Knowing His Name
The Name
Now, the question is what does it mean, ‘Be excited about the Sheim, the Name of Hashem.’ Let’s be excited about Hashem Himself. Where does His Name come in here?
The answer is that we can’t know Hashem; we won’t be able to know Him until we come to the Next World. The only things we know about Him is what He lets us hear about Him. And that’s what the word Sheim means — it’s what we hear about Him; from the word shamoa, to hear. A name is not the person; it’s what you know about him. Let’s say a man named Chaim. You don't know him but his name, that’s the first thing you know about him. You heard about a person named Chaim. So the sheimah, the report of him is Chaim.
Now, when you know the Names of Hashem so already you begin to know about Him. All the various names are mesichtas of information. But when in addition you know also about Chaim's deeds, so you know more about him. How do you know about Hakadosh Baruch Hu? From His deeds. We don't see Hakadosh Baruch Hu but we ‘hear’ about Him by means of the things He does in the world. That’s also His ‘Name’ because it tells you more about Him.
And so whatever we heard about Hashem, whatever He has allowed us to hear about Him, whatever He’s given us to see in this world, that’s His Name. What we hear about Hashem from His ma'asim, that's Sheim Hashem — that’s how much we know Him.
Listening to the News
Now, what did we hear? We heard a lot of things. We heard that He created the world. We heard that He took us out of Mitzrayim. If you look in our history how we went out of Mitzrayim, it was a tremendous chessed. Finally Hashem gave a destruction to our enemies and He gave us the victory and we came out full of wealth and rejoicing. Oh! To remember that, that's Sheim Hashem.
We heard that He gave us the mann. We heard that His ananei kavod protected us for forty years in the Midbar and that He took us into Eretz Canaan. We heard that He fought wars for us against the Canaanite nations. We heard that He built for us a Beis Hamikdash. So all the things that Hashem did to our nation in all history is His Name. Sheimah, shmuah, whatever we heard in the Chumash and in the Neviim, whatever we were told by our forefathers about our history, it all speaks of the greatness of Hashem's kindliness and that's the Name of Hashem in the world. And therefore if you want to learn about Hashem, learn Chumash; study what He did for our forefathers or in history in general lehavdil.
Hearing the Call of Nature
Now, Sheim Hashem also means what we hear about Hashem, what's reported about Him by nature on all sides. We hear that He causes the sun to shine every day all over the world, that He’s pouring down sunlight for the world. And the sun gives you vitamins as it hits your skin. The sun gives you light. And it’s all free energy! No landlord will send you a bill. Con Ed won’t send you a bill for the daytime light.
We heard that He makes rain. When it rains, it's a tremendous chessed. Water comes from the sky and falls down upon the world. When the winds blow, mashiv haruach, it’s Hashem feeding us. Without the wind you'd have nothing to eat. Wind causes us to have food to eat.
Feeding the World
Everybody here eats. You don't believe it? You don't see them eating when you come here but they eat. I was once in a hospital. I walked down the corridor. It was lunchtime and everybody was eating. In every room they were bringing in trays of food. “Oh,” I said. “Everybody eats. The whole world is eating!” Every single person in this world! Don't tell me there's an exception.
And He does it with kindness. מְכַלְכֵּל חַיִּים בְּחֶסֶד – Hashem gives the world food and He gives it with chessed. People enjoy food. בְּ חֵ ן בְּ חֶ סֶ ד וּ בְ רַ חֲ מִ י ם. He gives it with a taste and a color and we enjoy it. Even a little cat is chewing the bones that you threw out of your window after your chicken supper. The cat is eating those bones with a relish, with a ta'avah; “Ah, ah, ah.” But it's not you who gave the cat the bones. Hashem is the One Who gave the bones to the cat. He is supplying everybody in the world with food; all the living. That’s what we know about Him.
The Name of Kindness
And therefore that's His Name! What's His Name? Chessed. חֶ סֶ ד ה' מָלְאָה הָאָרֶץ – The whole world is full of Hashem's chessed. There's water all over the world to drink. There's grass all over the world for animals to eat and produce milk. Cows eat grass and make milk. And they make cows too.
Look at the world and see how Hashem does kindliness. Pass a fruit store and see red apples. Why are they red? Ah! It’s a pleasure to see red apples. And golden oranges! And yellow bananas! And blue grapes! And red cherries! All these are the pleasures that Hashem gives to mankind to enjoy.
That's Hashem's Name! A name of kindliness. If we had to pinpoint one thing that His Name teaches us about Him, it’s Kindliness. And therefore when you say ‘הַלְלוּ אֶת שֵׁם ה, it means “Let’s get excited about everything we know about Hashem and praise Him!” Talk to your wife, your children, your neighbors and tell them about Hashem’s Name, and let them know that’s the only thing to be excited about.
