JFJ Forums

but what is the dash all about in place of the o.

"G-d" is a way of denoting the translation of HaShem or YHVH. Many legalstic believers and non-believers fear to write "HaShem", "YHVH", "God", etc. Why God called Himself HaShem, etc., and then told especially believing people not to say it, would confuse me. Why did Yochanahn ben-Zavdai get to even see the two other Names of Y'shua?

It stems from Deut. 12:3-4 where we were instructed to destroy everything
related to foreign idols, and were not allowed to have this happen to G-d.
This included the destruction of G-d's name. By not writing out the name,
it cannot be desecrated nor destroyed. It is a manner of protecting and
respecting the name of G-d. We also do this with L-rd.
This actually only holds true for permanent writing, and writing out
HaShem's name on a computer would be okay if not for the fact that
someone may print out a paper copy of the name and desecrate it.
So as a precaution, we don't write it on the computer either.
Hope that helps!

I don't know who this Yochanahn Ben Zavdai is? Was he one of Hillel's followers? I remember reading somewhere on Wikipedia that there was a debate between Hillel and some other followers about one taking credit for the other's scholarly work and then Hillel declaring himself the ultimate authority on God's law by special election. How did almost every Jewish campus organization come to be named after Hillel? I'm not familiar with Judaic studies, I just didn't want to insult anyone on the website by not understanding; especially since the format is used in some of my favorite books. As for the two names doesn't Y'shua translate into Joshua in Greek and that both mean "anointed one" and that any other names assigned to Him in the Bible whether Hebrew or Greek i.e. wonderful conselor, prince of peace, sun of righteouness, high priest in the order of Melchizedek, are all testimonies to His Righteous intervention in human history? It's almost as if God is saying... "now you fill in the blank with your testimony about me." You're right, it is by His grace alone that we can speak His Name, not that some are more righteous than others in their walk.    

As I understand:

It is the Jews' way of sanctifying the name of the Lord, and following the commandment:

1These are the statutes and judgments, which ye shall observe to do in the land, which the LORD God of thy fathers giveth thee to possess it, all the days that ye live upon the earth.

2Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree:

3And ye shall overthrow their altars, and break their pillars, and burn their groves with fire; and ye shall hew down the graven images of their gods, and destroy the names of them out of that place.

4Ye shall not do so unto the LORD your God. Deuteronomy 12:1-4



To prevent the name of the Lord from being destroyed--the words representing his name are not written out in formats where they are likely to be casually discarded such as if someone was to print out this post and summarily wad up the paper and throw it away.

So to keep good conscience, many religiously observant Jews will not write out the name God, or Lord with the "o" in place; instead they substitute the dash or underscore. This also serves as a good deed, a mitzvah,  by preventing others from inadvertently breaking the commandment. Thus in religiously observant Jews' writing you will often see: L-rd, or G-d.

Also, a related Jewish practice; to prevent breaking the commandment:
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain." Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11

In vain in the sense of: calling on his name without sincere intent--(not as in using his name for a blasphemous curse).

In some tutorials for standard spoken Jewish prayers -- when the student is practicing reciting the prayer (not truly calling on the Lord at that particular time) the student is instructed to use the word: Ha Shem--meaning "the name",
In place of the names/titles Adonai, or Elohim (Lord), (God) which more closely represent his being.

Blessed be the name of the LORD!

Psalm 113:1-3

Thanks. I will stick to this format in the future. I don't want to cause anyone to violate their own conscious by breaking a commandment.

Yochanahn (John) ben (son of) Zavdai (Zebedee).

But I thought that you were Jewish? Or are you a gentile who joined the Messianic Jewish/Hebrew denomination of the Church?

Just to add my 2 cents. In the "Jews For Jesus" newsletter I get in the mail, God is never written G_d. It is written God, and to be more precise, David Brickner (executive Director) and Moishe Rosen (the founder for Jews for Jesus) neither writes it like that either. So it is doubtful in the least that you are offending them.