To Jews, does it bother you if someone spells out God's Hebrew name?

I am a religious studies major, and often I write papers in which I must refer to the tetragrammaton. I either spell it with the English "equivalents" to the Hebrew letters, spell it with the actual Hebrew letters, or spell it out the way that most scholars have decided it was most likely pronounced.





Is this offensive to Jews? Is it acceptable for a non-Jew to write the Holy Name out for a scholarly paper or academic study?





Is there an alternative?

To Jews, does it bother you if someone spells out God's Hebrew name?
since i'm religious, i must admitt that it hurts me VERY deeply, and creates a burning fire inside me, half rage, half hurtfullness-even as i right this i am hurt. (don't worry though-you didn't do anything, it's just me)
Reply:Only write YHWH. God's Name is Holy... sacred.
Reply:What an enlightened question!





It doesn't bother me personally, but I had to check the 'rules' out of interest (you probably know all this stuff...).





Jews are not actually prohibited (by commandment) from writing the name of God, but refrain from doing so because of the fact that any piece of writing has a necessarily finite existence. Because the name of God is inherently holy, it cannot possibly be rendered finite (and therefore eraseable). This is why it is never written.





It seems, however, that writing on a computer monitor is regarded as impermanent, and therefore 'exempt' (until it is printed, at which time it becomes a permanent, but destroyable rendering).





See for example the 'warning' at the top of this page:


http://www.jewfaq.org/name.htm





PS. Isn't it interesting that writing "yud hay vav hay", as the person above shows, is a valid alternative? (In the same that writing "G-d" with the hyphen is OK)? But it's still a way of writing down a name for God, so it doesn't really solve the problem. Wouldn't the willful destruction of these names still be sacriligious?
Reply:Personally, it doesn’t offend me. Religious books often use yud hay vav hay and i have seen many religious using the transliterated version. We are free to write the name our selves it is just when we do we are not supposed to erase or destroy it so the document takes on a “holly” status. The custom is actually that you are supposed to bury it and let it decompose. So in short its fine for you to use the name especially in scholarly documents (spreading knowledge is the name of the game right ;) ) but if you do just give it the respect it deserves. As for the other names of G-d the other guy got it right.
Reply:B"H


I have to admit, it does make me flinch. I prefer when people refer to the GD of Avraham as "HaShem".





If you really want to use another name, you can add a dash to make it throw-out-able. (Ad-o-nai, for example)





Many argue that the laws about the written Name only apply to Hebrew letters, and the extension to English is out of respect and piety.
Reply:No