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, ...
- 48.7k
11
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 37.4k
9
votes
Saying ביצה versus ביה
The Magain Avraham (O.C. 156) quoting the Yam Shel Shlomo says that it is to not say something disgusting (and it should be said in general, not specifically about the Mesechta name).
The Teferes ...
- 31.7k
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 ...
- 6,115
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 ...
- 42.5k
7
votes
Accepted
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:
- 6,596
7
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 96.3k
7
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 96.3k
6
votes
Divine Names for Judgement and Mercy
One early source is Bereishis Rabba 12:15:
ה' אלהים . למלך שהיו לו כוסות ריקים, אמר המלך אם אני נותן לתוכן חמין הם מתבקעין, צונן הם מקריסין. ומה עשה המלך? ערב חמין בצונן ונתן בהם ועמדו. כך אמר הקדוש ...
- 31.7k
6
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 42.5k
6
votes
Accepted
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.
- 13.4k
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&...
- 6,743
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 ...
- 44.7k
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 ...
- 483
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,...
- 9,037
5
votes
Accepted
Is the phrase הקדוש ברוך הוא gramatically incorrect?
I have no source for this answer besides for my understanding of Hebrew.
I'm pretty sure that there's an implicit (elliptical [h/t Yishai]) object here. We see this by the use of the definite article ...
- 22.9k
5
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 9,374
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 ...
- 56.2k
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 ...
- 4,851
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 ...
- 3,496
5
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 7,272
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 ...
- 1,115
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 ...
- 895
4
votes
י-ו as a name of Hashem
R. Aryeh Kaplan, in his article "Reverence of the Sacred," writes that י-ו is written as טז, not because it's a divine name (unlike י-ה, which Avot DeRabbi Natan 34:2 and others write is actually a ...
- 11.2k
4
votes
Why does God have Moshe use a name the Israelites won't know?
Ibn Ezra on the second verse you refer to (Exodus 6:3), citing Rav Saadya Gaon, explains that the meaning of this verse is not that the Jews had never heard this name before (in fact, the name had ...
- 18.9k
4
votes
Accepted
How is davening from an app allowed?
The broader question is how can we allow the name of hashem to appear on a computer screen at all when we know the screen will eventually be turned off or the text moved. Whether you daven from the ...
- 6,908
4
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 5,292
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.
- 7,363
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 ...
- 42.7k
4
votes
Accepted
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 ...
- 46.6k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible