How often do you mention God in your everyday speech? Maybe more often than you might think. God shows up frequently in our rote phrases.
“God bless you,” after we sneeze.
“Baruch HaShem,” “Blessed is the Name,” as an answer to “How are you?”
“I swear to God…”
“Oh, God.”
You can fill in the various more profane expressions on your own, and silently!
Using God’s name is something the Torah and Jewish tradition care about deeply. The Third Commandment (in this week’s Parashat Yitro) says, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not acquit whosoever takes God’s name in vain” (Ex. 20:7).
Scholars and rabbis agree that this includes not “swearing falsely” by God’s name: i.e. don’t put your hand on a (Hebrew) Bible and swear to tell the truth, and then lie.
But there’s more to it than just not swearing falsely using God’s name. More generally, the Torah seems to be saying that we should not use God’s name unnecessarily or frivolously. The Talmud (Brakhot 33a) uses this same commandment to prohibit saying unnecessary blessings—because that would be using God’s name when it’s not needed.
Rabbenu Bachya (Bachya ben Asher, Spain, 1255-1340) suggests,“There is also an allusion here that a Jew should not bandy about the name of God, giving the impression to all and sundry that one is a true servant of the Lord whereas in reality in one’s heart one does not serve the Lord. This is why the Torah chose the expression ‘in vain,’ or ‘falsely,’ i.e. creating a false impression. It is a warning not to pretend to be God-fearing.”
Peppering our language with God’s name can give the impression that we are servants of God, and woe to us if the impression is not accurate!
Many of us are careful with certain particular names of God, especially in Hebrew. We treat several versions of God’s name with great care when written in Hebrew on paper. Some of us refrain from saying God’s name in Hebrew except in liturgical circumstances, substituting “Hashem” or replacing an “h” sound with a “k” sound so as to change the word and make it not actually God’s name.
Some of us write God as G-d (or Gd, G*d, G!d, or G?d), so as to treat the English word with more respect, reminding ourselves and others that this is not just an ordinary English word.
We want to fulfill the words of Psalm 16:8, “I set the Lord before me always,” and there’s something beautiful and pious about mentioning God in our speech often.
Yet we don’t want it to become rote, or disrespectful. The danger of being people who mention God frequently is that our behavior must then be that of people who really serve God and are good people, or else we are using God’s name falsely.
Why does this all matter though? Do we really have the power to diminish or harm the infinite and almighty God if we violate the Third Commandment? Of course not. Then why does it matter?
When we substitute for a “real” name of God, and use something else like “Hashem” instead, in our own minds we may be being careful, and saving the use of God’s more sacred names for liturgical and non-conversational use. But it still sounds like God-talk, and we are still invoking God, if by a different name, by a euphemism.
So much evil has been done in God’s name, and so much frivolity too. That besmirches the project of Judaism, and religion generally, which is to make our world more holy.
When do you mention God, and by what name(s)?
Should you do it more, or less?
And what are you trying to accomplish when you mention God?
May our lips bring holiness into the world every time we utter the Blessed Name.
