[Avodah] City named after G-d

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

In the thread titled "City named after AZ", R' Dov Kay asked:
> When I was a teenager, I visited the city of Christchurch
> in New Zealand.  Should enunciation of the name of this
> city be forbidden? Does the fact that it has become the
> name of a city make a difference?

There is a similar question which I've wondered about for a very long time. The above question pushed me to send this post, but I just couldn't bring myself to use that title, which is why I've changed the subject line to "City named after G-d".

At several points in Sefer Bereshis -- mostly this past week in Vayishlach -- we encounter a place whose name is "Beis El". This is clearly written as two words. My question: Is the second of those words kodesh, or is it chol? If there would be a serious error in writing it, would a sofer be allowed to erase it, or would he be required to cut it out and keep it intact, like with other sheimos?

On the one hand, one could argue that it is merely part of the name of the place. On the other hand, it sure *looks* like G-d's name, given that it is spelled the same, is pronounced the same, and truth to tell, the place *was* named after Him.

(Disclaimer: I must admit that beyond my curiosity, I do have an ulterior motive for asking this question. Namely: If "Beis El" is a new name and therefore chol, then there is certainly no problem with new names like Yisrael and Eliyahu, despite what some people might think.)

Akiva Miller

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