THE NAMES OF GOD
We name things to identify them to others and to provide a shortcut to knowing “all” about them. When we say a lion is a cat we automatically know many of its characteristics because it is a cat. At the same time, we know special characteristics about the creature we call “lion” over and above its being a cat. We can talk about a lion to someone who, with this knowledge of the name “lion” and the name “cat”, can immediately bring to mind an understanding of this creature with a great deal of detail even though few, if any, words of description were spoken.
But, God is different. He has no category. He has no bodily nature. He can’t be seen. There is nothing that can be compared to Him from which to draw out a description of God. All English translations call God “God”. There is no other name in English that works. Thus, the English word “God” is totally inadequate, for it tells us nothing about God.
The original Hebrew, the Holy Tongue, has many different words, names and phrases that refer to God. In English they are all translated, “God”. Thus, anyone reading an English translation of the Bible will lose significant understanding. God’s actions when He is making Himself known as “Creator and Ruler” are understood very differently from when He is making Himself known as “Source of Mercy”, even though His actions may be the same in each case.
In order to overcome this limitation of the English language, each time a name/descriptive term of God changes in this Targum, I explain how, in that instance, a specific, limited characteristic of God’s nature is being emphasized.
Where that term is part of the Torah text it is italicized. Where it is an added explanation it is placed between parentheses and (italicized). Every subsequent use of the English name “God” holds that understanding until there is a change and a new explanation is presented and italicized. It is important for the reader to take note of this, since the name “God” may extend several pages unchanged in the Hebrew.
For example:
BERESHIT / GENESIS – VAYERA
20-17 ~ Avraham prayed to God, the God whom he knew was the Only God, the Creator of all existence. Then God (in His nature as Creator and Ruler) healed Avimelech and his wife and slave girls, so that they would be able to have children. 20-18 ~ For God (in His nature as Source of Mercy) had stopped all childbearing in Avimelech’s house because of Avraham’s wife Sarah.
21-1 ~ When the time came that God had told Sarah would come, God did for her as He had promised. 21-2 ~ Sarah became pregnant, and she gave birth to Avraham’s son, even as old as he was. It was exactly at the time that God (in His nature as Creator and Ruler) had promised to him. 21-3 ~ Avraham gave the name Yitzchak to his son whom Sarah had borne, this name noting his unusual birth, for the name means “he will laugh”. 21-4 ~ Avraham circumcised his son Yitzchak when he was eight days old, just as God had commanded him.