[Avodah] The Disappearing Doctor of Iyyar: Virtual Vanishing of a Venerable Minhog

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 05:02:54AM -0400, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
: See http://tinyurl.com/mdz6883

Quoting the Treasures of Ashkenaz blog [transliterations mine]:
> The aleph stands for ani, the two yuds for HQBH, and the reish¨ fo
> rofekha. The month is thereby depicted as a month of healing. The vort
> seemingly is based on an old minhog of many generations among Yidden,
> in which the letters yud-yud (sans hyphen) are used to represent the
> venerated name of Hashem

However, even yud-yud is not the original minhag. In older manuscripts
they used three yuds, with the middle one slightly above the line, making
a triangle. Preserved in this printed edition of Siddur R' Saadia Gaon
<http://www.hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20685pgnum=75>.

I suggested two possible reasons for the third yud's disappearance:

- The printing press made that middle yud hard to insert into books,
  because it would require a special letter in the type box. I find this
  one less than compelling, because they kept an alef-lamed ligature in
  the type box, and that got less usage.

- Xians read their own significance into the three letters. This
  would be clearner, if there were any evidence of them actually doing so.

So the two-yud notation was just one step along the way. The general
question of why non-chassidic Ashkenazim (or non-Chida-influenced
Sepharadim) suddenly started writing out the sheim in siddurim is
compelling, but the two-yud notation isn't necessarily some venerable
alternative.

The three yuds was often explained as beind the initial letters of
Birkhas Kohanim; the yuds from Yevarekhekha, Ya'er, and Yisa.

Some suggest that the two yuds represent the first and last letters of
an intertwined sheim havayah and sheim adnus: YUD alef HEI dalet ... HEI
yud. Itself heavily al pi qabbalah.

And associating the two yuds with the transliteration into Hebrew
of an Akkadian month name (Ayyaru = n. blossom) requires even more
omnisignificance and mysticism than does finding significance in
presenting sheim havayah written out.

Where I really see this change as a problem is not because of venerable
minhagim, but because books have less shelf life now than in the
past. Cheap printing means also cheaper paper, not to mention faster
replacement. And if generations past wanted to minimize their sheimos
problems, al achas kamah vekamah we should.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 32nd day, which is
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