Main news for 4 April 2019

The names of gods, sacred names, always played a special role in the life of both the Jewish people and other peoples of antiquity. The point is that from very early times something special was connected with a name, whether the name of a person, a spirit, or even a domestic animal.

The basis for such an attitude is not hard to find in Genesis, in its second chapter, where the creation of man is discussed and how the man created by God in His image and likeness gave names to the animals (and the text speaks above all of domestic animals) that God brought to him. The corresponding Hebrew word can denote both a common name and a proper name, but in any case the issue is the connection of the name with the meaning of the one named and of the person's relationship with the one to whom he gives a name.

If God or another spirit reveals His (or its) name to a person, this means that He (or it) opens Himself to the person, enters into contact with him, and permits the person to address Him (or it). It is no wonder that so much attention was paid in antiquity to the names of gods, to sacred names: they never sounded merely casually; when naming a deity or a spirit, one could always expect an answer, a response, an appearance. Yahwism adopts this attitude toward the sacred name: it is no accident that among the ten commandments there is one (the third) that forbids mentioning God's name in vain.

With regard to the names of pagan gods, there appears against this background a completely understandable demand not to mention them at all, to watch so that they do not even accidentally slip from the tongue.

One could think that an accidentally dropped word, and in particular an accidentally mentioned name, does not count. But the Torah reminds us that in spiritual life there are no accidents: if someone's name is on the tip of our tongue, then deep in the soul our connection with the one who bears this name is strong enough.

In such a case there can be no talk of normal spiritual life: if this is so, then at the center of our life stands not God, but someone else. Then we will have to forget not only the third commandment, but also the first. And the path of God as well.