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In Shmuel Aleph, when Shmuel becomes a Navi, he runs to Eli each time Hashem comes to him thinking it is Eli not Hashem. After the fourth time Eli realizes it is Hashem and tells Shmuel (in paraphrase) that the next time he is called to say "Hashem your servant is listening". When it actually happens that Hashem calls Shmuel leaves out the word Hashem and just says "your servant in listening".

Many commentaries give the reason why this is so, but I am not interested in that as much as, aside from the book of Esther, are there any other places in Tanach where Hashem's name is missing?

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    The case of Esther and this case are different. Here, the context clearly calls for Hashem's name to be there and it is left out. (Shmuel should have used it and he didn't.) In Esther, Hashem simply never comes up; the context never calls for it. Esther is written from a purely human natural perspective. With that in mind, what kind of cases are you looking for? – jake Nov 22 '11 at 16:16
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    Cases like Shmuel's, not Esther's. I was trying to avoid the Esther answer by mentioning it. – morah hochman Nov 22 '11 at 16:22
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Gen. 1:5 states:

ויקרא א-להים לאור יום, ולחשך קרא לילה

"G-d called the light 'day', and the darkness He called 'night.'"

So the name of Hashem is omitted in the second half of the verse. This leads R. Elazar to comment (Bereishis Rabbah 3:6) that "G-d does not associate His name with evil, only with good."

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Eliezer is praying when Rivka approaches.

When he recaps the story to her family, he says "I was still meditating (or speaking to my heart)", they may not have understood "prayer", but they understood "meditation."

Note that the entire book of Shir HaShirim has only a half-mention of G-d's name, "shalhevetya" can mean either "its flame" or "a G-dly flame."

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  • Shalhevesyah can also mean "an intense flame" IIRC. – msh210♦ Nov 22 '11 at 17:35
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    @msh210, okay; and "G-dly" can simply mean "great." (I've heard native English speakers speak of "a God-awful smell") – Shalom Nov 22 '11 at 18:01
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    There's also the mentions of Shlomo, though, which Rashi (from the Midrash) says refer to Hashem, "the King to whom all peace belongs." (Although I suppose then you could say the same about the "hamelech"s in Esther, and indeed also the "Achashverosh"es, the latter of which also symbolizes אחרית וראשית שלו.) – Alex Nov 22 '11 at 20:48
  • @Alex The "shlomo"s I think are stronger than "hamelech" as they are associated with God much earlier. See rambam yesodei 6:9 – Double AA♦ Jan 12 '12 at 6:48

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