Question: What is the name of our creator G-d?

Answer: Our Creator has no name. The Hebrew terms we use for Him are expressions of various aspects of His traits, to help us better understand Him and what He is telling us.

Question: So what terms in Hebrew do you use?

Answer: There are specific terms I use when I pray in Hebrew. At most other times it is forbidden for me to say the Names, which as I said, are not actually Names, but descriptive of traits.

Question: So what are the traits of our creator?

Answer: That is an excellent question. Looking at the first line of Genesis: “In the beginning G-d created the Heavens and the Earth.” The term used for G-d in that Verse means His attribute of “strict justice.” This term for G-d is used many times until we reach Chapter 2, Verse 4. Here a new term is introduced, a term that alludes to His attribute of “mercy.”

Up until this point no mercy was required. There was no possibility of rebellion against G-d’s word, strict justice prevailed and there was no need for mercy. Three Verses later however, in Verse 2:7, G-d would complete His creation of Man. Man would be the one creation to be given the power to think for himself and choose not to strictly obey.

Under a system of strict justice, Man could therefore not survive. He would disobey and be destroyed. G-d now mixes strict justice with mercy, and the result of this is that Man now has what no other creation has: Free Will. Man can choose to obey or rebel or somewhere in between. Man will make his own choices, and G-d will judge Man with strict justice tempered with mercy.

Regards, Eliahu Levenson