Me: It's where Jesus went to talk to G-d before the crucifixion,

and this sparks a maybe-dumb question: I know Jews don't write down all of God's name down, out of respect for it's holiness, right? How do you SAY "God" in convo, if you're an observant Jew? Or do you?

I never wondered this before now. Huh.

If you're talking in English, you say "God." Which is not God's name. (I think the writing of "G-d" is mostly a tradition to preserve the idea of not writing God's name. Most Orthodox folk would tell you it's unnecessary, since the word "God" is not the holy word. My Orthodox ex-GF definitely wrote it out regularly.) If you're talking in Hebrew, I believe (though I'm uncertain) that you would say "Elohim" instead of His actual name. When you come to the name of God in the prayer books, anyway, you say Elohim.

The main reason it's not spoken often, I believe, is simply to preserve the reverence of it. It's not precisely forbidden to speak it, so much as it's seen as a very powerful word to say. Like the way fantasy novels talk about the true names of people/things.

The main reason it isn't often written down, from what I understand, is because if it is written down then the paper it is written on has to be treated as holy - there are various rituals that must be observed in its disposal, for example. Can't just throw God's name in the trash.

I got a Borders gift card for Christmas, Privilege of the Sword is one of my possibles.

Thanks, Gris! So it's the writing down of the name that carries the power, and not the speaking of the name (since, IIRC, the true name of God is thought, in Jewish theology, to be unknowable, right?)

I hear "Hashem" mostly, in casual conversation That might just be my DH, though, I couldn't say. Or a Litvak thing.

It's another of those building a fence around the thing you really aren't supposed to do - don't do things that are anything like what is forbidden to absolutely keep you from doing the really forbidden thing. So, you don't say "God" just in case that is, through some amazing coincidence, the Name.

Eta: The tetragrammaton is holy, so you have the disposal problem Gris mentions, but it's also unpronounceable, so saying it isn't really a problem.

So, you don't say "God" just in case that is, through some amazing coincidence, the Name.

So is it OK to call him "Bob", or does the same problem apply? If "Bob" was the real name of God it would give a whole new meaning to the Buffista phrase "Bob likes carrots".

Same problem, is my understanding. You can use Hashem or Elohim or Adonai b/c those are titles that have come down to us from the Patriarchs as being okay to use.

I think. My study has been piecemeal and haphazard.

(grumble) Took her long enough. I read Swordspoint and Thomas the Rhymer--what? fifteen years ago?--'bout damn time she wrote more about Alec and Richard.

Ah, so the point of Hashem or Elohim or Adonai is that these are words we know for sure are not the real name of G_D. (subject to caveat that you are answering from memory).

Part of the point, I'd say. Lots of points, I'm pretty sure.