Not saying hashems name

amother

Saddlebrown

Sun, Jul 31 2016, 7:20 pm

Someone asked me why we are not allowed to say hashems name and I said because we're not allowed to say his name in vain. He said that he doesn't think it's referring to that. Two questions, why are we not allowed to say hashems names, some only while davening and some not at all and what does not saying hashems name in vain mean? TIA

PinkFridge

Sun, Jul 31 2016, 7:37 pm

Off the cuff, we're not allowed to say Hashem's name for no reason. But the name we do say is still not the actual name. We don't say the name yud-kay-vav-kay (we don't even say the name of the letters!). I'm not sure if this is why but we don't see the full manifestation of Hashem's name in this world. We see Him through His actions but we do not see His essence. (Yet.)
Not to bring up tznius but that concept of keeping things covered as a sign of respect? (Think of a sefer Torah when not in use.) Ramp it up a bit. We show how awesome and not fully accessible Hashem is by being so extremely cautious with His name.
And yet, we are allowed to address Him in the second person. We can have, and should work on having, some level of relationship with Him.

chani8

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 2:47 am

We actually never say Hashem's name. When we say Adonai, we are not saying Hashem's name. Not even close.

We are not allowed to read/pronounce the four letters, yud key vav key. I think that is an acronym, not Hashem's actual name.

Iymnok

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 3:48 am

It's kavod.
Also we don't want to take such kedusha as the name of Hashem and just use it.
Things that are special and of value are protected and save only for worthy occasions. Here it would be the kohen gadol on Yom Kippur in the kodesh hakedoshim.

ssue

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 1:41 pm

I have a question that is somewhat related - what about saying the name of Allah? Are we allowed to write it out fully? Should we write it like All-h?

gp2.0

Mon, Aug 01 2016, 1:54 pm

On a related note, why do people write G-d instead of God and the new trend in magazines of H-shem instead of Hashem?

None of these are the actual name, they aren't even in the original language so why does it matter?

PinkFridge

Wed, Aug 03 2016, 8:53 pm

gp2.0 wrote:

G-d is much more widely accepted, I've heard of it even out of our circles. It is the closest to a name that is given by the general world. OTOH, H-shem is totally illogical.

5mom

Thu, Aug 11 2016, 12:09 am

In my circles, we write out the word God, because Hashem's name certainly isn't English. "God," like Hashem, Ribbono shel Olam, der Aibishter, etc is just a phrase that hints at the essence, but is clearly not Hashem's name.

To those who write H-shem, why is that better than H------m ? Or why not just go straight for He Who Must Not Be Named? At some point, it stops being respectful and starts to become silly.

If you sing zemiros, you've surely noticed that the rhyme scheme assumes people said Adonai. (See for example 'שבת היום לה).

Earlier, the Mishna in Brachos says that they instituted greeting people with Hashem's name and brings Boaz as an example.
He greeted his workers with "Hashem Imachem.". Everyone understands that this was allowed.

We need to be careful to show reverence and not to bandy about Hashem's name. Twisting ourselves into pretzels to avoid it isn't respectful either.

PinkFridge

Thu, Aug 11 2016, 7:49 am

5mom wrote:

Earlier, the Mishna in Brachos says that they instituted greeting people with Hashem's name and brings Boaz as an example.
He greeted his workers with "Hashem Imachem.". Everyone understands that this was allowed.
.

That was then, this is now. In Biblical times IIRC the Kohen gadol said the YKVK name of Yom Kippur too.

I have a friend who grew up very assimilated and her father, whose family was a somewhat traditional, taught her to write G-d.

UnFarvosNischt

Thu, Aug 11 2016, 8:03 am

5mom wrote:

I read that Boaz decided to start this "trend" (I.e. greeting with Hashem's name) because the situation at this moment between the klal Israel was not really good and he wanted to make more peace and harmony by bringing Hashem's name in the conversations.
It was seen as controversial and if not for that emergency reason, it would have been forbidden.

FranticFrummie

Thu, Aug 11 2016, 8:21 am

IMHO, I think it's kavod.

We say "Her Royal Majesty the Queen", not "Hey Liz, how's it goin'?"

It helps remind us of our place in the world.