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From: avi@pegasus.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: God's gender and name
Message-ID: <826@pegasus.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Dec-83 02:29:21 EST
Article-I.D.: pegasus.826
Posted: Wed Dec 14 02:29:21 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Dec-83 01:20:24 EST
References: <662@ssc-vax.UUCP> <2920@utcsrgv.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 50

The first block of Dave Sherman's message was truncated, so I am not sure
what he said about the writing of "G-ds" name. Historically, once a name is
used long enough as a substitute for THE NAME, then it becomes holy and
imbued with the same spirit as the first one. To not offend anyone, I will
put hyphens in all the names I will mention.

Originally, the four letter word used to describe G-d was Y-H-W-H which is
all consonants. You have to guess where the vowels would be, or which
consonants can be pronounced like vowels. Some people have mistakenly
decided to pronounce this as Y-a-h-w-e-h or J-e-h-o-v-a-h, but I don't
believe that anyone really knows how to pronounce it. When this word is read
by Orthodox jews from a Torah, it is pronounced as A-d-o-n-a-i, which means
"My L-rd" and has the same vowels that normally are supposed to accompany
the four-letter name (thats another story. Hebrew can have all types of
diacritical marks above, below, after and within the letters that specify the
vowel that accompanies the consonant as well as the inflection of that part
of the word and how it is trilled and ......)

Anyway, to get back to the story, the A-d-o-n-a-I version has become sacred,
and is not to be profaned. So, when you are not actually using the
substitute name in a prayer or the equivalent -- such as when you are just
telling someone else which blessing they have to make, the word is replaced
by "H-a-s-h-e-m", which is Hebrew for "THE NAME". Of course, by now, even
that has holy overtones.

I am not sure why Jews would consider the word "G-O-D" written in other
languages to be holy. However, there are other Hebrew words for G-d that are
deliberately pronounced wrong, such as ELOKIM instead of E-l-o-h-i-m. I
personally have no major problem with such names. I reccommend the story
"The nine billion names of G-d" by Arthur C. Clarke.

  ###       #####      #   #		Avi
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######        ##       #####        ##		Gross
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		(read from right to left, of course)

			Not afraid to sign my name,
-- 
-=> Avi E. Gross @ AT&T Information Systems Laboratories (201) 576-6241
 suggested paths: [ihnp4, allegra, cbosg, utcsstat, hogpc, ...]!pegasus!avi