Welcome to the Judaism community on Codidact!
Will you help us build our community of learners? Drop into our study hall, ask questions, help others with answers to their questions, share a d'var torah if you're so inclined, invite your friends, and join us in building this community together. Not an ask-the-rabbi service, just people at all levels learning together.
Post History
Forgive my ignorance; I am not Jewish but interested in Judaism, and know a bit of Biblical Hebrew. I'm confused about the term Baal Shem. I'm assuming Shem refers to God's name, as in HaShem. But...
#1: Initial revision
by
Keelan
·
2023-05-22T15:18:16Z (11 months ago)
Why is it Baal Shem and not Baal HaShem?
Forgive my ignorance; I am not Jewish but interested in Judaism, and know a bit of Biblical Hebrew. I'm confused about the term [_Baal Shem_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_Shem). I'm assuming *Shem* refers to God's name, as in *HaShem*. But assuming standard Biblical Hebrew rules for construct chains, *Baal Shem* translates to '**a** master of **a** name'. I would expect *Baal HaShem* to refer to someone who can work miracles by interacting with God. As far as I know (I may very well be mistaken) it is not common to refer to God by simply *Shem*, only *HaShem*. Similarly, I would expect *Baal HaShem HaTov* rather than [*Baal Shem Tov*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baal_Shem_Tov). Alternatively, I can imagine that *Shem* does not refer to God's name but to 'reputation', so that a *Baal Shem* is a 'master of reputation', i.e. a 'master *with* reputation', and *Baal Shem Tov* would be the 'good master with reputation' or a 'master with good reputation' (depending on which noun *Tov* agrees with). But I have not found sources to corroborate this alternative etymology.