The first parsha of the Torah uses two names for God: Elokim and Hashem. If you follow
which name appears where, the parsha splits into five parts. Each part shows a different
way that God runs the world. Tap the map and see it for yourself.
God is One. The Torah calls Him by different names to show the different ways He acts
toward the world.
Open a Chumash to the first verse. It says that Elokim created the heavens and
the earth. Turn to chapter 2, and the Torah says Hashem Elokim. In chapter 4 it
says only Hashem. Why does the name keep changing?
It is the same God. He is One and He does not change. What changes is what the Torah
wants to show us about how He is acting. Chazal (the Sages of the Mishnah and the
Gemara) gave a rule for the two main names. It appears in the Sifrei, a collection of their teachings on the book of Devarim from the time of the Mishnah:
Elokim stands for din, strict justice. Justice means exact
rules. You get exactly what you earned, no more and no less. Think of a referee. He does
not care who you are. He only checks whether you kept the rules.
Hashem stands for rachamim, mercy. Mercy means patience,
second chances, and caring about a person even when he has not earned it. Think of a
parent. A good parent has rules too, but a parent also stays with you when you break
them.
How we say these names. The name we call "Hashem" is written in the
Torah with four letters: yud, hei, vav, hei. We never say it the way it is written. The
Gemara quotes God as saying:
לֹא כְּשֶׁאֲנִי נִכְתָּב, אֲנִי נִקְרָא. נִכְתָּב אֲנִי בְּיוֹד הֵא, וְנִקְרָא אֲנִי בְּאָלֶף דָּלֶת,
"I am not read the way I am written. I am written with yud-hei, and I am read with
alef-dalet" (Gemara, Pesachim 50a).
In davening and when reading the Torah, we say the name that begins with alef-dalet. At
any other time we say Hashem, which means "the Name." For the other name, we
say Elokim with a k when we are not davening or reading from the Torah. This
page writes both names the way we say them when we learn:
ה' and
אֱלֹקִים.
Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, France, about 950 years ago) wrote the
main commentary printed in every Chumash. He uses this rule on the very first verse of
the Torah. He asks why it says Elokim and not Hashem:
"It does not say 'Hashem created.' At first God thought to create the world with the trait of justice. He saw that the world would not last, so He put the trait of mercy first and joined it to the trait of justice. That is why it says: 'on the day that Hashem Elokim made earth and heaven' (2:4)."
Rashi's idea is based on Bereishit Rabbah, the main collection of midrash (the teachings of Chazal on the verses) on the book of Bereishit. The Midrash explains it with a story about a king who had some
empty cups. He said: if I pour hot water into them, they will burst. If I pour cold
water into them, they will crack. So he mixed the hot with the cold and poured it in,
and the cups held. Then the Midrash says:
"If I create the world with the trait of mercy alone, there will be a great deal of sin. With the trait of justice alone, how could the world last? So I will create it with the trait of justice and with the trait of mercy, and I hope it lasts."
So Rashi already noticed that the name changes between chapter 1 and chapter 2. This
page keeps going. It follows the names through the whole parsha, from the first verse
to the last. The pattern that comes out has five parts.
If you learned about the sefirot. The kabbalists (the teachers of Kabbalah, the hidden part of the Torah) connect the two names
to the ten sefirot. The name Hashem goes with tiferet,
the middle sefirah, which is also called rachamim (mercy), and with the six sefirot from chesed (kindness) to yesod (foundation) as a group. The name Elokim goes with gevurah,
which is din (justice), and also with malchut (kingship). The Ramak
(Rabbi Moshe Cordovero, Tzfat, 1500s) writes:
הת"ת שמו ה' ושם המלכות אלקים,
"the name of tiferet is Hashem, and the name of malchut is Elokim" (in his book Pardes Rimonim, 20:12; see also Sha'arei Orah, Gate 5). You do not need this to follow the rest of the
page.
See it yourself
The map of the names
Parshat Bereishit has 146 verses. Each shape below is one verse, marked by the name of God
it uses. Tap any verse to read it.Here is every verse that uses a name of God, level by level.
Elokim (justice)
Hashem Elokim (both)
Hashem (mercy)
No name
Breaks the pattern
Look at the shapes from top to bottom. Solid squares. Then squares with a ring. Then
circles. Then squares again. Then circles again. The parsha changes names four times, and each time
the story changes with it.
