People of Israel...to march on to the Temple Mount.

[Norske3]

...during Hanukkah>>>>>>>>>>>web page (http://www.templemountfaithful.org/Events/hanukkah2003a.htm)

[Bruce G]

Is there a reason this article will not spell out God, rather than G-d?

What is that all about? Has God been changed to a word that is not allowed to be in written form?

Could the author be afraid of breaking one of the 10 Commandments and not take the Lord's name in vain? If anyone knows please let me know, for I am very interested.

[Paul Denison]

Orthodox Jews will not say God's name.

[Scott Rosen]

Close, Paul.

No one says God’s name, because no one knows what it is. If you recall your biblical history, you will remember that the only person allowed to utter the name of God was the High Priest, and only on the day of atonement. Legend has it that the name was lost after the destruction of the Second Temple. In Hebrew, God’s name is represented in two different ways: one of them has two letters which by themselves form no sound, and the other has four letter which form no sound. In the first instance, those letters are the Hebrew yud, which is equivalent to the English letter “y.” It would be like writing YY. The other way is yud, hey, vav hey, which is equivalent to YHVH. In Hebrew, they are both pronounced Adonai, which means “The Lord.”

English translators have mistakenly translated these as Jehova or Yaweh.

Orthodox Jews will spell out the word “God”, but not if there’s any chance that the paper it’s written on will be defiled. According to Orthodoxy, any document or object bearing the name of God cannot be thrown in the trash, dropped on the ground or otherwise treated as a profane object. Prayerbooks, Torah scrolls and the like, which contain the word for “God” cannot be thrown out, but must be buried in a dignified fashion.

An Orthodox Jew might not use the word “God” on the internet because someone could print it and defile it.

Merry Chistmas.

[Meerkat]

Happy Hanukkah Scott!

[Jack Heinlen]

The notion, one of the central ones of Judaism, that God cannot be imagined, and therefore not named, is a fine, true one. It speaks to how easily the human psyche creates and then worships idols.

But an intellectual construct, faith based in a theology that is inflexible, hard, can be just as bad. The movement in Israel today, that wants to chase out the idolatrous Muslims from the Temple Mount, rebuild the Temple--along with their wacky fundamentalist Christian supporters--is one of the most dangerous movements in the world. Their use of the Maccabees as role models points to their volatile and dangerous nature.

One would be convinced to label them crazy, except that they have a fair number of follower worldwide. They are out of their fookin' minds. Even though small in percentage, they are vocal and potentially violent.

G-d save us.