God is Process by Rabbi Adina Allen

To understand more about how JSP uses this source sheet, see The Jewish Studio Project's Approach to Text Study.

Questions:

• What do you make of this interaction between God and Moses? What stands out?

• How does God self-identify here? How do you understand this name?

• What do you make of this particular name of God in the context of the broader story (the start of the Exodus from Egypt)?

• “This is my name forever (Ex 3:15) — Rashi¹ points out that the word “forever” is written without the Hebrew letter “vav” and so could be translated as “concealed” -- “this is My Name which is to be concealed”. How does that influence how your reading of the text?

• How might this name of God/Source/the Divine relate to your own understanding of God?

• How might this name relate to the creative process? What connections might we draw between the creative process and freedom/liberation via this name?

Additional Sources

Audre Lorde²

We are all in the process of becoming.

Jewish Publication Society³

Meaning of Hebrew uncertain; variously translated: “I Am That I Am”; “I Am Who I Am”; “I Will Be What I Will Be”; etc.

Rambam,⁴ Exodus 3:13

And God answered him, “‘I WILL BE THAT WHICH I WILL BE (Ex 3:14) I will be with you in this sorrow, and I will be with you in other sorrows (Berachot 9b)

Ramban,⁵ Exodus 3:13 (quoting Sefer V’hizhir. See Torah Shleimah, paragraph 188.)

And what is the meaning of I WILL BE THAT WHICH I WILL BE? -- As you are with Me, so I am with you. If they open their hands and give charity, I also will open My hand.

Shemot Rabbah⁶ 3:6

Rabbi Yitzchak said that the Holy One, blessed be God, said to Moses: ‘I am the one Who has been, Who is now, and Who will be in the future.’ This is why Eh’yeh is written here three times.

Targum Onkelos, Exodus⁷ 3:14 translated the first two names

Eh’yeh Asher Eh’yeh = “I will be with him that I will be.”

Rav Saadia Gaon⁸ in his Arabic translation of, and commentary on, the Torah

[God is the Being] Whose existence has never ceased and will never cease, for God is the first and the last.

Ibn Ezra,⁹ Exodus 3:14

And God said, I am (Ehyeh). Its meaning is, That I Am. In other words, God’s name is not “I Am That I Am”. God’s name is “I Am,” the meaning of which is, that I am.

Chizkuni,¹⁰ Exodus 3:14

God tells Moses that anyone who legitimizes himself as speaking of the God called Ehyeh, will be believed.

Or haChaim,¹¹ Exodus 3:14

God said: Ehyeh asher Ehyeh….This attribute is closely related to the attribute of Mercy, an attribute employed in leading someone from slavery to freedom

Zohar, third volume page 297

…God is an eternal Presence, was, is, and will be.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow¹²

As Moses faces the unquenchably fiery Voice Who is sending him on a mission to end slavery under Pharaoh, he warns the Voice that the people will challenge him: “Sez who?” And the Holy One, the Wholly One, answers: “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, I Will Be Who I Will Be” –- a fitting Name for a universe that is always Becoming.

Rabbi Dina Rosenberg¹³

Moses asks God what God's "name" is. Moses is not asking "what should I call you;" rather, he is asking "who are you; what are you like; what have you done?”

Sources

¹ Rashi on Exodus 3:14, see also Pesachim 50a; Exodus Rabbah 3:7

² Audre Lorde was an American writer, feminist, womanist, librarian, and civil rights activist. She was a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet.

³ JPS is a nonprofit, non-denominational association established to disseminate works of Jewish content in English.

⁴ Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides or the acronym Rambam was a medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars of the Middle Ages.

⁵ Moses ben Nachman, commonly known as Nachmanides, and also referred to by the acronym Ramban was a leading medieval Jewish scholar, Sephardic rabbi, philosopher, physician, kabbalist, and biblical commentator who lived in Catalonia.

⁶ Midrash on the book of Exodus.

⁷ Targum Onkelos is the primary Jewish Aramaic targum (translation) of the Torah.

⁸ Sa'adiah ben Yosef Gaon was a prominent rabbi, gaon, Jewish philosopher, and exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate.

⁹ Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was one of the most distinguished Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages.

¹⁰ Composed in mid-13th century, Chizkuni is actually a compilation of insights culled from the Midrashim, as well as the writings of twenty other Rishonim (leading rabbis of 11th-15th century).

¹¹ Or HaChaim on Exodus Written by Rabbi Hayyim ben Moshe ibn Attar (1696-1743), Or HaChaim is a classical commentary on the Chumash. Rabbi Hayyim was a Moroccan Kabbalist and Talmudist.

¹² Arthur Waskow is an American author, political activist, and rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement.

¹³ Dina Rosenberg is rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom of Western Monmouth.