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

Moshe Y. Gluck mgluck at gmail.com
Wed Sep 3 10:00:50 PDT 2008


R' Aryeh Herzig:
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.
-------------

The rest of the scroll is written in a more modern script and only the Sheim
was in Ksav Ivri? 

R' AH: 
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 looked at the Trumas Hadeshen brought down by the Ramoh in YD 286:10
because I thought it might be germane. It isn't really, but I did see that
he seems to consider the Machshavah of the Koseiv as a prime factor in the
Kedushah of a written Sheim. So why wouldn't it have Kedushah, if the Koseiv
wrote it with that in mind? The fact that it's an ancient script doesn't
make it a non-language.

KT,
MYG

P.S. The Terumas Hadeshen I referenced (which is an interesting read, BTW -
dealing with the Kedushah of the Yud-Yud printed in Siddurim) is incorrectly
cited in the old SAs. It is really Siman 171 in the Pesakim.




More information about the Avodah mailing list