Illustration credit: Rivka Tsinman

The third of the עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְּרוֹת (Aseret Ha-Dibrot, Ten Commandments) is not to take God’s name in vain (Shemot 20:7). This came up in the Halakhah section, where we explored the idea of an “unnecessary” blessing, which is a problem because we shouldn’t ever say God’s holy name if we don’t have a good reason.

Given all the concern about saying God’s name, does this teaching from the Gemara surprise you?

Rav teaches that when we pray or say a berakhah, not only are we allowed to say God’s name, we have to say it! Otherwise our berakhah just doesn’t count.

This rule about berakhot can help us recognize how special our prayers can be.

Saying God’s name in our tefillot is one of the reasons we should try to have excellent כַּוָּנָה (kavanah, concentration) when we pray (Hayyei Adam, 5:26). Kavanah helps us to say the right things, and our prayers are more respectful and meaningful when we are thinking about God and not other things.