9:46 AM
Gil Student
REVISED ONE MORE TIME:
Nisht, at the House of Hock, noted that The Forward has started hyphenating God's name (into G-d). Nisht claimed that there is no halakhic basis for this practice, to which I countered that it is a matter of dispute. I was challenged to present a source, which I failed to do.
The Shakh (Yoreh De'ah, 276:11) writes that there is no prohibition against erasing God's name in any language other than in Hebrew. The Havos Ya'ir (109; 106 in old editions) disagrees and rules that one may not erase God's name that was written in any language provided that it was written with Hebrew letters in Ashuris script (the script used in Torah scrolls). However, he adds, even if it is written in other scripts, we must still treat it with respect and may not denigrate it (e.g. by throwing it in the garbage). R. Akiva Eiger, in his notes to Yoreh De'ah 276, cites the Rashbatz who holds that God's name in languages other than Hebrew has the status of a kinui (nickname) and may, therefore, be erased. The Minhas Hinukh (437:5) follows the Shakh that only God's name in Hebrew has sanctity but argues that this is true regardless of the script used to write it. The Darkhei Teshuvah quotes the Hokhmas Adam (64:7) as being strict on this issue but I do not have it handy to look it up (yes, I'm embarrassed to wrote that I have neither a Hayei Adam nor a Hokhmas Adam UPDATE: See Hokhmas Adam 89:9).
The following is what the Arukh Ha-Shulhan (Hoshen Mishpat 27:3) has to say on the matter:
Many gedolim have protested against the practice of writing God's name, whether in Hebrew, a mundane language or any language, in mundane letters between friends because the letters are eventually placed in the garbage and the names within them come to denigration. Poverty descended upon the world due to this terrible sin. Our ancestors established a holiday when people stopped writing God's name in vain on contracts, due to the concern that when the contracts were fulfilled they would be thrown in the garbage (Rosh Hashanah 18b). It is known that women and ignorami frequently violate this prohibition. Therefore, everyone should be careful not to use letters for any degrading purpose... Rather, it is proper to burn mundane letters. However, if one knows that there is written on it a name of God one is prohibited from burning them and must, instead, cut out the names and respectfully place them in genizah. Upon one who follows this will descend the blessing of good, amen and amen.This would explain why people tend to be strict on this matter. It is, clearly, another manifestation of the Ashkenazic tendency to have great reverence for God's name. I support this reverence, but find some of the strictures so remote that I cannot follow them (like writing the name Yehudah with an aleph rather than a hei* or writing Hay' instead of Hayah**). (I have long desired to write a paper tracing this trend throughout Ashkenazic history. But it is low on my long list of things-to-do. I'm currently working on two papers simultaneously, with another ready in my head but not yet put to paper.)
* Yehudah is normally spelled as YHVDH. If you forget the D then it is God's name. Therefore, to avoid that possibility, the name is sometimes spelled YHVDA.
** Hayah is spelled HYH. The last two letters are a name of God so some leave off the last H to avoid spelling God's name even as part of another's name.
