In The Real Name of God: Embracing the Full Essence of the Divine, just published by Inner Traditions/Bear, Dosick tells how the many aspects of God—simultaneously vengeful and loving, angry and peaceful, militant and kind—are paradoxical and fail to capture the full essence of the being he describes as “perfect.”

So he went back to the Old Testament, and with much meditation, study, and reflection, he pinpointed a name for God that he says captures all those facets—Anochi.

“This image came to me of a beach ball,” says Dosick, who has written books about Judaism, parenting, ethics, and business. “If you look at a beach ball, it has colored panels, but none of those panels alone is the whole beach ball. It’s as if each of those panels is one of the names of God but not the whole beach ball.”

The name Anochi is usually translated as “I,” Dosick notes, but he translates it as “I am,” because it thereby endows God with all possible aspects. That translation was not revealed until now, according to the author, because “it was never the right energetic moment in time to tell.”

What has changed? Dosick, who is the spiritual leader of a Jewish Renewal community in San Diego, believes the world has moved to a place of greater unity—a place that requires a new name for God that will draw people together.

“We are coming to a time when people of all faiths are realizing there is much more that unites us than divides us,” he says. “We all have one mother, and whether we call her mom or mother or mommy, she is the same—the source of us all. And the name for that source is in the scriptures we consider to be the beginning of all our religions. Is that cool or what?”

In the first half of the book, Dosick outlines what set him on the quest for Anochi and relates how he found it through scripture reading, meditation, chanting, and prayer. The second half offers prayers, chants, and other spiritual exercises that incorporate this name and the spirit of unity it represents. A Web site—www.godisanochi.com—featuring the chants and prayers will appear this month.

Dosick will sign copies of The Real Name of God in the Inner Traditions booth (2540) today, noon–1 p.m.