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Parshas Vayakhel

Posted by Ron Coleman on March 16, 2007

This week’s Torah portion is Vayakhel:

The Talmud (Tractate Shabbos 108) declares that through Sabbath observance even one who worships idols is forgiven. Why is Sabbath observance, as expressed primarily through refraining from creative acts, so fundamental?

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This entry was posted on March 16, 2007 at 2:21 pm and is filed under Faith and Works. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

6 Responses to “Parshas Vayakhel”

  1. Ara's avatar

    Ara said

    March 16, 2007 at 4:03 pm

    Shabbat Shalom!

  2. Ron Coleman's avatar

    Ron Coleman said

    March 18, 2007 at 8:27 am

    Thanks — hope you had a good one, too!

  3. Barrette's avatar

    Barrette said

    March 19, 2007 at 10:34 am

    Ron: What is the reason behind dropping the “o” when referencing the Supreme Being?

  4. Ron Coleman's avatar

    Ron Coleman said

    March 19, 2007 at 10:39 am

    This is a little choppy but I think it about gets the point right:

    The words God and Lord (Adonai) are often written by many Jews as G-d and L-rd as a way of avoiding writing a name of God, as to avoid the risk of the sin of erasing or defacing the name. Any Hebrew name of God is forbidden to be erased. In Deuteronomy 12:3-4, the Torah exhorts one to destroy idolatry, and from here it is understood not to erase the name of God. However, since this is in English, it is often considered unnecessary since only the Hebrew name is considered God’s actual name, but since God is God’s name in English, it is often done out of a side of respect and just an extra precaution. There is a dispute to the degree of holiness that the word “God” is. The common rabbinic opinion on whether this applies only to Hebrew names of God, or to the English word “God” as well is that “God” written in any language other than Hebrew, has no holiness and can be erased. So while considered unnecessary, it is still often written with a hyphen as to give the Name proper respect. It is considered necessary by some, a minhag (custom) by most, and not done at all by others. Most Orthodox Jews and many Jews in general will write G-d in this manner. The Orthodox Jewish information website, Aish.com, uses God instead of G-d. They cite the reason that many users coming to the Aish HaTorah website are unfamilar with Judaism and would be initially unfamilar with the spelling G-d, so since it is not required that G-d is written, only preferred, they do not do it. According to their website, spelling it G-d is not according to halacha (Jewish law), so according to “leading Torah scholars”, non-Hebrew names can be erased.[1] Other Jewish websites, such as Chabad.org, spell it G-d, and this is the version commonly found on most Jewish publications.

    With writing on the computer screen, technically the words are actually erased and rewritten 50 or 60 times a second (“refreshed”). This is no different to erasing the word God or shutting the computer off. Nonetheless, many Jews still write G-d on the computer as a sign of respect, to demonstrate a reference to God is being made.

    Wikipedia.

  5. Barrette's avatar

    Barrette said

    March 19, 2007 at 12:14 pm

    Thank you for pointing me in the right direction on that question. I have repeatedly seen that in a number of different fora and could not figure it out!

  6. work meridia's avatar

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    September 10, 2007 at 4:38 am

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