In the Name of Love: A Passionate Quest for the True Name of The Creator

And YHVH shall be King over all the earth; in that day shall YHVH be One, and His Name One. (Zech. 14:9)

There’s an old saying that when the elderly die, a library is lost, and volumes of wisdom and knowledge are gone. Could such be the case with Moses? It has been approximately 3,400 years since the event at the burning bush where YHVH appears to Moses and tells him, firsthand, His Name. Since that time, the Torah that was given to the Israelites has witnessed countless wars, destruction, exile, and malicious alignment by the “lying pen of the scribes (Jer. 8:8)” as well as editing, redacting, and mistranslating by our more modern translators. The tablets that the Ten Commandments are inscribed upon, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Moses Scroll appear to have vanished – at least for now.

What we have today in the form of the Hebrew Bible is due to the tireless efforts of the Masoretes, a group of Jewish scholars who worked in Palestine and Babylon between 6-7 A.D. When copying scrolls, the Masoretes were required to follow strict rules defined in the Talmud: A synagogue roll had to be written on skins of clean animals prepared by a synagogue Jew, only authentic copies were to be recopied, and nothing was to be written based solely on memory. Viewing the text as Sacred, they were reluctant to use vowel pointing. Their method has been proven to be quite accurate due to their meticulous care, and the Masoretic text became universally accepted as the authentic Hebrew Bible.

Preserved in these texts are the Four Hebrew Letters of God’s Name: יְהוָֹה (YHVH/YHWH). It is found nearly 7,000 in the Hebrew Bible, with the most common pronunciations being “Jehovah/Yehovah” and “Yahweh”. What was not preserved, however, is the exact pronunciation and meaning of this most important Hebrew Name. Countless volumes have been written by Hebrew scholars, Sacred Name groups, occultists – you name it (no pun intended), and debates still continue in an effort to come to a solid conclusion, with some of them carrying on the tradition of demonizing those who don’t agree with their theories.

Being what I consider to be an open-minded critical thinker (like most folks in our movement), I have studied the various explanations of YHVH’s Name and meaning; however, I cannot wholeheartedly commit to any one view as being the ultimate, definitive pronunciation and meaning of The Name. I am sure that many of you reading this find themselves in the same situation. As a result, when addressing YHVH in prayer, I sometimes use the ancient El Elyon(Most High God), or more frequently, Almighty. Sometimes I don’t use any words, I simply visualize the Four Letters while praying. Many of my Jewish friends use Adonai (LORD, or Master, or HaShem (The Name).

Here I would like to offer another possibility for consideration. Recently, my studies about hesed (YHVH’s constant mercy and lovingkindness) led me to also research this Hebrew word’s sister – ahava, which means “love”. BTW, I had always thought the similarity between the sound of Yehovah and ahava to be a bit uncanny, but the consonants are different – YHVH uses a “vav” and ahava uses a “veht”. Some scholars explain that this could be a phonetic variant.

Reposted from : https://unitedisraelworldunion.com/in-the-name-of-love-a-passionate-quest-for-the-true-name-of-the-creator/