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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