| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/24/2008 6:01:45 PM | | I'm an atheist and not a Jew but I just have a question .I know in your belief you don't say the name of your God.I have heard some use Hashem(The name,I think this mean?)I understand that your god's name which is written with the yod-he-vav-he.The four letter word in the Hebrew.Why though do some Jews on the internet write G-d instead of just writing God since God isn't the Name.I mean no offense to anyone I'm just curious why they do this?-Thanks. | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/24/2008 6:10:42 PM | | Jews are forbidden to erase the names of G-d. So Jews try not to write the names of G-d in any situation where it might come to be erased later on. As G-d is an English name for G-d, Jews try to avoid writing that one either, in case the post or the thread or the whole site will be deleted later on. | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/30/2008 9:50:52 AM | I'm Jewish, and don't use the convention of writing G-d instead of God, since this is a title, not a name. However, many Jews wish to be extra cautious regarding the commandments, so they add a bit in order in order not to take chances. The concept is called "building a fence around the Torah."
As a Reform Jew, I tend to do what it says, neither adding or subtracting, but respect their beliefs.
Ha-Shem does indeed mean The Name.
As to the off-topic remark preceeding this one, I suggest that there are two sides to this, not just one. The concept that the land was stolen is one-sided. When you are willing to present the other side as well, we'll listen. | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/30/2008 10:22:23 AM |
But who's going to liberate the Palestinians from bondage? Stealing land, squating, and oppressing the population that was already there is highly immoral.
Oh hey... where have you been!!! The world has been waiting for you to solve one of the most complex problem the world has ever known. Thanks!
Stealing land, squatting. Baloney. They were already there! But you didn't know that did you. I researched this and it goes much deeper than you realise. I for one wouldn't know where to start. Honestly. My hat's off to anyone who can come up with a good solution.
Go back in history starting as recently as the Ottoman empire.
Here's a head start for ya.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine
On topic:
I often wondered why Catholics didn't observe this also. | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/30/2008 11:13:57 AM | sam-spade:
I often wondered why Catholics didn't observe this also.
Catholics don't observe this particular custom, but we do have others which are related to the commandment against taking God's name in vain. For example, Catholics have a habit of referring to Jesus by His title rather than by the Name, such as "Christ" or "Our Lord". If the Name of Jesus is indeed mentioned, Catholics may make a slight bow of the head, especially when inside the church. Another old custom in the hat-wearing days is to tip or raise the hat when the Holy Name is uttered; priests who still wear birettas (the four-cornered black academic cap with the fuzzball on top) still raise the biretta when uttering the Holy Name. We also have a Feast Day of the Holy Name which comes shortly after the Feast Day of the Circumcision of Christ, eight days after Christmas just as Christ would have been circumcised according to Jewish law.
Another custom in the church is to make a bow from the waist whenever the whole Trinity is mentioned in a doxology (i.e. gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto).
One well-known custom in some Protestant Bibles such as the King James Version is to substitute where the word "Y-H-W-H" appears in the Hebrew text with "the LORD", all capitalized. You've probably seen this before if you've read an Old Testament book from the King James. | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/30/2008 11:25:25 AM |
Jews are forbidden to erase the names of G-d. So Jews try not to write the names of G-d in any situation where it might come to be erased later on. As G-d is an English name for G-d, Jews try to avoid writing that one either, in case the post or the thread or the whole site will be deleted later on.
I heard a story many years ago that when the scribes were writing the scriptures, and they came to the point in thier writing where it required usage of God's name, that out of such respect and honor for the name of God..... they would stop writing and go bath thier body, and would start fresh writing again beginning with God's name with a new pen. They would write with this pen or quill until they came to where the usage of God's name would be required again, and they would repeat the process of bathing and changing thier quill or pen or whatever it was called.
If this is true, I don't know...but when I read the Old Testament and see the name of God used a couple of times in the same passage..I always think of how long it actually must have taken them to complete what they were wriying....
scorpiomover, have you ever heard of this practice among the ancient scribes? | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 5/30/2008 11:38:38 AM | | Following up what I previously said, I recently discovered a Catholic custom that, if someone is overheard taking the Lord's name in vain, a Catholic makes the sign of the cross and prays Sit nomen Domini benedictum ("blessed be the Name of the Lord"). And, if another Catholic overhears it, he may also make the sign of the cross and respond with Ex hoc nunc, et usque in sæculum ("from this time forth, forevermore"). | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 7/17/2008 8:51:09 AM | I asked this question now if I try to identify myself. I have friends who are not Jewish and we have been talking. I can not even repeat this way of saying just because I believe I work my way with prayers. But it is true it is not obvious at all also to say to someone or anyone it is forbiden. This is good to remind ourselves. We all need to be governed by higher respects. I am not the best in English. I learned to say in my life, through work, in selling myself, also speaking about a boss, such as we all have a higher or stronger person or boss above our heads to believe into. If we want to live a certain freedom. We almost learn to treat him like an idol, since this is a right of way for Catholics in the chuch. For their is obedience. But once we get out of there, if we do continue the worship our prayers, it does become almost impossible to identify the voice or this prayer we are persuing, and our mouth wording transforms. Even though I would say I believe in structure and architecture, and I see different things in my eyes which could be different from others. We do become somekind of a blaspheme towards Society and humanity which we are. It is true, prayer is an infinite intimicy to ourselves. But if we attach our body to it, there would be no more spirituality. I have learned this, so far. And I have been able to say it to real friends. I understand we do have to believe in the greatest, and honour greatly our family to stand up to this. Cause one individual would not ever be able to express enough how much in a great world we are living in unless we have found the prayer to ourselves. I have learned afterwards, this is just healthier for me to speak and to word out G-d as is because it is violence otherwise. Since we do want a world of peace and are walking towards it, it is a good difference we can make with our own wording. We can understand many other things also in our living which can cause aggravation. Words are one. Our expressions are one also. My ears suffers still from the words. G-d is right.
Fran | |
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| A question for people of the Jewish religion.
Posted: 7/17/2008 7:36:07 PM | RE msg 8 by consigliere31:
I heard a story many years ago that when the scribes were writing the scriptures, and they came to the point in thier writing where it required usage of God's name, that out of such respect and honor for the name of God..... they would stop writing and go bath thier body, and would start fresh writing again beginning with God's name with a new pen. They would write with this pen or quill until they came to where the usage of God's name would be required again, and they would repeat the process of bathing and changing thier quill or pen or whatever it was called.
If this is true, I don't know...but when I read the Old Testament and see the name of God used a couple of times in the same passage..I always think of how long it actually must have taken them to complete what they were wriying....
scorpiomover, have you ever heard of this practice among the ancient scribes? I heard something like this, that some scribes would bathe their body in a Mikvah (ritual bath) to cleanse themselves spiritually before each time they wrote the name of G-d. In some passages, that's almost every other word. So those passages would have taken a long time to write. But that was the level of commitment they had. They would do it, no matter how much effort it would take.
I don't know about the pen/quill though. But it could be. You may be right. | |
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