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I have a magen david with שוי writen inside and I want to know the meaning

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It would be very helpful if you could attach a photo, and / or describe the background of this item. – Dave May 15 '11 at 20:56
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r6v2, Welcome to Judaism.SE, and thanks very much for bringing your question here! I hope the community can help you get to the bottom of your mystery. I agree with @Dave that you'll get a more definitive answer if you provide a photo (there's an image upload button on the edit screen) and more details. Please consider registering your account, so the system can keep track of all your contributions. – Isaac Moses May 15 '11 at 21:10

3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

Could it have been ש - ד - י, and the tip dalet got scratched off? This name of God is often found on a mezuzot.

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+1 for correspondence with a post on onthemainline (onthemainline.blogspot.com) from a few years ago, which includes an 18th c. sketch of a magen David with the characteristic letters in the points, sharing a panel (implying some relationship?) with a m'zuza whose casing clearly reads the 3 letters you suggest. In fact, the ד even looks broken at the exact spot that would make it appear as a ו or a ז next to a י! – WAF May 15 '11 at 22:53
I do not think they would put Hashem's name like that on a Magen Dovid. – Gershon Gold May 16 '11 at 16:52
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Who is "they"? It is not like every Magen David goes through an approval process. – Yaakov Ellis May 16 '11 at 17:24
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Maybe it is initials of the original owner?

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There are not many names that begin with a vav. – Dave May 15 '11 at 21:08
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@Dave - One's enough, rare as it may be. Especially considering the popular monogram style of last initial in the middle (4.bp.blogspot.com/_7p2ZcQPaYTw/SXqc7TqWvbI/AAAAAAAAHEU/…) since a last name would be the most likely of the 3 to begin with ו. This is of course, continuing down the path of wild speculation without the benefit of a picture. – WAF May 15 '11 at 22:42
up vote 0 down vote

I agree with the already posted answers & comments that a picture would nice, that it may be a dalet rather than a vav, and that it may be the owner's initials. If it is a word שוי, then the only words I can think of with that spelling are:

  • sh'vi, the feminine singular imperative of "to be equal" or "to be worth it" (shin-vav-he in kal), and
  • shevay, "that woe!" (as in a sentence, "he agreed that woe for the loss").

Not that either makes much sense.

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It is also the 3/m/s/participle for "appoint" in Aramaic. – WAF May 16 '11 at 18:55

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