holy nick/name: יָה yah

*Note from the author: A milestone on my g?d journey was making the decision to use the form “G!D” in my mind-twenties. I believe I first saw the “!” variant in the book “Jewish with Feeling” by Rabbi Zalman Schechter-Shalomi. To me, it felt like a small explosion, blasting open a calcified word and allowing the world back in. In my early thirties, I transitioned to the question mark. It feels like mystery, like embracing the fact that there is so much we cannot express in words about Divine experiences. 

Jewish tradition is full of nicknames for g?d. The siddur is full of descriptions, praises, and prayers. We are the people of the book. Our foundational story is of a world created by words. 

Well, the first creation story is about creating with words. 

But the second creation story uses breath:

Genesis 2:7

And YHWH g?d formed the human,  of dust from the ground;  g?d blew into his nostrils the breath of life  and the human became a living being. [translation by Everett Fox]

וַיִּיצֶר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהִים אֶת־הָאָדָם  עָפָר מִן־הָאֲדָמָה  וַיִּפַּח בְּאַפָּיו נִשְׁמַת חַיִּים  וַיְהִי הָאָדָם לְנֶפֶשׁ חַיָּה׃

It is g?d’s breath that gives human beings life.

What a beautiful metaphor for the spark of the divine in each of us. Like breath, it is shared with all life and shares a source. Like breath, it animates us, even when we are not paying attention. Like breath, bringing our awareness to it can animate the present moment. 

What else does this metaphor call to mind for you?

That animation, that alive-ness, can be seen in the root connection of neshama, soul, with neshimah, breath. 

In the opening of the morning service, we are invited to remember our innate holiness:

My Holy One, the soul/breath you have given me is holy

אֱלֹהַי נְשָׁמָה שֶׁנָּתַֽתָּ בִּי טְהוֹרָה הִיא

No matter how far we stray, we can always come back to the breath, back to our divine spark. [Perhaps that’s why our word for repentance, teshuvah, really means return. We are not trying to fix a broken self, but return to the source that is always there.] 

In psalm 150, the last in the book of psalms (also found in morning liturgy), we sing:

May all-that-breathes praise Yah. Praise-Yah!

כֹּל הַנְּשָׁמָה תְּהַלֵּל יָהּ. הַלְלוּיָהּ

Here we see another nickname for Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey: Yud-Hey, pronounced “yah.” It appears here both alone and with “hallelu-yah.” 

Yah appears first in Tanach in the song of the sea:

Exodus 15:2

My strength and the song-of-Yah will be my salvation

עׇזִּי וְזִמְרָת יָהּ וַיְהִי־לִי לִישׁוּעָה

How to translate Yah? Searching through many translations, “Lord” and “God” were used, but most kept it in English as Yah. 

Maybe Yah isn’t meant to be a nickname for g?d in translation, but in sound. 

Take a deep breath and let out a “yah” on the outbreath. You don’t need much vocalization. Just a little “yah.” 

Yah is, perhaps, breath. Not the word “breath,” but the breath itself. Like breath, the divine is experienced. Like breath, the divine is near impossible to put into words. 

Sometimes, the words get in the way. Yah invites us back to the breath. 

Breath is one of the pathways into mindfulness. Bringing awareness to the breath can help quiet our thoughts and put us back in our bodies, placing us in the here and now. 

Take a few mindful breaths. You can deliberately slow your inbreath and outbreath, or just bring a gentle attention to the natural pattern of your breath. 

What do you notice? What do you feel?

When our minds get too loud, and the worry of the past and the future become a burden, Yah invites us to return to the breath. If the words of the siddur become overwhelming, or hard to say, or get in the way, Yah invites us to go beyond words. Yah reminds us that just the act of breathing, or being breathed, is an experience and naming of the divine. Let every breath be a praise of all-that-is. HalleluYAH! 

Eliana Light is cultivating a more connected world by making the urgent spiritual wisdom of Jewish liturgy and prayer practice (t’fillah) accessible and meaningful through her prayer leadership, consulting, teaching, and the Light Lab, a center for t’fillah education.  Eliana has shared her unique “t’fillahsophy” as faculty at national Jewish education and songleading conferences, as a guest teacher at Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Academy for Jewish Religion, and Limmud, and at synagogues, day schools, camps, and communities across North America. ORAH HI, her fourth album of playful, thoughtful original Jewish music, was released in fall 2023. (And her fifth album, “Eliana Rhymes (About Jewish Times)” will be out this fall!)  In 2023, she was awarded the Covenant Foundation’s Pomegranate Prize and is the 2025 Covenant Foundation Family Education Fellow. Eliana earned her Masters in Jewish Experiential Education from JTS in 2016 and is based in Durham, NC.