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Many Jews write BS"D or בס"ד (standing for בסיעתא דשמיא meaning "with God's help") or something similar at the top of all documents. As far as I am aware, there is no halacha that requires anything like this, but people do it as a way of acknowledging that everything that they do can only be done with God's help. Do people who follow this practice tend to write this on documents that are intended for non-Jews or secular Jews who would be unaware of the meaning and confused by the strange acronym at the top of the page? Does it matter if the document is intended to be very professional (such as a business letter or a report for a company)?

(P.S. This question is tagged poorly. Please retag if you have better tag ideas.)

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In the Sefer שאלת רב which is questions that were asked of R' Chaim Kanievsky, he was asked this specific question and ruled that in a letter to a non-Jew it should not be written. (שאלת רב, חלק א' פרק כ"ב אות ז - no link available):

ז. המנהג לכתוב בכל איגרת בס"ד ובימי בין המצרים על נחמת ציון וכו" ובאלול אני לדודי וכו' מהו כשכותב אגרת לנכרי

תשובה לא יכתוב

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  • Why doesnt he also add that in the omer one also has a heading 'matmonim'.
    – cham
    May 15, 2015 at 12:19
  • כדאי שספירת העומר תהיה כל היום במחשבתנו. אין זו רק מצווה. אנו מתכוננים למתן תורה! ישנו מנהג שכאשר אדם כותב תאריך בספירת העומר, הוא מציין את היום לספירה. יש הכותבים: "עשרים ושלושה למטמוני"ם" וכדומה (מטמוני"ם = מ"ט מונים. כלומר, לימי הספירה).zomet.org.il/?CategoryID=160&ArticleID=5755
    – cham
    May 15, 2015 at 12:24
  • @cham It doesn't seem like his list is intended to be exhaustive.
    – Daniel
    May 17, 2015 at 4:52

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