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.

Thanks -t

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.

Yeah. There's really no good religious reason for not writing it in English, but I grew up with the tradition of not writing it, and even though I know that there's no good reason not to write it, writing it makes me uncomfortable, so I don't.

Hashem is the one generally used in conversation, since it just means "The Name." Most religious people that I know won't say the other words that you mentioned except in prayer or study. (If you watch carefully on some TV shows and movies, when they show a character lighting a menorah or something, if the character is played by a Jewish actor, he or she will frequently substitute "Hashem" for the other words for G-d in the blessings.)