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

[Micha Berger]

On Tue, Sep 02, 2008 at 11:34:38PM -0400, Aryeh Herzig wrote:
: 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? ...

I would think the Qumranim would fall under "seifer Torah shekasvo min",
even if the whole thing were in Ashuris.

I am intrigued by your question, but I don't think the Dead Sea Scrolls
are a good example. To expand the question: Kesav Ivri vs kesav Ashuris
could be viewed in terms of Ivri being special as per the Y-mi. But what
if the sheimos were written in kesav "Rashi" or modern Hebrew script?

IOW, I'm breaking out your question to ask whether
1- any convention for writing Hebrew letters would count as sheimos
and if not,
2- would Ivri be special anyway?


You reminded me of something I asked in grade school, learning mesechtes
Megillah but got accused of being a "wise guy" instead of getting an
answer....

When reading a megillah in a foreign language (Megillah 18a), are there
limits on the kesav? Or do they mean writing Greek in Ashuris letters --
like Yiddish or Ladino?

The tie in: How could a megillah written (for Greek-speakers) in Greek
using Greek letters be more qadosh than one written in Hebrew using
non-Ashuris letters?


Also, what we colloquially call "sheimos" includes two things:
1- texts that contain the 7 actual sheimos
2- texts that contain Torah.
Even if the sheim weren't qadosh, we would still call the text "sheimos"
because of #2.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Nothing so soothes our vanity as a display of
micha at aishdas.org        greater vanity in others; it makes us vain,
http://www.aishdas.org   in fact, of our modesty.
Fax: (270) 514-1507              -Louis Kronenberger, writer (1904-1980)