Ruth Harvey – Head of Hebrew

Oh my El

When I first heard about the internet portal Yahoo I thought: Oh my El, is it ‘yahu’ as in Eliyahu HaNavi (Eliajah the prophet)? Very quickly I realised this was not the case, that the word had different connotations for others, and indeed the two are not connected.

So, what does the ‘Yahu’ in Eliyahu represent? Names mentioned in the Torah and the Tanach are of great significance as they allude to a person’s character and destiny. Sometimes a name needed to be changed in order to enable its bearer to achieve his/her purpose, as was the case with Ya’acov whose name was changed to Yisrael. Similar considerations are still addressed by some parents today. Anyone who has ever had to choose a name for their newborn can attest to the complexity and deliberation involved.

It is no surprise that the name of God features often in the Tanach. The 4-letter Name, the Tetragrammaton, includes the letters: Yod, Hey, Vav, Hey. Since the Name is not to be pronounced or written in vain, various combinations of 2 or 3 of its letters are used instead to refer to God, and are included either at the beginning or at the end of a name, such as:

• yod+vav, יו, ‘yo’ as in Yonatan יונתן (God gave or God’s given); Yo’av יואב, Yochanan יוחנן, Yoram יורם.
• Yod+hey+vav, יהו ‘yeho’ as in Yehoyakim יהויקים (Joakim); Yehoshu’a יהושע (Joshua), Yehoram יהורם
• Yod+hey+vav, יהו ‘yahu’ as in the prophets: Eliyahu אליהו (Elijah), Yirmiyahu ירמיהו (Jeremiah), Yeshayahu ישעיהו (Isaiah)
• Yod+hey יה ‘ya’ as in Talya טליה, Danya דניה, Tuvya טוביה, Eliya אליה

The more ancient reference to God as Elohim (אלהים) or El ((אל, and ‘Eli’ as ‘my God’, similarly features in many common and less familiar names. You may have come across a GabriEl or DaniEl, RefaEl, NathanEl, YechezkEl (EzekiEl), EmanuEl, and maybe even encountered a RaziEl, YishmaEl, Elkanah, Elchanan, Eli’or or Elisheva. Some are twice blessed: YO’EL יואל (Joel), ELIYA  ,אליה loosely translate as: God (Tetragrammaton) is God.

Hopefully you are now wondering: How does the 4-letter Name (yod, hey, vav, hey) differ to El/אל? This is a good question to which I welcome your responses. Send an email and it may be published in our next Ma Nishma edition.  

And if you wonder: Oh, is El-Al one? Alas, no! ‘el’ is also a preposition meaning ‘to’. With ‘al’ meaning ‘top/above/high’, El-Al literally means ‘to the heights’ and thus is a befitting name for the Israeli airline. Oh my El, I cannot wait to be on an El Al flight on way to Yisrael to visit my family.