[Avodah] HaShem as God's Name

[T613K at aol.com]

From: _yfel912928 at aim.com_ (mailto:yfel912928 at aim.com) 


>>I think the use of "Hashem" is a sociological phenomenon. That  is, whereas 
it had been the community preference to fit-in and be considered  religiously 
normal among other Americans, there came to be a need/inclination to  stand 
out and be different. Like so much else in contemporary Yiddishkeit, it  
probably stems from a reaction to the 1960's, when differences became points of  
pride and ethnicity suddenly shined and mattered.<<

-- Yaakov  Feldman




>>>>>
I think it goes back way before that, to a  discomfort with using non-Jewish 
or non-loshon hakodesh names for G-d.   Even way before the Sixties, even in 
the shtetl, my impression is that it was  rare for people to refer to Him as 
"Gott" but rather they would say the  "Ribono Shel Olam" which, the way my 
grandparents said it, when I was a  child I thought was one  six-syllable Yiddish 
word -- "Ribonashalolam"  -- with the major stress on the second syllable and a 
secondary stress on the  fifth (penultimate) syllable.  (I also thought my 
grandfather's name was  "Moshechiel" -- one Yiddish word -- not realizing it was 
"Moshe Yechiel" until  much later.)  The other word frequently used was the 
one R' Micha mentioned  the other day, der Aibershter.  If you were learning it 
might be  "Hakadosh Baruch Hu" but that was used less often.  A constant 
saying I  heard as a child was "Der Ribonoshelolam feert zein velt."  Very  
comforting, no matter what happened.  Another one, to counter-balance that  one and 
prevent total passivity, was "A Yid git zich an eitza."  Thus, "G-d  runs the 
world" but at the same time, "Jews are resourceful."


--Toby  Katz
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