The five levels of Parshat Bereishit
Level
Verses
Name
Times
1
1:1 to 2:3
Elokim
35
2
2:4 to 3:24
Hashem Elokim
20
3
4:1 to 4:26
Hashem
10
4
5:1 to 5:32
Elokim
5
5
6:1 to 6:8
Hashem
5
Almost nothing breaks the pattern. Press "Only the exceptions" on the map to see the
few places that do. The few exceptions are explained below.
One at a time
The five levels
Do not read the parsha only as one long story. Read it as five levels, one after the
other. In each level the Torah shows the world being run in a different way.
Many commentators explain why the Torah tells about creation twice, and why some things
seem to be out of order. This page is about something else: the names. The Torah uses
three ways of naming God in this parsha (Elokim, Hashem Elokim, and Hashem), and it
uses them across five levels.
1
Level 1: a world that runs by the rules
ElokimBereishit 1:1 to 2:3 · 35 times
The Torah opens with the six days of creation and Shabbat. In these 34 verses the
name Elokim appears 35 times. The name Hashem does not appear even once.
What does this level look like? Order. The days follow the same steps. Elokim says something. It happens. On almost every day, Elokim sees that it is good. There is evening and there is
morning. Everything is created at its time and in its place. This is what
din looks like: exact and in order.
On the sixth day, man and woman are created and blessed. Then they are told what
they may eat:
"Elokim said: I have given you every plant that makes seeds, on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that has fruit with seeds. They are yours to eat."
Every plant and every tree. In this level there is no forbidden tree, no test and no
sin. Everything does exactly what it was made to do. Near the end of the sixth day the Torah says: וַיַּרְא אֱלֹקִים אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה וְהִנֵּה־טוֹב מְאֹד, "Elokim saw
everything that He had made, and it was very good" (1:31).
2
Level 2: the same story up close, with mercy added
Hashem ElokimBereishit 2:4 to 3:24 · 20 times
Now the Torah goes back and tells about the creation of man again, with many more
details: how he was formed, the garden, the animals, the woman. Rashi explains that
this is one of the ways the Torah is written. First it makes a general statement, and
then it gives the details:
"A general statement followed by a story: the story is the details of the first statement... Someone who hears it thinks it is a different event, but it is only the details of the first."
But something changed in the retelling. The name is now Hashem Elokim:
both names together, 20 times in 46 verses. This is the change Rashi pointed to on
the first verse. God joined mercy to justice so that the world could last. The Midrash
calls the double name "a full name":
מַזְכִּיר שֵׁם מָלֵא עַל עוֹלָם מָלֵא, "He uses the full name
for a full world" (Bereishit Rabbah 13:3).
You can see both traits in the story. There is din. For the first time there
is a command with a limit and a consequence:
"Hashem Elokim commanded the man: You may eat from every tree of the garden. But from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Bad, do not eat, because on the day you eat from it you will die."
And there is rachamim. Hashem Elokim forms the man from the dust and blows
life into him (2:7). He plants a garden for him. He says that it is not good for the
man to be alone (2:18). After the man and the woman eat from the tree, there are
punishments. But first Hashem Elokim comes looking for them and asks, "Where are
you?" (3:9). And before He sends them out of the garden, He makes clothes for them
and dresses them (3:21).
Rabbi Yosef Gikatilla, a kabbalist who lived in Spain about 750 years ago, writes
this as a rule in his book Sha'arei Orah ("Gates of Light"):
בכל מקום שתמצא בתורה ה' אלקים שהוא שם מלא, וכל הדברים הנמצאים באותה פרשה שמזכיר בה ה' אלקים הם נעשים בכל המידות הנגמרות במידת הדין ובמידת הרחמים, כמו שתמצא בבריאת אדם הראשון ובדינו ובגירושיו.
"Wherever you find 'Hashem Elokim' in the Torah, it is a full name. Everything in a section that says 'Hashem Elokim' is done with all the traits together, with the trait of justice and with the trait of mercy. You find this in the creation of Adam, in his judgment and in his being sent out."
There is one place in this level where the pattern breaks: the conversation between
the snake and Chava. It has its own section below.
