[Avodah] "Hashem" as God's name

[Micha Berger]

On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 11:30:35AM -0700, Yonatan Kaganoff wrote:
: I have been looking for some time into the origins of the recent use of
: "Hashem" as God's name in colloquial speech.

This might be a simple Areivim question. Have you determined which came
first, "Hashem" or writing "H'"?

: For an example, my two year old says that I am going to shul to daven
: to "Hashem". I was told that fifty years ago, an Orthodox Jewish child
: would say that he davened to "God."

And before the war, his Yiddish speaking father would have said "de
Aibishter" (the Most High).

Someone asked me by email to translate "Hashem". I went with "<[insert]
the name [of G-d here]>". The surrounding angle brackets to make it
clear I was giving instructions to the reader.

Also related is an observation I made here recently that "qiddush hasheim"
and ch"v its reverse refer to "hasheim", G-d's reputation, not "Hashem" as
a qinui. One can't change G-d by adding to or removing from His Qedushah.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Our greatest fear is not that we're inadequate,
micha at aishdas.org        Our greatest fear is that we're powerful
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