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Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz writes:
The name Shaddai has been given different interpretations by the commentators on the Bible and by scholars of the Bible. Most assign it - without a convincing reason - a meaning related to the concepts of might and authority. I will only deal here with one of the interpretations, which is certainly far from the proper meaning, but which expresses a very profound faith and theological reflection - and that is of the greatest of believers in the world of Judaism: Maimonides. He explains El Shaddai in terms of "the God for whom it is sufficient (shaddai lo): the God who is sufficient in Himself, whose essence is Himself, not in functions which He fulfills in relation to the world. That was the perception of our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of El Shaddai. On this the midrash comments, that our fathers - unlike the generation of Moses - did not demand signs and wonders upon which to base their faith in God. Now though, that Moses was sent to bring the tidings of the redemption to the Israelites, who did not know of God as El Shaddai, there was a need to use names of God that represented His actions in the world.
This goes back to the differentiation between the recognition of God in terms of His Godhead, which is the greatest and most profound faith, and the recognition of God in terms of what is known of the function which He has played in history.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Notes and Remarks on the Weekly Parashah (Brooklyn, Chemed Books, 1990), p.63.
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After God is identified to Moses at the burning bush by the name Ehiyeh (Exodus 3:14), a new concept is introduced: God can be known by many different names, at different times and to different people. God's various names represent the many different attributes of the Divine, and the different ways that different people relate to God. Here, at the beginning of parashat Vaera, the text highlights how, through the use of different names, God was known differently by the generations of the Patriarchs and by Moses and the people of his day.
To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we are told, God was know by the name El Shaddai. El simply means "God" and is used in the same way we use the word "God" in English. Traditionally, the word Shaddai has been associated with the manifestation of God's might, even though, as Leibowitz points out, there is no etymological or other foundation for this meaning. To Moses and the Israelites coming out of Egypt, God was to be known by the four letter name YHWH - yud-hey-vav-hey - which is based around the Hebrew root word which means "to be". This "ineffable name of God" is not pronounced. Rather, Jews will say Adonai - "my Lord" - when praying, and some will say HaShem - "the Name" - when referring to God in other conversation.
For the commentators, the question then becomes, what is the difference between the names YHWH and Shaddai and how they represent God? The Sefas Emes follows the tradition that suggests that the word Shaddai is derived from the phrase sh-dai meaning "that which is (sh) enough (dai)." The Sefas Emes goes on to conclude that by knowing God as El Shaddai, the Patriarchs recognized the inherent holiness within everything that God created. It was through this hoiness that they were able to connect with God. Moses's generation, by contrast, failed to see the holiness that existed before them. They required grand gestures, miracles and wonders, in order to sustain their faith.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz reads the meaning of El Shaddai a little differently. While also acknowledging the root to mean "enough," Leibowitz follows Maimonides' interpretation that Shaddai refers to God as the one who is sufficient. It is not about the recognition of the godly in creation, but rather the pure belief that God is sufficient in and of God's self. God does not simply exist in relation to creation or humanity, nor is God defined by the role God has played in history. Rather, God is defined simply in terms of God's own divinity. Even if we ourselves have had no experience of God, pure faith demands recognition of God's existence and magnitude; pure faith requires belief in God, even if we don't know God. The Patriarchs, who were considered to be paragons of faith, did have the privilege of knowing God. Moses and the Israelites had very direct and dramatic experiences of God, yet they still had doubt and demonstrated, at times, lack of faith. They did not know El Shaddai; they only knew Ehiyeh, the experience of whom would unfold gradually over time.
Lessons for Today
The many names of God help us to recognize that God can be known in many ways. This is just like people. If we think of the significant relationships in our lives, we can probably recognize that, while each of us is a single individual, we are probably seen quite differently by our parents, our siblings, our partners, spouse and lovers, and by our friends, associates, and others. Perception of character is based on relationship, and perception of God is no different. The Maimonidean school would suggest that God is an empirical Oneness, single, unified and unchanging, who can only be accepted through pure faith. However, that type of faith is difficult and rare, attributed only to those of the magnitude of the Patriarchs (and Maimonides, one would suppose) But for most of us, we know God through God’s acts: through creation and our encounter with it, through the acts of nurturing, mercy and justice that we experience, and especially through those miracles and wonders we are privileged to witness in our lives, if only we are open to perceiving them.
We all experience God in our own ways, and we all experience God in different ways at different points in our lives. We change, and as we do, like the Israelites, our relationship with God changes as well. In this regard, each of us has our own name, and each of us has our own name for God
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