3
Level 3: things fall apart, and Hashem stays close
HashemBereishit 4:1 to 4:26 · 10 times
Adam and Chava are now outside the garden. They have two sons, Kayin and Hevel. Each
brother brings an offering. Hashem accepts Hevel's and not Kayin's. Kayin becomes
angry, and he kills Hevel. It is the first
murder in history, and it happens in the first family.
You might expect this chapter to use the name of strict justice. It does the
opposite. The name Elokim drops away, and the Torah uses only Hashem,
the name of mercy, 10 times.
Look at how Hashem acts in this chapter. Before the murder, He sees that Kayin is
angry and speaks to him. He tells Kayin that he can still do well, and He warns him
that sin is waiting at the door (4:6-7). After the murder, He asks, "Where is Hevel
your brother?" (4:9). Kayin is punished: he will have to wander. But when Kayin says
that his punishment is more than he can bear, Hashem gives him a sign to protect him
(4:15).
Things have become hard for Adam's family. But God is right there with them. In this
level He acts less like a judge and more like someone who is taking care of them.
What happened to Kayin in the end? The Torah does not say. Rashi explains that the
words "seven times" in 4:15 mean seven generations:
"I do not want to take revenge on Kayin now. At the end of seven generations I will take My revenge on him: Lemech, one of his descendants, will rise up and kill him."
On 4:23, Rashi brings the Midrash that tells how it happened. Lemech was blind. His
son led him, saw Kayin, thought he was an animal, and told his father
to shoot. Lemech killed Kayin by mistake. Even here there was mercy: Kayin was given
seven generations of time.
How this level ends. The last verse of the chapter is about Adam's
grandson:
That sounds like good news. Rashi explains that it was not. The Hebrew word
huchal can mean "began," but Rashi connects it to chullin, something
ordinary and not holy:
"[Huchal] means making something ordinary: calling people and idols by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, to make them into idols and to call them gods."
The Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, Spain and Egypt, about 850 years ago) begins his laws about
idolatry with the same generation:
בִימֵי אֱנוֹשׁ טָעוּ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם טָעוּת גָּדוֹל, "In the days of Enosh,
people made a great mistake" (Mishneh Torah, his code of Jewish law, Laws of Idolatry 1:1). They said that
since God gave honor to the stars, people should honor the stars too.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Germany, 1800s) looks at the name Enosh
itself. He connects it to the Hebrew words ones (forcing someone),
onesh (punishment) and anush (a sickness or pain that will not
heal). The name Adam stands for man at his best. Enosh is the name for mankind in a troubled state: people who misuse their power and make the world sick.
Rav Hirsch reads the end of the verse differently from Rashi. In his view, people now
had to start calling out the name Hashem, because it was being forgotten. And he adds
a point that fits this page. People never completely lost the idea of
Elokim: a great power that made the world and gave it order. What they lost
in the days of Enosh was the name Hashem: the knowledge that God has a close
relationship with people and expects something of them
(Rav Hirsch on Bereishit 4:26).
Rav Hirsch disagrees with Rashi here. He says the four-letter name was never given to
an idol. But in both readings the verse is bad news. In the days of Enosh, people's
connection to the name Hashem was slipping. This was the family that had been treated
with mercy, and it was the name of mercy that they let go of.
People call that biting the hand that feeds you. The damage does not show right away.
It comes back in Level 5.
There is one "Elokim" in this level, in 4:25. It is one of the
exceptions below.
4
Level 4: back to order
ElokimBereishit 5:1 to 5:32 · 5 times
Chapter 5 is a list: ten generations from Adam to Noach. Almost every entry is written
the same way. He lived this many years and had a son. He lived this many more years and
had sons and daughters. All his days were this many years, and he died. One after
another, neat and in order.
The style has gone back to Level 1, and the name goes back with it. Chapter 5 uses
Elokim. Its first verse even repeats the words of chapter 1:
When the list stops to say something special about one person, it still uses this
name: וַיִּתְהַלֵּךְ חֲנוֹךְ אֶת־הָאֱלֹקִים, "Chanoch walked
with Elokim" (5:24).
There is one "Hashem" in this level, in 5:29. It is also one of the
exceptions below.
