For My Name is in Him

For My Name is in Him
By
James Scott Trimm

Who is the Angel of whom YHWH says "For My Name is in Him"?

Our Torah says:

20 Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by The Way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21 Take heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; be not rebellious against him: for he will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in him.
22 But if you shall indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak: then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries.
(Ex. 23:20-22 HRV)

Rabbi Behaye writes of these verses:

"This Angel is not one of those (created) intelligences, which can sin, of whom it is said (Job 4:18), 'His Angels He charged with folly,' and this folly (appeared) when they assumed to themselves the power, that they were destroying Sodom (Gen 19:13) (lit., in the case of Sodom, when they said, 'We are destroying'). But this Angel is one of the Inherent Ones" (according to the opinion of Tanchum - a high authority).

"For He will not pardon your transgressions." Because He belongs to that class of Beings which cannot sin, yea, He is Metatron, the Prince of His (Elohim's) countenance, and therefore it is said: "to keep thee in the way." The Targum translates keeping (משמרת) with guard (מטרת), so that Metatron (מטטרון) signifies a guard (or watchman) which (office) expresses His attribute of justice; thus He says, "before thy face"; as the expression occurs (Hab 3:5), "Before His face went the pestilence, and burning coals (burning death) went forth at His feet."

And He says, Mine ANGEL; by which He would say, Mine ANGEL, who is my beloved One, through whom I am made known in the world, and concerning whom it is written (Exo 33:14), "My presence (lit., face or express image) shall go with thee."

When Moses begged of Elohim, saying (v 13), "Show me now Thy way," he besought from Him something (a revelation of one of His attributes) by which he might know Him, and He replied: "My presence shall go"; (this presence or countenance, an express image) is He of whom it is written, (Isa 63:9), "The Angel of His countenance saved them," namely, the Angel who is Elohim's countenance; therefore He said (Exo 23:22), "I will be an adversary to thine adversaries through Him," and He adds (v 23), "And I will cut them off"; because on account of His attribute of justice are His enemies cut off.

With reference to His being called Angel, you will know that He is not one of those created intelligences, because the world is governed by Him, for He is the very entity of justice.

It is said: "Beware of Him" (lit., beware from before His countenance), for, on account of the justice of Elohim, man ought to watch himself that he be not punished for his sins; thus He mentions with reference to Him (this Angel) "Watching" and "countenance."*

"Obey His voice." There is a warning that they should not vex the INHERENT ONES in the Godhead, therefore there is immediately added: "Provoke Him not," which words our Rabbis of blessed memory have explained: "Do not provoke Me in Him," but let him bear in mind that all are One, and all are the only One Elohim, without being divided.

"For He will not pardon your transgressions." Although this Angel has power to forgive sins, and the power of pardon is delivered into His hand, yet He will not pardon your sins, if you provoke Him; because whoever provokes Him, provokes My Name, that is, provokes Elohim in Him. When David, of blessed memory, said, : "But there is forgiveness with thee," (Psalm 130:4 our Rabbis of blessed memory were of opinion, that such power to forgive sin is not delivered to any of the created intelligences.
(Rabbeinu Behaye (Bahya ben Asher ibn Halawa) Commentary on Ex. 23:20-22)

* The meaning is: Watch thyself not to fall into sin, because this Angel is the express image of Elohim's countenance; Elohim's attributes are revealed in Him.

Rabbi Behaye draws the identification of this "angel" of whom the Torah says "my name is in him" with Metatron from the Talmud:

Once a Min said to Rabbi Idit:
"It is written: And unto Moses He [YHWH] said
"Come up unto YHWH"(Ex. 24:1)
But surely it should have stated:
"…Come up unto Me!"
"It was Metatron [who was speaking,]" he replied,
"Whose name is similar to that of his Master, for it is written:
"For my name is in him" (Ex. 23:21).
(b.Sanhedrin 38b)

In this portion of the Talmud Rabbi Idit is debating with a Min... but what is a Min? Min is the singular form fo MINIM. The fourth Century "Church Father" Jerome writes of the Nazarenes:

