The Torah

Since the word 'god' is merely a title and since there are many who are called 'God', why do you decline to spell it?

Is not the Hebrew tetragrammaton a designation for the name of God meaning 'he who causes to become'? I have never quite been able to understand the superstition surrounding the utterance of that name, Yahweh, or Jehovah. I would think that Israelites would proudly announce the name of their God as above all others.

Can you picture David approaching Goliath and answering his taunt with "You are coming to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I am coming to you with the name of G_d?" (1Samuel 17:45)

Perhaps we should revere 'the force.'

. . . I'm not even a Jew. I am actually Greek Orthodox, but I study the Torah. That's how I got my degree, actually.

-- Percy

PikaPk wrote:

. . . I'm not even a Jew. I am actually Greek Orthodox, but I study the Torah. That's how I got my degree, actually.

-- Percy

OK, I'm interested.

Do you have any thoughts on the unutterable name?

The words God and Lord (Adonai) are often written by many Jews as G-d and L-rd as a way of avoiding writing a name of God, as to avoid the risk of the sin of erasing or defacing the name. Any Hebrew name of God is forbidden to be erased. In Deuteronomy 12:3-4, the Torah exhorts one to destroy idolatry, and from here it is understood not to erase the name of God. However, since this is in English, it is often considered unnecessary since only the Hebrew name is considered God's actual name, but since God is God's name in English, it is often done out of a sign of respect and just an extra precaution. There is a dispute to the degree of holiness that the word "God" is. The common rabbinic opinion on whether this applies only to Hebrew names of God?-or to the English word "God" as well?-is that "God" written in any language other than Hebrew has no holiness and can be erased. So while considered unnecessary, it is still often written with a hyphen as to give the Name proper respect. It is considered necessary by some, a minhag (custom) by most, and not done at all by others. Most Orthodox Jews and many Jews in general will write G-d in this manner. The Orthodox Jewish information website, Aish.com, uses God instead of G-d. They cite the reason that many users coming to the Aish HaTorah website are unfamilar with Judaism and would be initially unfamilar with the spelling G-d, so since it is not required that G-d is written, only preferred, they do not do it. According to their website, spelling it G-d is not according to halacha (Jewish law), so according to "leading Torah scholars", non-Hebrew names can be erased.[3] Other Jewish websites, such as Chabad.org, spell it G-d, and this is the version commonly found on most Jewish publications. Wiki