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I am wondering where is Rabbi Chaim Rapoport here? What is his position? I do not see his name as one of the signatories.
As the author of a book dealing with this issue which has gotten a good deal of publicity, who has lectured more than once at YCT on the topic, his absence raises questions.
Does he not agree with the statement? It would not be rash to assume that R. Helfgott was influenced by him, since they both have taught at YCT over the past few years.
Oops-wrong post – moving over now..
Adding the matriarchs to the patriarchs in the Amida may be a welcome addition (the non-Orthodox have done it for years), but what about concubine rights? When will Bilhah and Zilpah get their due, having mothered one-third of the ancestral tribes?
Commenting on the Israel Rubin’s “The How & Why of Jewish Prayer” who stated that the word Jeho/vah/ (with its variations) is gibberish, Nachum wrote:
Nachum on September 13, 2011 at 3:05 am
4. How is “Yahweh” “gibberish” based on German? It’s a scientific reconstruction of the name, based on the fact that lots of names end in “-yah” and the rest of the word is probably derived from the word “howeh” (the correct pronunciation of a vav is “w”) meaning “is” or “causes to be”, i.e. “He Who Is” (as Hashem said to Moshe) or “He Who creates”, and is probably the best guess
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Israel Rubin’s response on the word origin of Jeho/vah follows:
The word Jeho/vah/Yah/weh (with its variations) is of relatively recent Christian origin. Jews never been used the term. The fact is that we do not know the original pronunciation of Jeho/vah. We can only surmise. There were no vowels in the Hebrew word of ‘Jeho/vah.’ The absence of vowel marks (consonants only) makes it impossible to determine exact pronunciation. Yah/weh is not correct for Yah/weh contains vowels. At any rate Jews would not dare enunciate that word for its absolute holiness. Instead they pronounced it Adonai which means ‘the Lord.’
I am told that the divine name occurs almost 7,000 times in Tanach and is spelled (in English) with four consonants—YHWH or JHVH. These four-consonant words are commonly called the Tetragrammaton, or Tetragram, derived from two Greek words meaning “four letters.” Be that as it may, Jeho/vah is an artificial name and does not represent anything in our liturgy. It appears from research that the word Jeho/vah was incorrectly created by a non-Jewish German interpreter with limited knowledge of Hebrew. In truth it is gibberish with no historical import or connotation. On the other hand there are those who maintain that it was not created by a German interpreter. Those who hold that opinion claim that the word goes back to Roman times well before the era of German scholars. The ‘I’ in Latin became ‘J’ in English. In fact many pronounce J as a Y. and V as a W. In which case Jeho/vah and Yah/weh are the same. The goyim erroneously ascribe both these terms to HaShem, and some claim that the name is derived from Jove which relates to Jupiter. But note the timeline! Hebrew came well before the Latin and the Hellenistic Empires, so how is it possible to claim that our Creator was a derivative of “Iupiter”!
It is a result of Christian misconstruction of the Tetragrammaton, the “Shem HaShem” In Hebrew, the Tetragrammaton is spelled yud, h/ei, vav, h/ei. Hence the transliteration into English with the letters YHVH. But in German, the letter ‘W’ sounds like a ‘v’.
The result: “Yahweh” in English. ‘Jeho/vah’ is a variation of ‘Yahweh’. Biblical Hebrew alphabet has no corresponding letter to ‘J’ or ‘W’. Consequently both the words Jeho/vah and Yah/weh are not anything. From our standpoint these terms are gibberish
BS”D
I noticed that the review of my new sefer, “The Power of Aleinu” was included on your blog/links ie the review, “Just One Word: Aleinu by the Jewish Star.
Would it be possible for the sefer to be reviewed in your book section as well, I would appreciate this greatly. If I can be of assistance in sending you a copy please let me now.