Today there still exists among the Jews in all the synagogues of the East a heresy which is called that of the Minæans (1), and which is still condemned by the Pharisees; [its followers] are ordinarily called 'Nazarenes'; they believe that Messiah, the son of God, was born of the Virgin Miriam, and they hold him to be the one who suffered under Pontius Pilate and ascended to heaven, and in whom we also believe."
(Jerome; Letter 75 Jerome to Augustine)

"Minæans" apparently Latinized from Hebrew MINIM (singular is MIN) a word which in modern Hebrew means "apostates" but was originally an acronym for a Hebrew phrase meaning "Believers in Yeshua the Nazarene".

So Rabbi Idit was debating with a Nazarene.

According to the Tanak the speaker here is YHWH (Ex. 20:1) and according to the Targum the speaker is "The Word [Memra] of YHWH" (Targ. Ex. 20:1). This is the YHWH, which Rabbi Idit identifies in the Talmud as "Metatron." Thus Metatron is the Word of YHWH and the other YHWH in such passages.

Now the Karaite author Kirkisani had a different reading in his copy of this Talmud passage. His copy had R. Idith saying "This is Metatron, who is the Lesser YHWH (YHWH HaQaton)" Thus "The Word of YHWH" or "Metatron" was also known to ancient Judaism as "YHWH HaQaton" the Lesser YHWH.

The Zohar also tells us that Metatron is the "Middle Pillar of the Godhead" and that this "Middle Pillar" is "the Son of Yah":

The Middle Pillar [of the godhead] is Metatron,
Who has accomplished peace above? According to the glorious state there.
(Zohar 3:227)

Better is a neighbor that is near, than a brother far off.
This neighbor is the Middle Pillar in the Godhead, which is the Son of Yah.
(Zohar 2:115)

Concerning this, too, it is written: “Let there be light, and there was light” (Gen. I, 3). Why, it may be asked, was it necessary to repeat the word “light” in this verse? The answer is that the first “light” refers to the primordial light which is of the Right Hand, and is destined for the “end of days”; while the second “light” refers to the Left Hand, which issues from the Right. The next words, “And God saw the light that it was good” (Gen. 1, 4), refer to the pillar which, standing midway between them, unites both sides, and therefore when the unity of the three, right, left, and middle, was complete, “it was good”, since there could be no completion until the third had appeared to remove the strife between Right and Left, as it is written, “And Elohim separated between the light and between the darkness” (Ibid.).
(Zohar 2:167a)

This is the Middle Pillar: Ki Tov (that it was good) threw light above and below and on all other sides, in virtue of YHWH, the name which embraces all sides.
(Zohar 1:16b)


The Middle Pillar is the Ki Tov (That which is good), the light, and the Son of Yah.

The fact that the Son of Yah is the Middle Pillar, the light that is called in Genesis “Ki Tov” (That which is good) helps us to understand Yeshua’s exchange with the man who called him “Good Rabbi”, as we read:

16 And behold, one came near, and said to Him, Good Rabbi, and what good thing shall I do, that I may acquire the life of the world to come?
17 And He said to him: Why ask you me concerning what is good? There is none good but one: there is a good, and that is El. And if you desire to enter into the life of the world to come: keep the commandments of El.
(Matthew 19:16-17 HRV)

Messiah was acknowledging that this man was identifying him rightly as the Ki Tov, the Middle Pillar of the Godhead, the Son of Yah, the only begotten.

Now let us seek to understand the process whereby the light was “begotten”. The Zohar tells us much more:

(1) And Elohim said Let there be light, and there was light (Gen 1:3).
(2) From here is the beginning for finding treasures, how the world was created in particular.
(3) For until now, it was general, and it then returns to speaking in general terms so that it will be general, specific, general.
(4) Until now everything was suspended in the air by the secret of Ayn Sof.
(5) Once its power spread into the upper temple, the secret of Elohim, ‘utterance’ is written, “And Elohim said,” for above utterance is not written in particular, even though “In the beginning” is an utterance, it does not say, “and He said.”
(Zohar 1:16b)

The Zohar is saying that up until this point the Torah has given only generalities but not specifics as to how the world was created. In addition there is a double meaning in the actual Aramaic, that up until this point the universe had only a general existence without specific parts. The text points out that the first statement in the Torah “In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth…” although it is not preceded by the words “And Elohim said” is still regarded as a creative utterance. (The tradition of the Zohar is that the universe was created by ten utterances, each corresponding to the ten sefirot. While the phrase “He said” appears only nine times in the creation account, the first phrase of Torah is said to be an utterance as well).

