hmm, never noticed that before

[cellio]

The torah uses different names for God in different places, with the most common being Elo[k]im and the tetragramaton (yud - hey - vav - hey). When I've been paying attention they've been distinct -- the first creation story is the E-name, the revelation at Sinai is the Y-name, and so on.

In preparing this week's portion (specifically the binding of Yitzchak) I've noticed something odd. The God who commands Avraham to sacrifice his son is the E-name, and Avraham uses that name when he tells Yitzchak that God will provide the sacrificial animal (there's some nice ambiguity here, but that's a tangent). Then, when the angel intervenes, it's suddenly an angel of the Y-name, and Avraham names the place "awe of Y-name".

Is the mingling of these two names in a single passage common and I haven't been paying enough attention? Is it uncommon but random/not meaningful? Uncommon but meaningful in some way?

Comments

Leaving the documentary hypothesis aside

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

In traditional Jewish exegesis, the E-name is used for the aspect of Judgment, the Tetragramaton used for the aspect of Mercy.

Mingling is infrequent, but not terribly remarkable. It is even more frequent if one includes the tradition of reading a double "adonai, adonai" as "adonai elohim." NB: We don't do this for the 13 attributes, but we do it fairly consistently elsewhere.

Re: Leaving the documentary hypothesis aside

[530nm330hz.livejournal.com]

We don't do it in the 13 attributes because the text there is [tetragrammaton] [tetragrammaton]. What you're referring to is that when the tetragrammaton immediately follows the literal word Adonai we substitute Elohim as the k'ri for the tetragrammaton.

Re: Leaving the documentary hypothesis aside

[cellio]

Thanks.

Are there places other than the 13 attributes where that repetition occurs? (Or did you mean "adonai [name]" as 530nm330hz suggests?)