All in the name of Hashem
At Kehillat Aish Kodesh in Woodmere this past Shabbat, the morah d’atra, Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, shlita, gave a powerful exhortation about the need to call upon shem Hashem, the name of Hashem to help us fight our enemies. As the parsha opened last week, “Ki tezeh la’milchama al oyveicha (when you go out to battle over your enemies), this could be understood in the simple p’shat of external physical enemies or, Chazal tell us, it may also apply the yetzer hara, our evil inclination, the enemy within.
Rabbi Weinberger quoted the famous pasuk in parshat Haazinu, which we will be reading in several weeks: “Ki shem Hashem ekra havu godel l’Elokeinu (As I call out the name of Hashem, come praise the greatness of our G-d!”
This is noted in masechet B’rachot as being equivalent to birchat Hatorah (the blessing on learning Torah we say daily.
Though Rabbi Weinberger went in a different direction, while I was listening to his drasha I started to think of other places in our tefilla and in Tanach where the term shem Hashem is mentioned (of course I am using Hashem in this writing, but Y-K-V-K, the Tetragrammaton is written in our texts).
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For example there is “Eleh ba’rechev v’eleh ba’susim vaanachnu b’shem Hashem Elokeinu nazkir (some with chariots and some with horses, but we in the name of Hashem our G-d, call out)” (Tehillim 20:8).
There is “Baruch Ha’ba b’shem Hashem beirachnuchem mi’beit Hashem (Blessed is he who comes in the Name of Hashem; we bless you from the House of Hashem)” (ibid, 118:26).
And famously, while still a youth, before he became David HaMelech, who in his battle with Goliath, young David declared in response to Goliath‘s derisive abuse: “Ata ba elai b’cherev, u’bachanit, u’bechidon, v’anochi ba eilecha b’shem Hashem Tzvakot (you come at me with sword and spear and javelin. But I come at you in the name of Hashem, L-rd of hosts (1Samuel 17:45).
Four different contexts, dealing with challenges both physical and spiritual, external and internal, joy and travail, but all demonstrating the absolute, incredible power of going forth in the name of Hashem.
Is this just rhetorical flourish, or does it have real world, practical consequences?
If we return to the first source, “Ki Shem Hashem ekra,” from Devarim we see it is all over our davening. We say it before the Amidah prayers in Musaf and Mincha. In Yoma 37a and B’rachot 50a we learn that Rabbi Yosi and Rabbi Akiva say this very verse is the source for when the chazan says, “Barchu et Hashem Hamevorach,” the congregants answer “Baruch Hashem ha’mevorach l’olam va’ed!” It is also the source of why we answer “Baruch Hu, u’varuch Shmo (May He be blessed and His name be blessed)” after “Baruch ata Hashem” is recited.
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In Tehillim 20 that we recite daily, it declares that our enemies use “chariots and horses” to defeat their foes but we call out in the “name of Hashem.” In the same way, David defeated Goliath (1Shmuel 17), not with “sword, spear or javelin” but with the name of Hashem.
And Tehillim 118, which we say every time we say Hallel, notes that we bless those who come in the name of Hashem.
The shem Hashem was bequeathed to us by HaKadosh Baruch Hu Himself. Did you ever wonder why, when Moshe Rabenu encountered Hashem at the the burning bush, he specifically asked His name, and was immediately given it (Shmot 3:13-14)? Our tradition relates the power possessed by the shem Hameforash, the Ineffable Name which initially was associated with Y-K-V-K, that we dare not pronounce as written, and then later, Kabbalistically, composed of up to 72 letters, that we have no idea how to pronounce!
What power there is in the name of G-d: The power to defeat our enemies and to bless our allies.
Can you imagine if we actually approached the world in Hashem’s name? Our real friends would applaud us and our enemies would tremble.
Internally, one Jew to another, how powerful would it be if we could appeal to our charedi brothers and sisters b’shem Hashem to try and breach the divide that is weakening us, destroying our people and our country? Just as one can defeat the power of the yetzer ha’ra within each of all, with shem Hashem we can also defeat the forces that divide us.
Given its awesome power, we must be ever careful whenever using or acting in Hashem’s name. Many of us recite the vidui in Shma koleinu in the daily Shmoneh esrei which concludes with “u’temaleh kol ha’Shaimot sh’pagamti b’Shimcha ha’Gadol (And make whole all the Names that I have blemished in Your Great Name).
May we never be guilty of that, intentionally or inadvertently.
Shabbat shalom.