The Zohar continues:

(6) This, “and He said,” establishes questions and knowledge.
(7) “And He said,” a power that was raised and lifted up silently, from the mystery of Ayn Sof, in the mystery of thought.
(8) “And he said,” now the temple begat, of that which she conceived from the holy seed, and she begat silently, and that which was begotten was heard from without, and the one giving birth gave birth silently and was not heard at all; once that which went forth from it went forth, a voice was made that was heard from without.
(9) “Let there be light.” Everything that emerged went forth by this mystery.
(Zohar 1:16b)

Here we are told just how the light was begotten. A power was raised and lifted up silently from within the very mind of Ayn Sof (the Infinite One) as a “holy seed” into the heavenly Temple from which it was begotten.

Like Yochanan, the Zohar tells us that everything (all creation) came into existence through this “light” which was begotten.

The Zohar continues:

(10) Yehi (יהי) (let there be) concerns the mystery of the Father and Mother symbolized by the letters Yod He became now a starting-point (symbolized by the second Yod) for further extension.
(Zohar 1:16b)

Here we are told that the Hebrew word Yehi (יהי) “let there be” points to the mystery of the begetting of the light. The first two letters spell YAH יה and consist of the letters yud י and heh ה. We are told that these two letters represent the Father and the Mother, and that the second yud י represents the light which was the starting point of creation.

So now when you read the first fourteen verses of Yochanan you will understand what it means when it identifies the Messiah as the “light” and as the “only begotten” and says that “Everything existed through Him, and without Him, not even one thing existed of that which existed.” Just as the Zohar tells us that “Everything that emerged went forth by this mystery.”

Messiah is the Son of Yah, the only begotten, the Ki Tov, the light, the Middle Pillar of the Godhead, and everything which emerged in creation went forth through Him.

Now there is something even more amazing. According to a tradition preserved in the Zohar, these verses:

20 Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by The Way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared.
21 Take heed of him, and hearken unto his voice; be not rebellious against him: for he will not pardon your transgression, for My Name is in him.
22 But if you shall indeed hearken unto his voice, and do all that I speak: then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries.
(Ex. 23:20-22 HRV)

point us back to Exodus 14:19-21:

19 And the angel of Elohim, who went before the camp of Yisra’el, removed, and went behind them. And the pillar of cloud removed from before them, and stood behind them.
20 And it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Yisra’el. And there was the cloud and the darkness here, yet gave it light by night there: and the one came not near the other all the night.
21 And Moshe stretched out his hand over the sea. And YHWH caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
(Ex. 14:19-21)

Each of these three verses in Ex. 14:19-21 has exactly seventy two letters. According to the Zohar (Zohar 2:51b), if we write these three verses down "as the ox plows", that is writing the first line right to left, then the second line left to right and then the third line right to left again, then they line up with seventy two three letter names. These seventy two words are said to be what is called throughout the Zohar "The Seventy Two Word Name of Elohim" which the Zohar considers one of the most sacred Names of Elohim. And that in this way this "Angel of Elohim" literally has ELohim's Seventy Two Word Name in Him (Hidden in the verses that speak of the Angel of Elohim that went before them in the wilderness.

But now we know that this Angel of Elohim that went before Israel in the wilderness, was none other than the Son of Yah, the Middle Pillar of the Godhead, our Messiah! And now we know that when the Zohar speaks of the Seventy Two Word Name of Elohim, it is also speaking of our Messiah. And we know that a Nazarene was debating and discussing this wonderful truth with Rabbi Idit in the Talmud!