Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!dave From: dave@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Sherman) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Amen Message-ID: <1780@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Mon, 18-Jul-83 10:26:18 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.1780 Posted: Mon Jul 18 10:26:18 1983 Date-Received: Mon, 18-Jul-83 11:08:03 EDT References: <179@auvax.UUCP> Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto Lines: 30 It is true that Amen comes from the Hebrew and basically means "so be it". It is used throughout Jewish observance when one hears a blessing (e.g., when one hears a blessing that someone else says before eating food). "Amen" is an acrostic made up of the Hebrew letters A-M-N (aleph, mem, nun), which stand for "G-d is a faithful king" (E-l Melech Ne-eman). Incidentally, posting this article leads me to wonder about how to deal with a particular religious problem. Judaism is *very* concerned about the sanctity of holy names, and a piece of paper with G-d's name on it (in any of several versions) should never be destroyed. Similarly, there are substitute oral names (e.g., I would pronounce the version of the name which the aleph in the above reference stands for as "Kel", unless actually using it during prayers). Now, I wonder what the effect is of someone "writing" a holy name in digital form? Talk about "destroying" is is kind of meaningless, because the name only exists visually on a screen which is somewhat ephemeral anyway. And it's going to be "copied" electronically across the whole continent, and thousands of other people are going to have the name "written" on their terminals and then will "destroy" it. Those people with hardcopy terminals will definitely get it on paper and then, in most cases, destroy it. And then, after two weeks, the article will expire and be "destroyed" hundreds of times. Of course, this is only an English transliteration (or, in the case of "G-d", a translation), but it still makes me wonder. Since I'm not sure, I've written both the English and the Hebrew (transliteration) above with hyphens. Does anyone have any comments on this? Dave Sherman Toronto