[David25921]

'HaShem' literally means 'the name'. It is a placeholder for the ineffable name of God. In order not to use God's name in a profane context, people will use HaShem instead, when quoting prayers or holy texts. Even in the proper context, the tetragrammaton (YHVH) is never pronounced. The word 'adonai' (which can roughly be translated as 'lord') is used. In order not to confuse this sacred use with potentially non-sacred uses, HaShem is then used to replace 'adonai'.

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Name : David25921, Gender : M, Religion : Jewish, Age : 33, City : Cambridge, State : MA Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[Nancy]

I recently ran across the name "Hashem" as a name for God. I never saw this before, but it was on a web page about Orthodox Judaism. I wondered about the derivation of it and consulted my dictionary, but all I found was "hashemites," who were a group of people, so that didn't fit. So what is the etymology of the name "Hashem"?

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Name : Nancy, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, City : Tucson, State : AZ Country : United States, 

[PappaJerry]

Judaism has many words that signify 'God'. Hashem is one of them. The literal translation is 'The Name', meaning, 'the name (of God)'.

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Name : PappaJerry, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 66, City : Tampa, State : FL Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jesse-N30813]

Use of the term Hashem is common in Jewish circles. Literally it is Hebrew for 'the name'. It is used in speech in order to avoid accidental use of G-d's name in vain, or similar transgressions. In written form it serves the same purpose, with the additional objective of making the paper not sacred; if one wrote THE NAME on a paper, then the paper is sacred and requires suitable treatment and disposal. There's a lot more to the subject, but this is the short version.

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Name : Jesse-N30813, Gender : M, Religion : Jewish, Age : 40, City : Herzliya, State : NA Country : Israel, Occupation : Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, 

[Uri]

HaShem means 'the Name' in Hebrew. Jewish law and custom say one should not use the regular Hebrew names for God outside of prayer. So Orthodox Jews developed many other ways of referring to God. 'HaShem' is just the most popular these days.

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Name : Uri, City : RBS, State : NA Country : Israel, 

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