Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

> Hi,
> I think they don't want to write the name of God on a paper (or in a mail) because they know that the concerned script is not meant to last forever. In other terms: If you know that you will delete your E-Mail or throw away your paper you come in conflict with the one of the ten commandments not to use the name of God in vain. There is a tradition not to throw away or burn used Tora scrolls but to bury them like a mortal remain because the name of God is written on it.
> There is also the tradition to write elokim instead of the name of God, or two jod for the Tetragrammaton.
> Yours sincerely
> Martin Schroeder

Sorry I didn't get a chance to answer this earlier.

All this derives from the prohibition of saying G-d's name in vain, and also because the name was not uttered by anyone except for the high priest once a year, Yom Kippur, only in the inner sanctuary of the Temple.  We don't even know how to pronounce that name today.  The name may also not be destroyed, so if it is printed in a prayer book, for instance, and the book becomes torn and unusable, it cannot be thrown away, or burned, it must be either buried or left in a special section that many synagogues have, to decompose naturally.  Therefore, when writing any of G-d's names (there are many), on something that may be thrown out one day, we write it differently, either by leaving out a letter, or changing one of the letters, etc.  Although the English word god is not G-d's name, we write it this way - as a symbol, or reminder, or gesture of respect, for the original prohibition.  For me, it is a habit from childhood.

Re writing on a computer keyboard/screen - it is not the same issue as a piece of paper, because the words and letters on your computer screen are not considered to have an independent existence all their own, and so there is really no issue of destroying them.

But as I said, it is a habit to write G-d.

Shoshanna