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Call Me Apple

Sparkly Shapeshifter

PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 10:41 pm


Why do people write "YHWH" and "G-d"? Instead of just writing it out?
Is it short hand? sweatdrop
PostPosted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 11:39 pm


The Hebrew language doesn't have vowels. And because no one's meant to say "YHWH" out loud, we don't know what the vowel sounds for the word are wink "Yahweh" is the best present guess. But many people prefer YHWH, which are the Hebrew letters Latinized.

Something like that anyway.

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LMayo

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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 11:10 am


Well, with the G-d thing, some religions think that it's a sin just to say, or write the word God. I find that it's only a sin if you take his name in vain. Such as Oh my God, Oh God, Holy mother of God, all that jazz in exclamation or as a curse.

Did this help?
PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:54 pm


I think they both have to do with it being a sin in Judaism to write or speak God's name. I know that's true for writing G-d.
From what I understand, it's wrong to write His name in a way that it can be destroyed. Like if you write "God" on a piece of paper, and somebody erases it or crumples it up and throws it away, that's wrong.
So writing G-d instead prevents that.

brainnsoup
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rosadria

PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 1:12 pm


It also has a lot to do with respect. His name is holy, and we don't want to accidentally blaspheme it. So, we refer to Him without using His name to prevent that mistake.
PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 12:36 am


Even if it was said in awe/respect/love? That doesn't make sense to me....

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Sanguina Cruenta
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 1:52 am


Ice_Veins
Even if it was said in awe/respect/love? That doesn't make sense to me....


There are times to say the name of god and times to write it. There are some Rabbi who will ritually bathe before every time they write his name when they're copying out the Torah (by hand, of course) and they use a different colour ink so that whenever they write it they do so mindfully. You could say his name in the temple but of course that isn't there anymore.

A Jew will have to go into greater detail because I get hazy on the details here and I don't want to steer anyone wrong sweatdrop
PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2010 2:47 pm


i once heard that if they do write it down it has to be with a brand new, never used before pen as well, and that they weren't supposed to use the pen ever again...

Itachi_Hare


Im A Little Pea

PostPosted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 11:26 am


It's transcription of יְהוָה which is how the word God is usually (most cases, not all the time) written in the OT.
It is voweled and you could pronounce it (should be something like yehva or something), but since in Judaism you're not allowed to say the name of god in vain, you don't.
PostPosted: Thu Jan 21, 2010 11:14 pm


in hebrew writings, because to portray the name would be to diminish it and break the command about not treating God's name like a small thing,

the divine name was often represented by a symbol, the shape of a diamond, called the tetragrammatron.

YHWH are the consonants for the divine name and also coincide with God's disclosure to Moses at the burning bush where he said "I AM WHAT I AM"
(same letters).

to this name were added the vowel points of the word "adonai" which means LORD; together the two words (YHWH and the vowels of adonai) were pronounced as "Jehovah".

In many bibles, when you see the word lord printed in all capitals (LORD) in the Old Testament, that means that it stands for what in the original text was either the tetragrammatron or YHWH.

chessiejo


Aakosir

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 22, 2010 10:12 am


VK Fox
It also has a lot to do with respect. His name is holy, and we don't want to accidentally blaspheme it. So, we refer to Him without using His name to prevent that mistake.


But how is "God" and "He", be more holly than the normal he and god? Granted the capitalization does come into play with making it proper. But the Christian God doesn't have a name. He is Lord, and He and God... Not really names. Atleast not to me.
PostPosted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 8:16 am


YHWH is the original, true spelling of God's name in roman lettering. Or, depending on whether you switch the direction, HWHY if you want to read it right to left. Yahweh, as it is often written, is a phonetic word made to sound as close to the pronunciation as possible to the Hebrew name. The real name is the tetragammaton, those four letters. There's power in there in terms of symbolism-

For example, find the permutations of YHWH, (4x3x2x1=) 24. If you look at a star of david, it has seven shapes- the six triangles and a hexagon in the middle. If you count the angles of each shape, or connect them to a central point in each shape, the number of angles or triangular segments respectively is 24.

divineseraph


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PostPosted: Sat Jan 23, 2010 1:01 pm


Aakosir
VK Fox
It also has a lot to do with respect. His name is holy, and we don't want to accidentally blaspheme it. So, we refer to Him without using His name to prevent that mistake.


But how is "God" and "He", be more holly than the normal he and god? Granted the capitalization does come into play with making it proper. But the Christian God doesn't have a name. He is Lord, and He and God... Not really names. Atleast not to me.
It puts Him on a level above, and shows how He's so holy capping references to Him is more accurate. Doing so is oe way of giving Him respect, and personally I like doing it because I don't have to explain who I'm talking about. :3
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