Oh My G— !

March 2, 2004 at 2:46:37p.m.

I never write G-d for God. I am tempted to write -o- (dash, o, dash), however. And I absolutely have to laugh, chortle, and guffaw at those Jewish journals that insist on writing H-Shem. That is just the pinnacle of ridiculousness. Hashem is a replacement for God’s Hebrew name (it literally means “the name”), and now we don’t even write that anymore – we hyphenate it and leave out a letter?!

To those who would write G-d or G*d or even -o-, please remember that God is not His name. It is His title. Also, it is in English. Rambam listed the names that we are not allowed to use casually – the English word God was not one of them.

Back when she was in second grade, my daughter had a teacher in yeshiva who insisted that she call herself Tal-kah and not Talia. We felt that since we did not name her for a Johnson & Johnson baby product, we would keep her name as Talia.

Recently a national kashrut magazine told its readers that “leading rabbanim” have forbidden the eating of certain chocolate “gelt” because the foil wrapper says “In God we trust.”

Our comment is that those rabbanim should sit for a smikha exam. Or at the very least go back and learn halakha. How absurd. Why don’t we just pile chumra on top of chumra until there is nothing left to eat? Feh!

(RJR)