[Avodah] City named after G-d

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 02:54:48AM +0000, kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:
: On the one hand, one could argue that it is merely part of the name
: of the place. On the other hand, it sure *looks* like G-d's name, given
: that it is spelled the same, is pronounced the same, and truth to tell,
: the place *was* named after Him.

: (Disclaimer: I must admit that beyond my curiosity, I do have an
: ulterior motive for asking this question. Namely: If "Beis El" is a new
: name and therefore chol, then there is certainly no problem with new
: names like Yisrael and Eliyahu, despite what some people might think.)

Or Sholom?

Beis-El is a hyphenated word, there is consistantly (AFAIK) a maqaf
between the tav and the alef. I'm not sure it's really different than
Shemu'el.

But I have a feeling Beis-El is actually named for AZ. It was called
Beis-El back when Avraham moved between it and Ai (Ber' 12:8). El was a
Canaanite god, so the name needn't have come from one of the Avos. As
for what the Avos called it, Avraham (ibid) "vayiqra besheim Hashem",
perhaps in contrast to El, like the way Bas-Par'oh renamed herself
Biyah. But it's again Beis-El when Yaaqov gets there (35:1). However,
then we are told "vayavo Yaaqov Luzah .. hi Beis-El" (v. 6) and then
Yaaqov renames it (v. 7) "Beis-El" (see Rashi, who uses parallels in
other pesuqim to show that "E-l Beis-El" doesn't consitute the name of
the place), but in (v. 14), the monument is consecrated in a place he
then again names "Beis El".

So what's going on? Yaaqov renamed Luz "Beis-El", and the other references
were al ha'asid? Or did he rededicate a site committed to the Kenaani
god El over to HQBH? (The latter would explains Yer'avam's choice of that
site for his cult.)

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where
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