dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) (08/04/83)
A few weeks ago I posted an article about the origin of "Amen" in
which I mused over the problem of destroying sacred names which are
"written" in digital form. I got a number of replies by mail which
expressed interest in hearing the answer, so here it is for the net:
I spoke with Rabbi David Schochet, who is the senior Rabbi (the "Rav")
of the Lubavitch community in Toronto. (Lubavitchers are Orthodox
Jews who follow particular teachings and a particular way of life;
they are fully observant of halachah, Jewish religious law.)
Rabbi Schochet's answer can be summarized as follows:
1. The translation or transliteration of a holy name into English
is not the same as the original, but it is still holy, and, if
written on paper, should not be destroyed. One should write "G-d"
instead.
2. "Writing" on disk is not the same as making a writing ("k'sivah").
Therefore, it is permissible to destroy a holy name (in Hebrew or
English) which is written on disk. However, one should not erase
simply the name itself; one should do so only when destroying/erasing
the entire document or paragraph.
3. Records (the record-player type), audio tapes and magnetic tape
fall into the same category as disks. They are not k'sivah. (Thus,
a tape of someone reciting prayers with sacred names can be destroyed.)
Microfilm, however, is k'sivah, even though you may need a special
reader or microscope to read the writing.
4. If you are creating a file on disk and put a holy name into it,
it is not your reponsibility if someone chooses to run it off
onto hardcopy and then destroy the hardcopy. The same goes for
sending someone private mail, if you know they will be reading
the mail on a screen rather than hardcopy terminal.
5. When posting news, you can be pretty sure someone out there will
be reading the news either with a hardcopy terminal (does anyone
actually do this? I'd like to hear) or via "readnews -p" to the
line printer. Accordingly, you should not put holy names into
news because they will certainly be printed on paper and then
destroyed as a result of your actions.
6. Even when sending private mail, it is better to use hyphens
so that you are not spelling out the name in full, to be
safer and out of respect for the holiness of what you are
writing. However, as outlined in #4 above, it is not prohibited
to spell out the full name.
Hope this was useful to some of you.
(It's a change from unc!tim vs. Christianity, anyway.)
Dave Sherman
Toronto
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{linus,cornell,watmath,ihnp4,floyd,allegra,utzoo,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!dave