5
Level 5: the world goes bad, and one man is saved
HashemBereishit 6:1 to 6:8 · 5 times
The last eight verses of the parsha describe the world before the Flood. People do
whatever they want, and it keeps getting worse. The name changes one more time. From
here to the end of the parsha, the Torah uses only Hashem.
Why the name of mercy, when the world is at its worst? Here is one way to understand
it. Things were so bad that Elokim, strict justice, would have had no
patience for this world at all. Only mercy could still be dealing with it. But now
even mercy sees an end:
וַיִּנָּחֶם ה' כִּי־עָשָׂה אֶת־הָאָדָם בָּאָרֶץ וַיִּתְעַצֵּב אֶל־לִבּוֹ.
"Hashem regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was pained in His heart."
The Midrash then quotes our verses, one after another: Hashem saw that the evil of
man was great (6:5). Hashem regretted (6:6). Hashem said, "I will wipe out" (6:7).
The name of mercy is the one that gives the decree.
That is the lowest point of the parsha. Then comes its last verse:
וְנֹחַ מָצָא חֵן בְּעֵינֵי ה'.
"But Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem."
Bereishit 6:8 · the last verse of the parshaSefaria
The last word of Parshat Bereishit is the name Hashem. The first name in the parsha
was Elokim. On the first verse, Rashi told us that the world could not last on
justice alone, and that God put mercy first so that it would survive. The end of the
parsha shows exactly that. When everything else had failed, it was the name Hashem
that kept the world going. Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem, and life
continued.
Look closer
One conversation without the name Hashem
From 2:4 to the end of chapter 3, the Torah says "Hashem Elokim" every time. There is
one exception: the conversation between the snake and Chava. Go through it line
by line.
The commentators noticed this long ago. Ibn Ezra (Rabbi Avraham ibn
Ezra, Spain, about 900 years ago) writes:
לא הזכיר הנחש השם הנכבד והנורא כי לא ידעו.
"The snake did not mention the glorious and awesome Name, because it did not know it."
The Radak (Rabbi David Kimchi, Provence, about 800 years ago) agrees
that the snake did not say the Name, and he adds:
וְכֵן הָאִשָּׁה לֹא הִזְכִּירָה אוֹתוֹ, "and the woman did not
mention it either" (Radak, Bereishit 3:1).
In the 1800s, Rabbi Yaakov Leiner of Izhbitz wrote in his book
Beit Yaakov:
הנה מבריאת האדם ועד כאן כתיב הוי"ה אלקים והנחש הסתיר השם הוי"ה, "From the creation of man
until here it says Hashem Elokim, and the snake hid the name Hashem" (Beit Yaakov,
Bereishit 65).
What does it mean? Here is one way to read it. The name Hashem is the name of mercy
and of closeness. The God who gave Chava one rule is the same God who made her,
planted the garden for her and gave her every other tree in it. The snake talks only
about "Elokim," and Chava answers in the same words. It is as if, by leaving out the
name of mercy, she also left behind the protection that comes with it. A few verses
later she eats.
Notice one more thing. The name was missing only from what they said. It was never
missing from the world. As soon as the conversation ends, the Torah says "Hashem
Elokim" again (3:8).
Check the map
Every place the pattern breaks
A pattern is only convincing if you also look at what does not fit. These are all of the
exceptions in the parsha. Tap a card to see it on the map.
Look at who is speaking each time. The snake. Chava. Chava again. Lemech. Every one of
these exceptions is inside something that a character in the story says. When the
Torah tells the story in its own voice, the pattern never breaks, from the first verse
of the parsha to the last.
The Torah does not explain why Chava says "Elokim" when Shet is born, or why Lemech
says "Hashem" when Noach is born. These are good questions to bring to your rebbe (your Torah teacher), or
to work on with a chavruta (a learning partner).
The last card is different. In 6:2 and 6:4 the Torah itself uses the word
elohim, but Rashi explains that it is not a name of God there. He gives two
explanations. This is the first, with the rule he states at the end:
In his second explanation, they were officers of heaven who were sent by God. Either
way, Rashi says, the word here means someone with authority.
The takeaway
What do we learn from this?
Four things to take with you.
1
The parsha has levels.
