Contemporary Reading

A:
There are many names for God

B:
Some we can pronounce

A:
Others we can’t

B:
Some, once written are not allowed to be erased

A:
other’s we simply whisper in sacred spaces

B:
The Bible begins with the name Elokim for God. God as a force of nature. The word ‘El’ means God and it is attached to some aspect: the sun, the moon, the waters so God is ‘The power of the sun’, ‘the force of the river’. But the name Elokim is slightly bigger. It suggests ‘the force of all forces’. Elokim is the one who created all of them. So the first name used of God is a word that describes force and creativity.

A:
The second name is Hashem, and refers to God not as a power, but as a person. It literally means, ‘The Name’ and once you have a name you can speak to God and God speaks back. Hashem is God in relationship.

B:
Now, Genesis One speaks of God as Elokim: force, power, creation.

A:
Genesis Two and Three speak of God as Elokim-Hashem, both names together. During the troubled time of trees of knowledge, forbidden fruit and the eating of that fruit, God is described as Elokim-Hashem.

B:
But in Chapter 4, God is referred to only as Hashem, ‘The Name’, God in relationship.

A:
Before the fruit was eaten, God was simply a force.

B:
But after it, God is in relationship.

A:
Only when the first two people related to each other through their differences, their uniquenesses, by their names: Adam & Eve, did they recognise God as a relationship too.

B:
No longer something at a distance, a force, Elokim

A:
But now intimate and close, in conversation with, Hashem