My Eleven-Year-Old Archeologist

Paleo-Hebrew The answer posted by Mr. Weisberg makes very much sense now that I realize the use of the double yud for HaShem's name in the Siddur, etc. I based my speculation strictly on the antiquity of the old script as it was in more common use earlier. (When did the Ashurit (square) script become the people's common script...after the 1st exile!) Reply

Paleo-Hebrew cont. Thus, the reason that the Tetragrammaton appears in many of the Dead Sea documents in Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is precisely the opposite of the reason you quote. It is because they of the extreme holiness of this Name and the fear that it may be erased or mistreated that they wrote it in an unholy script so as to minimize its sanctity. This practise of not writing the Tetragramiton properly was entrenched in Jewish practise throughout the ages. In thousands of manuscripts from all parts of the Jewish world from the pre-printing era the Tetragrammaton was not even written, but rather alluded to with two (or 3) letter “Yud”s, or just a “Hey”. This practise was carried over into the age of printing until today. In fact there are several Dead Sea scrolls which employ 4 dots to represent the Tetragrammaton, a practice which may have developed into the custom of using the “Yud”s. Reply

To Melissa and Gavriel, re: Paleo-Hebrew The overwhelming consensus amongst leading Torah scholars from the days of the Gaonim, and onward is that the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, which is practically identical to the Phoenician alphabet was never considered a holy script by Jews but rather a local script the Jews used for all their needs including writing the Torah scrolls they would use to study from on a regular basis. The reason for this was precisely because of the holiness of Ashurit-script which according to Tradition contains the very letters G-d used to create, and uses to sustain, reality. Ashurit is also the script which G-d used to write the Luchot. Out of respect for this holy script they refrained from its usage.
The numerous coins minted by Jews from the Second-Temple era discovered in recent years dating from the period of the Hasmoneans until Bar-Kochba with Paleo-Hebrew letters clearly substantiates this position, as Jews would surely not mint cons with a script they considered extremely holy. Reply

The Hebrew Invention of Vowels Interesting, Gavriel. I do not know enough about Jewish history in the Talmudic period to make any speculation here. Yet another gap in my studies.... I have so much studying to do.

Hoffman's more heretical idea was that the Name was made up entirely of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet that first were used both as consonants and vowels. He says in his book that Hebrew was the first language to write vowels (they were adapted consonants), and therefore it the first written language that was intelligible by non-scribes. Regular people could read and study it, and--still according to Hoffman--therefore Judaism developed a strong tradition of study. Other religions do not have quite our emphasis on study; my rabbi when I lived in SC said study is a form of prayer.

My own belief is that the Name is holy beyond any consideration of language, but that perhaps the Holy One Himself used His Name as a way to teach. Reply

old hebrew script Melissa,
I suspect that the Rabbi's after the 1st galut decided that it was better to write the whole Torah in the "modern" script used by the Babylonians, but couldn't bring themselves to change G-d's name in that way. I suspect that the change in G-d's name didn't come about until the establishment of the Talmudic schools in Sura and Pumbedisah in Babylon, where no one "knew" the old script anymore. Reply

Response to Gavriel You're right, Gavriel. I hadn't looked at this picture carefully enough to notice. Cool. The author whose work pointed this out to me--Joel Hoffman, I think--suggested that perhaps there was some spiritual power originally associated with writing the Name in the older letters. Hoffman also has a radical suggestion about why these letters are the Name of G-d, but I don't know that I agree with him.

Since we now avoid writing the Name on anything that is not of a relgious nature and therefore might not be preserved carefully or protected, I'm guessing that this speculation about spiritual power is probably correct. I'm also guessing that perhaps in the time circa the first century, perhaps the Jewish people saw paleo-Hebrew as more traditional and therefore more powerful. Of course, using the paleo-Hebrew letters for the Name could be specific to whatever community preserved the scrolls in the caves at Qumran. Reply

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Paleo-Hebrew I found this fascinating! Melissa, if you look very carefully at the fragment shown, in the first line, the fourth word (from the right) is HaShem's name written in pre-israelite letters. Reply

A Beautiful Moment This is such a beautiful article. Thanks for sharing that moment, Chana. You must be so proud of your children. They are doing what you have taught them and raised them to do, and it is wonderful.

Were any of the scrolls written in paleo-Hebrew on display? I was not so lucky to attend a Jewish Day School, but one of the Hebrew books from a class at my former synagogue included the paleo-Hebrew. It's interesting: I have read that in many of the scrolls, the Name of the Holy One is inscribed in paleo-Hebrew even if the rest of the scroll is in the more familiar square Hebrew letters. I'm not sure why that was done exactly, but I find it fascinating.

It reminds me that I need to study the psalms more. Reply

11 year old a. Sort of like the (re) birth of Israel- and the re-emergence fof Hebrew; the re-emergence of our people- after all the efforts to eliminate us. And they-all gone (well, almost all- the ayatollahs and their henchmen -including hamas and hezbollah- should be enxt. And we thrive.

And the prayer, writings, etc- still the same. Reply