וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֜ה אֶל־הָֽאֱלֹהִ֗ים הִנֵּ֨ה אָנֹכִ֣י בָא֮ אֶל־בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵל֒ וְאָמַרְתִּ֣י לָהֶ֔ם אֱלֹהֵ֥י אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֖ם שְׁלָחַ֣נִי אֲלֵיכֶ֑ם וְאָֽמְרוּ־לִ֣י מַה־שְּׁמ֔וֹ מָ֥ה אֹמַ֖ר אֲלֵהֶֽם׃ (יד) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃

(13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers’ [house] has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is [God’s] name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,” continuing, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh sent me to you.’”

Exodus 3:13-14

Discussion Questions

1. Where could queer women be “hiding” in the passage?
2. How does accounting for queer women impact the meaning of the text?
3. What are the broader implications of this passage and its commentary?

Supplementary Material

The Gemara proceeds to discuss the promise of redemption from Egypt that God made to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked God what to say when Israel asks him God’s name, “and God said to Moses: ‘I will be that I will be,’ and He said: ‘Thus you will say unto the children of Israel: I will be has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). The Holy One, Blessed be He, told Moses to go and tell Israel: I was with you in this enslavement, and in this redemption, and I will be with you in the enslavement of the kingdoms in the future. Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, it is enough for them to endure. Let the future suffering be endured at its appointed time. There is no need to mention their future enslavement. The Holy One, Blessed be He, agreed with Moses and said to him: Go and tell the children of Israel only that, “I will be has sent me to you.”

Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 9b:6-7

And from there the Snahedrin knew 70 languages, which they are the 70 faces (interpretations) of the Torah. Because they are 70 languages from the side of the evil kingdom, (and) all of them are separate (unrelated languages). That is what it is written (Genesis 10:5): From these the maritime nations split up. in their lands, to their languages (Translators note: the Zoher uses here a different text for the verse than the traditional text), all of these 70 languages are are in separation from each other. However, in the Torah, they are 70 faces to Torah (study), in a single language.

Zohar 3:20a:4-5

This midrash [of Adam naming God “Adonoy” or “Lord”] is a recognition that it is we humans who need to assert the lordship of God. Y-H-V-H, the true name of the One, has nothing to do with mastery or domination. It is a name that bespeaks the utter oneness, rather than the hierarchical ordering, of existence. Only when humans enter the scene, with their own needs for both domination and submission, does the name Y-H-V-H need to be replaced by “Lord.” This is our act, a projection onto the One of the ordering found in human society.

Rabbi Arthur Green, Seek My Face, Speak My Name

Commentary

Rachel Session (August 2021)

Earth

– the phrasing “God of your fathers” implicitly erases everyone else
– But the phrase Israelites doesn’t
– As women who don’t fit traditional gender roles we may relate more to our fathers than our mothers
-everyone has a fathers
-implies that in the past HaShem has only been the God of men but is now the god of everyone
-however women have done the heavy lifting in continuing the line
– There is a recognition that the use of masculine for divine and the choice of name is based on Moses more than anything
-there is a queer aspect to having multiple names for different situations

– If there were no pronouns the speech would be totally un-gendered
– the gender here feels less set in stone than the torah selection
-the awareness of future enslavement is interest
-awareness of the constantness of oppression speaks to queer women experience

– submission and domination innately human, not divine, and not inherently gendered

Fire

god is a verb
different names for different situations, choosing own names – common practices in queer/trans spaces
not giving the whole story or letting people know the extent of pain because the fullness of it is too much for others to bear
some parts of the group don’t get to know someone’s entire experience of suffering because other people will think it’s “too much” or make it weird
compartmentalization of names, experiences, is a very queer and trans experience

Air

“this speaks to my language of g-d, not he or she, but they. 1, there’re always multifaceted dimensions to g-d, so they seems better to me. 2, thinking about why can’t g-d be multi gender in a way? if we are saying father g-d, as someone who’s coming from a caribbean background, if you say g-d is a provider, caretaker, these are motherly aspects, and then thinking about being the voice of reason, wanting you to do better, which some people attribute to fatherly aspects… if g-d is doing it all, why not use they?”

changing the pronouns is more all encompassing, if we think about when we welcome in the sabbath bride, it’s this other aspect of g-d being more than one gender

70 faces/interpretation/languages of the torah, which is a part of g-d, so touching on that multifaceted dimension, that would then be 70 interpretations of gender of g-d.
and because more than 70 people are now reading the torah, you have even more unlimited faces/interpretations/languages/genders/dimensions

taking away hierarchy, which is so often automatically inserted/added on, and instead focusing on oneness. that has a queer energy to it

Water

As others have mentioned, God is saying that they are the very concept of being (God as a verb). God is revealed through existence, we are involved in the process by being ourselves. The very queer thing of renaming oneself, having multiple names is so powerful.

Spirit

“…and God said to Moses: ‘I will be that I will be..’ This appears to be an evolving future orientation, which is akin to the future orientation of Queerness. It makes me feel like there’s space for a Queer orientation for the world to exist in Judiasm. There’s space for Queer women’s interpretation of Torah based on how G-d identifies themself.