level or
which God was not known to the patri-
stage of knowledge of God. They were
archs.
at a lower level where Moses was on a
God is telling Moses that Abraham,
higher and more advanced stage in the
Isaac and Jacob all called God by the
perception and knowledge of God.
name "El Shadai," but they did not
As Rabbi Menachem Schneerson
know God by the name of the
explains in his discourse on Torah, say-
.tragrammaton YHVH. Actually, it is
ing that God actually revealed himself to
not completely correct. If you read the
our patriarchs as El Shadai, representing
book of Genesis, you will remember that
God as He appears in the finite world
God did effectively appear to Abraham
Of creation who said to His creation,
in a dream when God said to him, "I
"dai," enough; but after Sinai, YHVH
am YHVH, who brought you out of Ur
was revealed to Moses in his
Kasdim." (Genesis 15:7 8) At this time
Tetragrammaton as infinite, transcend-
God appeared to Abraham as YHVH at
ing divisions between lower and higher
the covenant of the parcels and
levels of knowledge of God as one. El
;7.,romised him to become a great nation
in a great land.
Further along, in Genesis 28:13, when
God appeared to Jacob in a famous
1) Why do you think Aaron
dream of the ladder stretching from
was
the one to bring the first
earth to heaven, and said to him, "I am
plague to Egypt when Moses gave
YHVH, the God of Abraham your
the warning?
father and the God of Isaac." According
2) If making bad choices leads
to the Midrash (in Seder Eliyahu
to
others,
then making good ones
\_Rabbah 25) the name given to Jacob
should,
to;
can you think of a time
'after his encounter with the angel, dur-
when,
unlike
Pharaoh, you made a
ing that particular night, namely Israel,
good
choice
and
it then became
could be reread as "Ish Ra'ah El," mean-
easier
to
continue
to make them?
ing a "man who saw God."
3)Why
did
God
choose the
Consequently it seems that the patri-
plague of the blood as the first one
Ben Zion Lanxner is cantor and educa-
to fall on Egypt?
tional director of Congregation B'nai
MESSOMMAMOMMINEKEEMIMAZSMaf
David

SUNDAY HAPPENINGS

at
Sara Tugman Bais Chabad Torah Center

,S19abbat Vaera: Exodus
0:2-9:35; Ezekiel
28:25-29:21.

BEGINNER'S MINYAN - 9:30 A.M.

V

JEWISH MYSTICISM - 11:00 A.M.

Followed by a

BAGEL BREAKFAST

with

RABBI SILBERBERG

m

DINNER by TASTE OF ISRAEL -
5:30 - 8:00 P.M.

For more information call the Torah Center at 855-6170 or email at bctc770©aol.com

American Heart
Association.

Fighting Heart Disease
and Stroke

Reception

in honor of
Harav Yeruchim Olshin, Shlita

Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha
Lakewood, New Jersey

-

Master of Ceremonies:
Rabbi Avrohom Fishman

Dean Beth Yehuda Schools

©1995. American Heart Association

Chairmen
Sponsors Committee:
Rabbi Eliezer Beer
Rabbi Dovid Simcha
Rabbi Yissocher Wolf

Conversations

.

Monday, January 18, 1999
at 8:00 in the evening

at:
15041 Burton
Oak Park, Michigan

`'.

rigeidagi

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Hosts:
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Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Nusbaum
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