Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hoosgawdennewhey

Dear R.Abbi,

I see that some people write G-d instead of God. Why?

-Hoosgawdennewhey.


Dear Hoosgawdennewhey -

As far as I know, this tradition is rooted in the ancient Hebrew Torah scrolls where in lieu of writing out God's name, placeholder letters were used instead. The same is done in English.

Let's look at two possible explanations given for why this was done in ancient days:

1) Were someone to "know" God's true name, they would have dominion over God. So, a placeholder was used instead.

2) It was considered disrespectful to destroy anything with God's name written on it. So again, a placeholder was used instead.

Personally, I think that worrying about how we write God's name is goofy — it's like debating the exact grit of the sand on the beach and missing the splendor of the sunset.

What we call God doesn't matter. How we write the letters we use as the placeholder for God's name doesn't matter.

What matters is that we are in a real relationship with God.

With love,

-R.Abbi

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