How do you pronounce Yosef?

amother

Sun, Aug 29 2010, 7:52 am

Rodent wrote:

amother wrote:

Rodent wrote:

Yo-SEF

Sepharadi

What is the origin of Yehosef?

Yehosef is an alternate (and rare) form of Yosef which is mentioned once in Tehillim 81 (which is part of Thursday's Song of the Day btw).

Even though Yeho is a common alternate beginning of many names eg. Yonatan/Yehonatan, in the case of Yehosef it is not a prefix as it is in most, it actually changes the root. In the Tora there are four people whose names were changed by the addition of one letter: Avram became Avraham (Letter: He), Sarai became Sara (Letter: He), Hoshea became Yehoshua (Letter: Yod), and Yeter became Yitro (Letter: Vav). These four letters spell out G-d’s name; G-d gave part of his own name to each of these people. The shortened form of G-d's name is yod he, by adding the letter he into the name Yosef to become Yehosef, it is adding the name of G-d where it previously did not exist. In addition it adds to the meaning, rather than simply being 'to increase', it is to increase godliness. [And in addition to Amram there is a whole heap of more info that I won't go into here but in short it is to increase the exalted nation and bring godliness where it previously didn't exist, living in a non-Jewish area we see this as part of our and our son's role on this earth].

Hope that answers your question.

Yes, thank you. It sounds like you choose very meaningful names!