“...Moses said to G-D: “I will come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The G‑d of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they will say:

'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?” G‑d replied to Moses: “I Am who I Am... Tell the children of Israel, ‘I Am (Eh-he-yeh) has sent me to you.’”

To name something is to describe and define it.

So G‑d, who is infinite and undefinable, cannot be named.

Indeed, G‑d has no name, only names—descriptions of the various behavior patterns that can be ascribed to His influence on our lives.

Therein lies the deeper significance of the question that Moses anticipated from the children of Israel.

“What is His name?” They were sure to ask.

“What type of behavior are we seeing on the part of G‑d in these times? What name is He now assuming, after eighty-six years in which He has apparently been ‘nameless’ and aloof from our lives?”

Tell the children of Israel that My name is "I am" Where was I all these years? With you. I am being, I am existence, I am reality. I am in the groan of a beaten slave, in the wail of a bereaved mother, in the spilled blood of a murdered child.

Certain things must be, no matter how painful and incomprehensible to your human selves, in order that great things, infinitely great and blissful things, should be. But I do not orchestrate these things from some distant heaven, “holy” and removed from your existential pain.

I am there with you, suffering with you, praying for redemption together with you.

If you cannot see Me it is not for My ethereality, it is because I am so real.


To understand more about G‑d’s role in the Exodus, see I Will Be What I Will Be and I am.