Encore Archive

To access the CLAL Encore Archive, click here.

To join the conversation at CLAL Encore Talk, click here.

Should 'g-d' exist?

Menachem Kellner (Sh'ma, 4/66, January 25, 1974)

Does the Halakhah demand the use of expressions like 'G-d' and 'L-rd' instead of their full-spelled equivalents?

In Deuteronomy 12:3-4 we read: "And ye shall break down their altars (i.e., those of the idolators) and dash in pieces their pillars, and burn their Asherim with fire; and the graven images of their gods ye shall hew down; and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so unto the Lord your God." On this latter verse the Sifri quotes Rabbi Ishmael as having said: "From whence (do we learn) that he who erases one letter from the name (of God) transgresses a negative commandment? It is written: ' . . . and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so unto the Lord your God.' " Nachmanides, commenting on this verse, likens the erasure of God's name to the destruction of the altar in the Temple. This, if nothing else, demonstrates the seriousness of the issue.

These verses are the source for the custom under discussion. Since we are not allowed to erase (one letter from) God's name, we may not write it on anything which is likely to be destroyed: for example, the pages of Sh'ma. This conclusion is correct; the use to which it is commonly put, however, is warranted by neither Halakhah nor logic.

The Gemara (Shebu'oth, 35a, bottom) says: "There are Names which may be erased, and there are Names which may not be erased. These are the names which may not be erased: ... (there follows a list of names) . . . - these may not be erased; but the Great, the Mighty, the Revered, the Strong, the Powerful, the Potent, the Merciful and Gracious, the Long Suffering, the One Abounding in Kindness (etc.) - these may be erased."

Maimonides (Yad, Hilchot Yesodei Hatorah, 6:1-2) asserts: "Anyone who destroys any one of the holy and pure names by which the Holy One, Blessed be He, is called, is flogged. This is the law of the Torah. For, (as) it is said of idolators, '... and ye shall destroy their name out of that place. You shall not do so unto the Lord, your God.' And the seven names are ... (there follows a list of seven names) ... anyone who erases even one letter of these seven is flogged." in Halachah 5 he continues: "All other appellations with which we praise the Holy One, Blessed be He, such as . . . (there follows a long list of names such as the Gracious One, the Merciful One, etc.) ... they are like all other Holy Writ and it is permitted to erase them." R. Yosef Caro, in the Shulhan Aruch (Yorah Deah, 276: 9) concurs with Maimonides in asserting that the prohibition of erasing God's name applies only to seven particular Hebrew names. (Caro's list of names differs slightly from that of Maimonides; see the comment of the Turei Zahav, ad. loc.)

What's in a name?

It should be abundantly clear, then, that according to the Halakhah, there are seven distinct Hebrew names of God which may not be erased. Seven and no more. (Some Halakhic authorities even deny that the erasure prohibition extends to transliterations of these seven names. See, for example, the Hidushei Raak on the Shulchan Aruch, ad.loc.)

There is no Halakhic basis, then, for extending the prohibition of erasing God's names to expressions like 'God' (or even to Hebrew expressions, like 'Harahum - the Merciful One), nor is there any logical reason so doing. The Torah warns us against destroying the name of God. In the strict sense, 'God' is not the name of the Holy One, Blessed be He. 'God' is used to name that Being whom we call 'Creator ' 'Lord ' etc. but is not His name. We can use an expression to uniquely describe some entity without that expression becoming the name of the entity so described. Thus, the expression, 'first editor of Sh'ma' names Eugene Borowitz without being his name. Similarly, we use expressions like 'God,' 'Creator,' etc., to denote the Holy One, Blessed be He, but these expressions are not His name. To determine these names we must consult the Torah, not accepted English usage.

Not only is 'God' not the name of the Holy One, Blessed be He, but it can be used to denote Allah, the Father of Jesus, Krishna, etc. Furthermore, the expression 'god' denotes, or can be used to denote, a near infinite number of deities whom it would be blasphemous to associate in anyway with the Holy One, Blessed be He.

Probably because it is basically unHalakhic and illogical contemporary Orthodox usage of terms used to denote the Holy One, Blessed be He, is inconsistent, too. If G-d correct, why not 'the H-ly -ne, Bl-ss-d be H-' or 'O-r F-th-r, 0-r K-ng? Would not Pascal's phrase, so dear to pulpit rabbis, have to be corrected to "G-d of Abraham lsaac and Joseph to of the philosophers"?

Allow me, then, to plead for logic, moderation, and, above all, respect for the Halakkah among my fellow Jews. Perhaps then we can truly join together in praising the name of the Lord.

To join the conversation at CLAL Encore Talk, click here.

To access the CLAL Spotlight Archive, click here.