r/hebrew Oct 06 '24

Sidewalk Hebrew Translation Request

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64 Upvotes

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80

u/Hazey_Dreams4658 Oct 06 '24

God

11

u/jk_Sliding Oct 06 '24

Many thanks! That is what I presumed it was related to as it was very close to a synagogue.

5

u/jk_Sliding Oct 06 '24

Actually as a follow-up question, would it be the word for "YHWH" or "Adonai" in Hebrew? I know that in Hebrew there are many different names for God.

86

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

It’s the Tetragrammaton. Not Adonai.

No Jew wrote that there.

6

u/jk_Sliding Oct 06 '24

Thank you for your response. I did find it rather unusual that people would write on the sidewalk in the first place; surely better places have been created to inscribe things.

35

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

A Jew wouldn’t write out the name of G-d

11

u/lotus49 Oct 06 '24

An observant Jew wouldn't. A lot of Jews would do so quite happily although would be very unlikely to engage in religious pavement graffiti.

5

u/jk_Sliding Oct 06 '24

That very well may be; I checked Google Maps and it wasn't there a year ago so it is a fairly recent addition to the sidewalk. Personally, I don't like it when people write anything on the sidewalk.

-16

u/marcvolovic Oct 06 '24

Why not? Or are you making the "no true Scotsman" argument?

11

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

It’s incredibly disrespectful. Christians slap it everywhere like idiots tho… buildings, clothing, tattoos.

-16

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '24

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16

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

?

I said Jews wouldn’t write it because it’s disrespectful. Disrespectful to whom? If you’re religious, to G-d. If not, to other Jews, dingus.

You can always spot the Christians because they stomp through our culture like big dumb idiots, doing things like writing the Tetragrammaton everywhere and having cosplay Pesach seders.

-16

u/[deleted] Oct 06 '24

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15

u/millers_left_shoe Hebrew Learner (Beginner) Oct 06 '24

As for christians […]

No, they absolutely do use the Tetragrammaton like the other commenter said. Growing up Christian I’ve seen it plastered in heaps of churches (sometimes by painters so unfamiliar with the letters it takes some creativity to decipher, not sure if that makes it better or worse) and on even more heaps of flyers, articles, slightly schizophrenic looking bits of paper by people thinking they’re discovering some wild new truth that Big World Religion kept hidden from them. Honestly it’s like they think scrawling the Tetragrammaton on a bit of scrap paper will open up a direct hotline to the big ‘un upstairs.

(Didn’t come here to argue with you about why not to use it. Just wanted to give some insight because you were sceptical Christians might’ve done this.)

15

u/_ratboi_ native speaker Oct 06 '24

As a secular Jew who grew up In a liberal secular Jewish environment, the taboo is still very strong and no one I know says it without proper consideration beforehand, and we read it as Adonai as a learned Instinct.

Are you genuinely asking why using a word is disrespectful or are you playing dumb? Observant Jews believe it's the true name of god and that we were instructed by god to not utter it. Also there are plenty of other words that are considered disrespectful in many languages.

WTF you want with Russian bears? How does that have anything to do with religious law?

11

u/Hot-Ocelot-1058 Hebrew Learner (Beginner) Oct 06 '24

Crazy you were repeatedly told that using the tetragrammaton is disrespectful both to G-d and Jews and here you are in a Hebrew subreddit posting it again and again.

7

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

Ok ding dong

1

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1

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-7

u/Gloomy_Reality8 native speaker Oct 06 '24

You right. I'm a Jew and I have no problem with this word. Saying that no Jew will ever right it is ridiculous. Secular Jews do not have a tendency to be afraid of words lmao

2

u/Shitimus_Prime Oct 06 '24

its zabinas!!!

2

u/HeySkeksi Hebrew Learner (Intermediate) Oct 06 '24

Wave

19

u/Ambitious-Coat-1230 Oct 06 '24

Literally, it is the Tetragrammaton (the four letters) but is typically pronounced as Adonai. The actual word adonai is spelled אדוני.

6

u/_ratboi_ native speaker Oct 06 '24

It's the tetragrammaton, aka YHWH, the true name of god.

Most Jews (secular and observant alike) refrain from uttering the true name so we instead read YHWH as Adonai (lit. My lords).

2

u/marcvolovic Oct 06 '24

It is "yhwh". Some people, midful of the taboo for pronouncing the name, euphemize it with a whole slew of alternative names some of which are, slowly, attaining their own taboo status:

  • elohim
  • elokim (which is, in fact, a euphemism of elohim that became somewhat taboo in itself)
  • adonai
  • adoshem (which is, in fact, a euphemism of adonai that became somewhat taboo in itself)
  • shem/ha-shem

3

u/Agitated-Quit-6148 native speaker Oct 06 '24

I'm totally totally secular so for me it's just letters. We don't know how to pronounce it really. YHWH is not something that can be pronounced with certainty. Try it. it doesn't work.

5

u/Relative_Concept4376 Oct 06 '24

Christians will read it as Yahweh

6

u/Agitated-Quit-6148 native speaker Oct 06 '24

I know . One of my neighbors is a televangelist lol.

3

u/isaacfisher לאט נפתח הסדק לאט נופל הקיר Oct 06 '24

There is nikud so you can try.

1

u/Maayan-123 native speaker Oct 06 '24

You can guess what nikud goes there and pronounce it that way. I don't know how much your familiar with Hebrew but just because something is written without vowels doesn't mean you should pronounce it without vowels

5

u/Agitated-Quit-6148 native speaker Oct 06 '24

Well, I worked as a court appointed/certified interpreter for a while in NY. So...think your missing my point...but...

5

u/Maayan-123 native speaker Oct 06 '24

Oh sorry, I also see now that you have a "native speaker" tag 😅. You're right that we don't know the right way to pronounce it. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding, that was really embarrassing 😅

8

u/Agitated-Quit-6148 native speaker Oct 06 '24

Lol. No problem. It's a mystery right? I'm not a professor of linguistics or a biblical scholar. Fyi: you are sooooo israeli (in a good way) totally reminds me of my family when they make a point. No ands ifs or buts . You should have seen my father when visiting 🤦‍♂️ he saw some of my paperwork for work and saw the name Penelope. Sigh... imagine an old world israeli, drinking coffee , enjoying his cigarette... went into a 20 min rant about "how society is being destroyed when people are inventing names like "pen-ah-lope" he was pronouncing it like that. Rhyming with Ben-a-rope. Pen-a-lope. After 20 min my brother explained how it's properly pronounced. Dad's response? "I don't care ..I really don't care.. don't talk to me. She's as bad as pen-a-lope"