Aligned sentence by sentence
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Part One · Chapter Sixty-Four — The Shem Hashem and Kavod Hashem: Three Senses Each
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Know that shem Hashem (the Name of God) sometimes means only the nominal designation itself — as in 'Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain' (Ex 20:7) and 'one who blasphemes the name of the Lord' (Lev 24:16); and this is more than can be enumerated. Sometimes it means His essence, exalted be He, and His truth — as in 'and they say to me, What is His name?' (Ex 3:13). And sometimes it means His word, exalted be He, such that our saying 'the Name of the Lord' is as if we had said 'the Word of the Lord' or 'the Command of the Lord' — as He said: 'for My name is in his midst' (Ex 23:21), meaning: My word is in his midst, or My command is in his midst; the meaning being that he acts according to My will and My command. And we shall explain the discourse on the equivocity of the word malakh (angel).
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Likewise, kevod Hashem (the Glory of God) sometimes means the created light that God places in a location as an act of exaltation in the manner of a miraculous sign — 'and the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it' (Ex 24:16) etc.; and 'the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle' (Ex 40:34). Sometimes it means His essence, exalted be He, and His truth — as He said: 'Show me, I pray thee, Thy glory' (Ex 33:18); and the reply came: 'for no human shall see Me and live' (Ex 33:20) — indicating that the glory spoken of there is His essence. And his saying 'Thy glory' is a form of exaltation, as we explained regarding 'What is His name?' (Ex 3:13). And sometimes kevod means the exaltation of God by all people — indeed by all things other than He, exalted be He; for the true exaltation of Him is the apprehension of His greatness: so everyone who apprehends His greatness and perfection exalts Him according to the measure of his apprehension. And the human being in particular exalts through words — to indicate what he has apprehended with his intellect and to proclaim it to others. And what has no apprehension — such as inanimate things — they exalt as well, in that they indicate by their very nature the power of their Maker and His wisdom; and that becomes a cause for exaltation by whoever considers them, whether he speaks with his tongue or does not speak, if he is among those to whom speech is not applicable. Hebrew has broadened this to apply to this meaning the language of speech, and it is said of what has no apprehension that it 'praises' and 'says' — 'All my bones shall say: Lord, who is like unto Thee?' (Ps 35:10) — going beyond their being the cause of this belief, treating them as if they had said it, since through them and for their sake this is also known. And based on calling this meaning kavod, it was said: 'The whole earth is full of His glory' (Isa 6:3) — equivalent to 'and His praise fills the earth' (Hab 3:3); for praise is called kavod, as it was said: 'Ascribe to the Lord your God glory' (Jer 13:16), and it was said: 'and in His temple everything says glory' (Ps 29:9); and much comes from this. Understand this equivocity of kavod as well, and interpret it in every place according to its context — and you will be freed of a great perplexity.