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Elliot & Eliezer
My earlier work appeared under the name “Elliot
Sobel,” one
of two names I was given at birth, and the one I used most
of my life. Eliezer is the other one. It’s pronounced
eh-lee-eh — eh-as-in-bed — zer. Rhymes with Nebuchadnezzer.
It is Hebrew, and very few people can pronounce it, I’ve
found. "Eli" means God and "ezer" means
help, so Eliezer means "God is my help."
Jews in America and elsewhere are almost
always given two names, one secular, the other Hebrew. I
was upset that all my friends on a spiritual path had been
given new spiritual names by their gurus at some point, presumably
to help them shift their primary identities away from their
limited personalities over to their True Nature.
Most of the names were Hindu, like Krishna,
Ananda, and so on. Generally the names meant something along
the lines of "Blissful
Consciousness," and it was thought that even if you were
totally miserable and depressed, your spiritual name would
help you remember that your real Self was having a gay old
time of it. |
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