Nefesh HaChaim נפש החיים

However, to understand why He specifically stated “in the image of God-Elohi”m” and not some other name, it is because the meaning of the name Elohi”m is well understood, that it implies that He (blessed be His name) is the Master of All Powers, as explained in the Toor, Orakh Chayyim, siman 5.

The matter of why He (blessed be He) is called “Master of All Powers,” is because the attributes of the Holy One (blessed be He) are not like those of flesh and blood. For man, when he builds a structure (for example: of wood), the builder doesn’t create and materialize the wood from his own powers; rather, he takes pre-existing lumber and organizes it into a structure. After he completes arranging it according to his will, if he ceases his efforts and departs, the structure still persists.

In contrast, He (blessed be His name), as during the time when all of the worlds were created, created and materialized them ex nihilo, with His infinite powers. So it continues since then, every day and truly every moment: all of the powers that make them exist, structure them and sustain them are dependent only on what He (blessed be He) impresses upon them via His will at each moment, via the power and the influence of newly created light. And if He (blessed be He) removed the power of His influence for even one moment, in that moment everything would revert to nothingness and chaos.

And as the Notables of the Great Assembly canonized in the blessing of “forms the light”: “He constantly renews the act of Creation.” [*] The specific term used is “constantly,” to denote every instant and moment, and the proof is explained in what is written (Tehillim 136:7): “to the One who actualizes the great luminaries.” It wasn’t written as “actualized” but rather as “actualizes.”

Annotation: Even if the renewal is not apparent to the eye. Truly, the four supernal elements, they who are the ancient roots, the precursors of all—as is written in the Zohar (Va-eira 23b) that they are the root of all the events associated with creation and their inner aspect—and they are the four letters of the YHV”H (blessed be He). Their combining and assembling at every moment and instant in their root of roots is not perceived at all, and He (blessed be His name) renews them in every instant according to His will.

And the matter of their combining in every instant, they are the one-thousand and eighty permutations of the Name (blessed be He), according to the variation in their punctuation during the one-thousand and eighty divisions of the hour. And they vary even more so each hour to still other permutations, and also that the quality of the day is not equivalent to the quality of the night, no day resembles the one before or after it in any way. That is why it is specifically written “who actualizes… the event of creation.”

And this is why He (blessed be His name) is called “the God-Elohi”m”, Master of all powers [*]. All powers found in any of the worlds—every one of them—He (blessed be His name) is Master over their power. He impresses within them the power and constrained strength during every moment, and they are constantly dependent upon Him to change and organize them according to His (blessed be He) will.

Annotation: Even so, it is a name that is shared with all those who wield power in the world, and all the ministers of the upper and lower worlds are called “elohim”, as is written in T’hillim 96:5, “elohei ha-ah-mim”, “for all the nations shall go each in the name of their elohim” (Mee-kha 4:5). And also refer to the Zohar (Vayikra 8a and in the section for Ba-lahk 208b), in the context of “va-ya-vo elohim” as is written in the context of Avi-mehlekh and La-vahn and Bil-ahm, where it means “his minister”. For they are appointed over them to supervise them, and the same is true with judges in this world who are called “elohim”, and in Savvah (96:1): “and the name is one of their alternative names”. Refer there [to the Zohar, for more detail].

Truly, none of them have intrinsic power, only what was made permanent within them by Him (blessed be He), so that they should have the power and the constrained strength to be rulers… . Therefore He (blessed be His name) is called “Eloh”ei ha-elohim” (Tehillim 136:2), and so it also written (Sh’mote 18:11): “For God-YHV”H is greater than all the elohim”, “bow before Him all the elohim” (Tehillim 97:7), and the pagans too call Him (blessed be He) the “Elohi”m of the elohim” (Daniel 2:47).

Therefore they are called “other elohim”, as if to say that they have no intrinsic power on their own, only the power from the one who is above him. And the one who is above him also draws his power from the power above him, until the Master of the true power for them all, He (blessed be His name).

And therefore it says (Yirmiya 10:10) “and God-YHV”H is the true Elohi”m”, that He is the true Master of all their power, that all of them receive their power from Him (blessed be His name), as is written (M’la-khim Alef 18:39) “And they prostrated themselves on their faces and declared YHV”H is the Elohi”m”.