Tetragrammaton

[Guest guest]

Roni,

You wrote:

>

> Gracia, you might want to educate yourself as to why some

> people don't write the name of G-d.

There is not technical proscription against spelling this out, but there

is an ancient Jewish tradition against spelling or pronouncing any form

of name for God, just to be sure not to violate the third Commandment

about taking that name in vain. This took the most exaggerated form in

copying the Tanakh where the name JHVH was replaced by Adonai. The

vowels from the latter allowed the proper pronunciation of the former

set of consonants. Adonai was translated into English as " Lord. " So, the

proper name of God in the OT was changed into " Lord " in English versions.

A relatively small fraction of modern Jews extended the practice of

leaving out the vowels to the word " God, " even though this is

technically a capitalization of a generic noun rather than a true proper

name. Again, it is to avoid even the possibility of violating the

Commandment. Out of misguided respect for this small group, some other

PC thinkers also leave out the vowel, although the practice is really

intended only to keep the observant from violating the Commandment. It

does not really matter to them if others, particularly non-observant

Christians, spell it normally.

Happy N-w Y--r, everyone.

Chuck