12
votes
BS"D in the bathroom
R. Moshe Feinstein has a responsum about writing ב"ה in a letter. While he notes that it could potentially lead to issues because the ה is a letter of God's name and it is also meant to refer to God, ...
- 49.1k
11
votes
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In the Talmud, how is the Tetragrammaton rendered?
The Babylonian Talmud has both Aramaic and Hebrew in it. In the handwritten versions which I reviewed, the 4 letter name of hashem is replaced with the yod-yod.
You can see this in the quotes from ...
- 37.8k
9
votes
Would a Jew violate the prohibition to pronounce the name of YHWH by saying "Yahweh" and/or "Yehowah"?
Rabbi Ari Enkin wrote a couple of articles about this explaining why pronouncing these words would not be problematic.
In the first, a book review, he writes:
There is also an especially ...
- 6,175
7
votes
How do we know how to pronounce God's name?
The Gemara in Pesachim 50a brings a verse that Hashem's name is not pronounced the way it is written.
ר' אבינא רמי כתיב {שמות ג-טו} "זה שמי לעלם וזה זכרי לדור דור".
אמר הקב''ה: לא כשאני ...
- 42.8k
7
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Are there any fonts that allow for the name of Hashem to be typed the way it is in Sephardi siddurim?
Yes, here are screenshots of Windows Character Map showing DBS-Frank, DBS-Keren DBS-Stam, and DBS-Vilna:
- 6,676
7
votes
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Erasing the word "eloheinu"?
Still prohibited. The general rule is (Yesodei HaTorah 6:3, YD 276:9) prefixes conjugated to one of God's names are permitted to erase while suffixes are prohibited (without statutory punishment). The ...
- 97.3k
7
votes
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Why is the final Heh in Ha'Shem's name different in K'thav Chabad/Alter-Rebbe?
Good eye! You're noticing a Kabbalistic practice called כתיבת השם בחילוק writing God's name by parts. I won't begin to pretend to understand it, but those who practice it write the different limbs of ...
- 97.3k
6
votes
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Basis for not doing a full sof-aliya trop on Hashem's name
You asked:
Is there any basis in halacha or firmly established minhag for this, or is it merely a personal quirk of a few people?
According to Rav שמואל פנחס גלברד it's a Minhag originating in ...
- 42.8k
6
votes
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Is there a source for Og throwing a mountain?
It comes from Devarim Rabba 1:24 in the name of Rabbi Yochanan commenting on Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman.
- 14.2k
6
votes
Not verbally spelling Hashem's names
Chayei Adam 5:27 writes the following (emphasis mine):
ההוגה השם באותיותיו אין לו חלק לע"הב דהיינו שקורא השם בנקודותיו כמו שהוא נקוד היו"ד בשב"א והה"א בחולם והוא"ו בקמץ (ול&...
- 6,753
6
votes
Accepted
What name did the Kohen Gadol Say?
According to the Rambam the Kohen Gadol pronounced the 4-letter name, see MT Avodat Yom haKippurim 2:6
Thus he mentions God's explicit name ten times on this day. On all
occasions, he recites the ...
- 47.8k
6
votes
Is the English "YHWH" a valid equivalent to the Tetragrammaton?
At lease according to some rishonim, any language other than Ancient Hebrew is not truly a language but rather an agreed upon method of communication (see the Ran in his commentary in the beginning of ...
- 498
6
votes
Where is G-d's name in Megillat Esther?
Let's do one better: where is G-d's name concealed in all of Tanach? I'm looking for שם הוי"ה backwards and forwards, equally spaced from the beginning and end of four consecutive words (first letter,...
- 9,116
6
votes
Source for story about a Rabbi being happy to bury Sheimot
My father found it in a biography he was reading.
The story is about the Ponovezher Rav (Rav Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman).
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5
votes
How do we know how to pronounce God's name?
The word you're referring to is not actually a pronunciation of the tetragramaton; it's a substitution. Traditionally, the tetragramaton was pronounced (with its real pronunciation, I mean) by the ...
