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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 (over 1 year 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.