Q&A: The Explicit Divine Name
The Explicit Divine Name
Question
I’m currently editing a book in which one of the characters invokes the explicit divine name in various contexts. The author wants the book to be “kosher” with respect to divine names, so for example he is careful to write the name of Lordship as “Ado-nai.”
As for the explicit name, he writes it by doubling the letters: “YYY-HHHWWWWAHH” (this also conveys the character’s ecstatic pronunciation).
The question is whether one must insert a hyphen in the name as I did, or whether the doubling of the letters itself already takes it out of the category of the Tetragrammaton.
(I’m not getting into the topic of printing versus writing. From the author’s perspective it’s all the same, and he wants the names to be “kosher.”)
Answer
If you double letters, then it is no longer the name. Though if there is a yod in the middle and after it a heh, then perhaps there is room to use a hyphen. One could debate the fine points of this. But that seems awkward to me. In my view, it is better to write the name normally with a hyphen.