- 56.4k
5
votes
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Can Holiness Be Retroactively Withdrawn?
See on this Rav Menachem Kasher's long article in Torah Shleyma vol. 29, and specifically section 1 chapter 6, which is on exactly this question. I'll try to summarise:
Rav Chaim Kanievsky (Peirush ...
- 9,777
5
votes
What are the reasons or rules for the different variations in vowels on the Tetragrammaton?
The divine name YHVH is always an instance of Qere and Ketiv. The convention used for representing Qere and Ketiv is to give the consonants of the written word but point the consonants with the vowels ...
- 4,881
5
votes
Explanation of kri u-khtiv vowel for first letter of tetragrammaton
The niqqud we use today is that of the Tiberians. The default pronunciation of the shewa naʿ in the Tiberian tradition was identical to the pronunciation of the ḥataf pataḥ, and took on other ...
- 3,546
5
votes
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How does saying "pasim" help us safely enunciate the name of Hashem?
If you open for example the Artscroll siddur (in my case p. 698 of the Ashkenaz-English version), you'll see that there's a 22 letter Divine Name hidden in it that is not read, but just scanned with ...
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5
votes
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Where is G-d's name in Megillat Esther?
According to the Pri Etz Chaim of Rav Chaim Vital, the instances of G-d's name encoded in Megillat Esther are:
"היא "וכל" הנשים "יתנו, ר"ת הוה"י. לבדו עותה המלכה ושתי, ס"ת והה"י. ושתי המלכה לפניו ...
- 17.7k
5
votes
Burying sheimos is a segula for a pandemic?
See Source for eulogizing for sheimos? for the 4 sources he brought for this. He finished the hesped with the following quote from the Sefer Mat'amim, p. 190 (couldn’t find the sefer on the Otzar ...
- 1,155
4
votes
Is it permissible to say "Shabbos/Shabbat" in the bathroom?
The Chessed Lealafim (85,1) (R' Eliezer Papo) brings down Zohar that says that HaShem is called Shabbos. (He writes: דקב״ה שבת איקרי).
Chessed Lealafim says that it is not allowed to say Shabbos in ...
- 905
4
votes
Dr. Bronner's soap
Earlier on the label it mentions Jesus being a student of Hillel. That makes this label a work of a min. Even torah scrolls written by minim lack holiness and dont go into shemos.
Source later.
- 7,723
4
votes
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What type of name is the Tetragrammaton?
In our Torah, God is referred to by multiple names and appellations. Of those, 7 are holy, with the Tetragramaton being the holiest.
All 7 of the holy names should only be used for a legitimate ...
- 5,310
4
votes
Intentional mangling of God's name
When we wrote the soc.culture.jewish FAQ we dealt with this question as follows. Note that one of the students who had been in the class at the time that Rav Soloveitchik wrote the name "God" and ...
- 42.9k
4
votes
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Where are Jews forbidden to speak the name of God
The Mishnah in Sanhedrin 10 (1) lists those who have no share in the World to Come. Included in these according to Abba Shaul is someone who utters the Divine Name as it is spelled.
See Rambam's ...
- 47.2k
4
votes
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4
votes
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Did Jews at the time of the Bavli refer to God as *allah*? A question on Berakhot 56b
While you offer an interesting insight and suggestion, even if they did have a word for God approximating Allah, the word in the pasuk would still have been read by them as Adonai (or else YKVK, not ...
- 20.4k
4
votes
Does Shalom/"peace" need Genizah?
No, the name שלום/Shalom is not one of the Holy names forbidden to erase:
Rambam Yesodey Torah 6,2: only 7 names can't be erased/destroyed:
ושבעה שמות הם השם הנכתב יו"ד ה"א וא"ו ה"...
- 25.7k
4
votes
Accepted
Extending the Leg of a Letter to Remove Sheimos
This is prohibited as erasing God's name. If you wrote יה as God's name and then want to follow it up with ודה to make the name יהודה, that is prohibited (Soferim 5:2, Keset Hasofer 12:3). Your case ...
- 97.3k
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