Hashem’s Oneness is Absolute Infinity

Shema Yisrael, Y-H-V-H Elo-heinu, Y-H-V-H Echad

This affirmation of G-d as One is the centerpoint of Jewish existence so much so that it is said shortly after waking and just before going to sleep, and it is hoped to be the very last set of words we utter before death.

But what does it mean to affirm that Hashem is One?

Typically, explanations focus entirely on trying to understand what is meant by "One". Here, let's try something a little different. Let's focus on the Name Y-H-V-H, and see if it can help elucidate what is meant by "Echad".

We get an amazing insight into the meaning of the Name from the Ari’zal in R. Chaim Vital’s Sefer HaLikutim Parshat Terumah
(cf. http://www.koshertorah.com/terumah.html for this translation):

Text from Sefer HaLikutim: This is the secret of Yihyeh (will be): Yod Key above, Yod Key below

Commentary of R. Ariel Bar Tzadok: This reveals a great secret. When Mashiah comes the verse “on that day shall G-d be (yihyeh) one and His Name one” (Zech. 14:9) shall be fulfilled. The word for “shall be” is Yihyeh, spelled Yod, Key Yod, Key. The
Ari’zal explains that during this present era we know G-d’s Name as Y-H-V-H (with the Vav). However, when Mashiah comes, the fallen final Hey will ascend above and rise next to the first Hey. Correspondingly, the Vav is to ascend and become a Yod. Thus when Mashiah comes, G-d’s Name will be called Yihyeh (Yod Key Yod Key) and no longer Y-H-V-H (Yod Key Vav Key).

Given that Hashem tell us in Shemot (Ex.) 3:15 that His Name
Y-H-V-H will be His Name “forever”, the fact that the form of His Name will one day be Y-H-Y-H and not Y-H-V-H indicates that it must really be the meaning of His Name that will be forever, and that Y-H-V-H and Y-H-Y-H actually mean the same thing.
Thus, Y-H-V-H means “He will be”.

The mesorah on this matter from the Ari’zal and R. Bar Tzadok compliments the Written Torah splendidly. In the very context of Hashem’s initial revelation of the Name to Moshe in Shemot 3:14-15, first G-d tells Moshe “Eh-yeh asher Eh-yeh” (“I will be what/who I will be”), then tells him to inform Yisrael that
“Eh-yeh” (“I will be”) has sent him, and then to say that Y-H-V-H has sent him. Thus, it is a logical extension of what went before in the pesukim to see Y-H-V-H as meaning “He will be”.

“He will be” cannot mean that G-d doesn’t exist at all yet – that is illogical, especially in the revelatory context, for without Divine existence, how can there be Divine revelation. Instead, logic forces us to understand “He will be” as meaning that the “He” (i.e., the defined self) does not yet exist. However, in order to ensure that one does not mistakenly assume that G-d is locked into this negative, no negative is used, but instead the positive expression of the verbal imperfect. Moreover, the verbal imperfect does not only convey the future sense of “not yet” (“He will be”) but also conveys the contingent sense of “can” or “may” (“He can be” or “He may be”). Thus, Y-H-V-H presents us with a freedom, not a negation – a freedom from defined self, even from the non-self construed as a defined self, and a freedom to take on defined self.

And this too follows from what went before in Shemot 3:14 and 3:15. The initial statement, “Eh-yeh asher Eh-yeh”, expresses a general freedom from determination – “I will be what/who I will be”. In the next statement, where G-d expresses the name
“Eh-yeh”, there is a revelation of the specific freedom from consciousness of defined self – the defined “I” does not yet exist. Finally, when G-d expresses the Name “Y-H-V-H”, there is a revelation of the specific freedom from even from the defined self that underlies any consciousness of defined self.

What is remarkable to consider is that the defined self is the most basic of all definition, the primal limit that permits any distinction beginning with the basic level of self and other. Without the defined self, there is no other. So, the Name Y-H-V-H is conveying a freedom from even the most basic definition, in the absence of which no plurality is possible. Thus, we have Oneness without any plurality, whether by content or by participation. As it says in Sefer Yetzirah 1:8 – “in the presence of One, what can you count” – and in Tikkunei Zohar, Petichat Eliyahu – “You are One but not in a countable sense”. So, Hashem’s “Oneness” is the utter freedom from plurality that is Absolute Infinity, the freedom from any definition.

G-d willing, I will delve further into the implications of this conclusion in upcoming posts.