Parshat Bereishit is not only one story told in a straight line. It has five
levels. In each one the Torah shows the world being run in a different way: by
the rules, by rules and mercy together, by mercy, by the rules again, and by
mercy again.
2
The world cannot last on strict justice alone.
Rashi says this on the first verse of the Torah. The parsha shows it in its last
verse. What saves the world is that Noach found favor in the eyes of Hashem.
3
Mercy does not mean that nothing matters.
In Level 3 people were treated with mercy, and they ended up letting go of the name of mercy itself. In Level 5 the Midrash says the wicked "turn the trait of mercy
into the trait of justice." The same Midrash says the opposite about good people:
אַשְׁרֵיהֶם הַצַּדִּיקִים שֶׁהֵן הוֹפְכִים מִדַּת הַדִּין לְמִדַּת רַחֲמִים, "Happy are the
righteous, who turn the trait of justice into the trait of mercy" (Bereishit
Rabbah 33:3).
4
How you talk about God matters.
The snake's first move was to leave one name out, and Chava followed. The Torah's
own voice in that chapter never drops the name Hashem. When you think about God,
keep both names. The One who gives the rules is also the One who cares about
you.
Test yourself
Which name?
Six verses. Pick the name the Torah uses in each one. Which name does the Torah use in each one?
Question 1 of 6
FAQ
Common questions
Short answers, with sources.
What is the difference between Hashem and Elokim?
They are two names for the same God. Chazal teach that the name Hashem stands for the
trait of mercy (rachamim) and the name Elokim stands for the trait of
justice (din) (Sifrei Devarim 26; Bereishit Rabbah 33:3). The Torah uses the
name that fits how God is acting in that verse.
Why do people say "Hashem" and "Elokim" and not the names as they are written?
The four-letter name is never said the way it is written (Pesachim 50a). In davening
and Torah reading we say the name that begins with alef-dalet, and at other times we
say Hashem, which means "the Name." Out of respect, many people also change one
letter of the other name when they are not davening or reading from the Torah, and
say Elokim with a k.
How many times does each name appear in Parshat Bereishit?
The parsha has 146 verses. "Elokim" by itself appears 35 times in the first account
of creation (1:1 to 2:3), 4 times in the conversation with the snake (3:1 to 3:5),
once in 4:25 and 5 times in chapter 5. "Hashem Elokim" appears 20 times, all between
2:4 and 3:24. "Hashem" by itself appears 10 times in chapter 4, once in 5:29 and 5
times in 6:3 to 6:8. The word elohim also appears twice in the phrase "sons
of elohim" (6:2 and 6:4), where Rashi's first explanation is rulers and judges. You can count
them yourself on the map.
Why does the Torah tell the creation of man twice?
Rashi (Bereishit 2:8) explains that this is one of the ways the Torah is written:
first a general statement, then a story that fills in the details. Chapter 1 says in
general that man was created. Chapter 2 goes back and tells how. Someone who hears it
might think it is a different event, but it is the details of the first.
Where does Rashi say the world was created with justice and mercy?
On the first verse of the Torah (Rashi, Bereishit 1:1). The verse says Elokim, the
name of justice. Rashi explains that God first thought to create the world with
justice alone, saw that it would not last, and put mercy first and joined it to
justice. That is why 2:4 says Hashem Elokim. The idea comes from Bereishit Rabbah 12:15.
Does "sons of elohim" in Bereishit 6:2 mean sons of God?
Rashi's first explanation is that it means the sons of the rulers and the judges. He adds that the
Hebrew word elohim is used in Tanach for anyone with authority. For example,
God tells Moshe that he will be an "elohim" to Pharaoh (Shemot 7:1).
Who killed Kayin?
The Torah does not say. Rashi (Bereishit 4:23), quoting the Midrash, says it was
Lemech, Kayin's descendant. Lemech was blind. His son led him, saw Kayin, thought he was an animal and told his father to shoot. Rashi (4:15) explains
that Kayin's punishment had been pushed off for seven generations.
Based on a dvar Torah by Rav Gedaliah Gurfein for Parshat Bereishit 5787. The verses are the Masoretic text, and
the other Hebrew texts are from Sefaria.
English renderings and explanations are Torah Tech originals, and any mistakes are ours.
This page is for learning. It is not a halachic ruling and it is not a course in Kabbalah.
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