Q&A: Pronouncing the Names of the Holy One, Blessed be He
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Pronouncing the Names of the Holy One, Blessed be He
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
You wrote that the purpose of creation is the expression of the names of the Holy One, Blessed be He. Maybe I’m not quoting you very precisely, but if God is something that cannot be grasped and is completely without limits, then what does that even mean? And besides, why would God need that?
Answer
I have no idea. I don’t know what the purpose of creation is. The Ari writes this at the beginning of Etz Chaim, and perhaps I mentioned his words.
Discussion on Answer
It somewhat recalls Martin Buber’s dialogical philosophy, which says that the “I” is revealed through the “Thou.”
Maybe he means that the Holy One, Blessed be He, created man in order to reveal Himself to him. I would suggest interpreting the idea of “names” as an allegory for the fact that a person encounters the various revelations of God and gives them names, like loving, mighty, and so on.
As Ramchal says in his book The Way of God, the purpose of creation is to bestow good upon another.