Rav Dovid Moshe of Tshortkov related that when the holy Baal Shem Tov passed through Istanbul on his way to Eretz Yisroel, he heard rumors regarding certain amulets that Rav Naphtali Katz, the Semichas Chachamim had written.
“How could he dare use Divine Names in amulets?” they challenged. The Baal Shem Tov asked to see one. When he opened the amulet, he saw that it was simply the handwritten name of the Semichas Chachamim.
Rav Dovid Moshe used to say that this story explains the statement of Chazal Sanhedrin 100a that whoever calls his rebbe by name is liable to the death penalty. We could wonder, asked Rav Dovid Moshe, why so harsh a sentence should be pronounced for seemingly so light a crime as calling your rebbe by his name? The answer is because just as when someone pronounces Hashem’s Divine Name, he is punished harshly (ibid 90a), we see--as illustrated by our story-- that one’s rebbe’s name is also considered like one of the holy Divine Names. This is true to such degree that we see that it can even be used as an amulet! (Eser Oros 10:16)
