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Chapter 6
The Name of God
The Torah Koan of What’s My Interface?
In a famous episode from the book of Exodus Moshe witnesses an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew slave and he kills the Egyptian. Realizing his life is in danger, Moshe flees to Midian where he rescues and later marries Tzipporah, the daughter of Yitro. Upon Chorev (Mt. Sinai), Moshe encounters the burning bush where HaShem commands him to lead the Jewish People from Egypt to Eretz Yisrael, the land promised to their ancestors.
“Moses said to God…When they ask me Your Name what will I tell them? Tell them I Am That I Am sent you.[1] The Midrash elucidates:
In that moment Moses requested that the Holy One make known His Great Name. The Holy One said to Moses, ‘My Name you want to know? According to My interface I am known. At times I am called by El Shadai (Almighty), Tzevaot (Armies of God), Elohim (Divine Powers) or by Y-H-V-H, the Tetragrammaton (God of Existence). When I judge the creation I am called Elohim. When I wage war with the bad guys I am called Tzevaot. When I suspend the transgressions of man I am called El Shadai. When I have compassion on My world I am called Y-H-V-H. This is the meaning of the name A-heyeh – I am that I am – I am called according to My interface with creation.
The Hebrew term (ma’asai) that is here being translated as “my interface” is usually translated as “my actions” or “my interactions”. It will be evident, however, that the conceptual treasure contained in the term “interface” reveals the depth of the sages’ intention in this Midrash. Moreover, the new “interface” presents us with an astounding new “name of the game” that can radically alter our perception of the relationship between God and man and, consequently, our experience of prayer. This is the kabbalah teaching of “What’s My InterFace?
In the Kabbalah the internal design of reality is patterned after the model of the Sefirot, the Ten Divine Emanations. Sefira means an amount, a value, a unit and a coordinate. The Sefirot are the emanations of the Ain Sof that constellate in recurring patterns throughout all creation. There are ten Sefirot, each one reflecting an aspect of the Ain Sof. Each Sefira is also associated with a unique formula; a “name” and these are the Ten Divine Names of the Ain Sof. (The Midrash lists four of the ten with “I am that I am” (A-heyeh) being a fifth name, the name associated with the keter, the Crown of Creation.) The Ten Sefirot are the sacred interface. They reveal the innerFace of the Absolute. The mystery of the InterFace is the Name of God.
Judaism is monotheistic. We worship only one God. All our thoughts and prayers are directed solely to that singular, super unified Source of all life. To direct our hearts to anything else is avoda zara – idolatry. Avoda Zara literally means “alien” or “external worship”, i.e. anything outside and external to the One. In Kabbalah, the more refined term used to refer to the Absolute is Ain Sof, literally “Without End”. It is to the one God, the transcendent Ain Sof that all our thoughts and prayers are directed.
There is, however, an immense qashe question that challenges this fundamental assumption.[2] Significantly, this challenge comes from what is considered a conservative voice of Rabbinical Judaism. Rabbi Chayim Volozhin (19th century) was the outstanding disciple of the Gaon of Vilna and is the recognized head of the Lithuanian yeshiva world (“misnagdim”). He composed the work Nefesh HaChayim (The Living Soul) as an introductory guidebook to apply the teachings of the Inner Torah – the Kabbalah – to character development and spiritual growth. Weaving together extensive sections from the Zohar and the kabbalistic writings of the Arizal, Rabbi Chayim Volozhin unveils a highly evolved relationship between man, God and the interface of prayer
“All our heart’s intention throughout our prayers and requests is forbidden (italics mine) to be only directed to the Transcendent Unity (Yichudo shel Olam), the Ain Sof, the Source of All Blessing. [When we direct our hearts] it is not from the perspective of His Essence alone, may He be blessed, which is the aspect in which He is separated from the worlds. Rather, [our hearts must also be directed] to the aspect of His transcendent Will that interfaces with the various dimensions of reality and is concealed within them to sustain them”.[3]
The Nefesh HaChayim appears self-contradictory. On one hand, we are proscribed from praying or having any relationship directly with the aspect of “God” referred to as the Ain Sof. Yet, on the other hand we are also proscribed from praying or having any relationship with anything but “God”! We are caught between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” – between the “Rock of Ages” and the “hard places” where the diminutive gods of avoda zara hide out. What is it then that we pray to? To Whom do we call and direct our hearts?
In the language of the Midrash the question is what is God’s “Name”. According to the Nefesh HaChayim the spiritual clash between the two proscriptions is the underlying presumption (hava amina) to the question Moshe is asking. He is not asking a simple question. Rather, the Midrash is forcing the issue to the surface and cracking open the shells of nescience with a qashe question. Therefore, the conclusion will never be a simple answer, rather it will be a “revolving” resolution, looping the end in the beginning and positioning us in the spiritual tension of the middle, the interface. “When they ask me Your Name what will I tell them”? The Holy One said to Moses, ‘I Am That I Am. According to My interface I am known’”. The dialog between Moshe and HaShem (lit. the Name) is a perpetual “question-answer” that revolves within the mystery of the interFace. This is the meaning of the “Great Name” of God.
The word interface has only been around since the late 19th century yet it offers a prism of definitions that can help capture some of the many subtleties of the mystery of the sefirot. There are seven dictionary definitions of the word interface and each highlights an aspect as to how the Ten Sefirotic Names or emanations interconnect the relationship between man and the Ain Sof.
1. An interface is a surface that serves as the common boundary or interconnection of two bodies, systems, concepts, or phases, i.e. the “Names” or attributes (the sefirot) of the Ain Sof act as the common boundary and interface between the material and the spiritual, human and Divine.
2. The facts, problems, considerations, theories, practices, etc., shared by two or more disciplines, procedures, or fields of study: the interface between chemistry and physics, i.e., the sefirot interface the human with the divine and vice versa.
3. A communication or interaction, i.e., the interface between the Kingdom of Heaven and the kingdom of earth.
4. A thing or circumstance that enables separate and sometimes incompatible elements to coordinate effectively, i.e., God’s omniscience and man’s free will.
5. As an action, to interface is to bring together; mesh or unite, i.e., prayer, by definition, is the activity of stimulating a union between man and God.
6. As a verb, to interface with something is to meet or communicate directly; interact, coordinate, synchronize, or harmonize, i.e., The two great systems of earth and heaven are able to interface with and communicate with each other.
7. An interface is an arrangement of equipment or programs designed to communicate information from one system of computing devices or programs to another, i.e., the connection and interaction between Divine hardware and the software of life and the human user.
The sefirot are the Divine Innerface. The answer to “What’s my interface” is the secret to what’s My Innerface. The practical application of interfacing the kabbalistic teaching of the sefirot with the secret of the Divine interface is in the practice of prayer. A traditional root meaning of the Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah meaning “to connect” and “to unite”.[4] Interface leads to the InnerFace. This is the secret meaning of the name A-heyeh – I am that I am – I am called according to My interface with creation. To call upon the Names of God is to interface with the Name and to enter the Innerface that is interfaced with our own. We will then be exactly where we want to be – between the Rock and the hard places. We are learning to interface with the Kabbalah Koan of What’s My InnerFace. [1] Exodus 3 -14
[2] More specifically in the language of the Talmud this form of difficulty is called a rumiya – when two verses or apparently opposing sources are pitted one against the other.
[3] Nefesh HaChayim, the author’s note found in chapter 16 of Gate 1.
[4] The Arizal and Chassidut
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