[Avodah] NASA, Dead-Sea Scrolls and G-D's holy name

Aryeh Herzig guraryeh at gmail.com
Tue Sep 2 20:34:38 PDT 2008


The popular hareidi Mishpacha magazine has an article today about how NASA's technology is enhancing Dead Sea scroll images making them more readable.
It has a picture of a fragment which, on close examination, seems to be pieces of Psalms 102.  Although all the words are in Ktav Ashuri, the four-letter written name of HaShem is clearly spelled out (line 6) in ancient Ktav Ivri.  This way of writing His Name was common practice in all the scrolls - probably to emphasize the prohibition of its pronunciation.  
Had the editor of Mishpacha been been able to read it, he surely would not have included this picture.

My question to everyone:    Does the page require Geniza?  

More to the point, does anyone deal with the question of the Kedusha of Ktav Ivri in our times?   An era in which most Jews do not even know what it is.  Keep in mind that, according to Yerushalmi, this is the script the Luchos were written in - MIchtav Elokim, no less  (Bavli differs on this point).
Even if these scrolls may have been written by Zdokim and may require Sreifa, it is still prohibited to treat them disrespectfully.

(I am not writing the magazine because they probably will not know what I'm talking about.)

Aryeh Herzig
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20080902/7fd76b39/attachment-0001.htm>


More information about the Avodah mailing list