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Many times in Tanach, God is referred to as יהו-ה or אדנ-י. Individually, each of these is read as Adonai. However, when those two different names are mentioned consecutively, the custom is to pronounce the יהו-ה name as Elohim.

Why is יהו-ה pronounced differently when these names appear consecutively?

Double AA
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Yaakov Ellis
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    The name יהוה is really pronounced something like 'yahvah'. Substituting it for the name אדני out of respect works fine except when the name אדני is already right there when it would get confusing. So people substitute a different name in those cases. – Double AA Feb 11 '18 at 19:16
  • @DoubleAA Doesn't there have to be something more basic than "substituting [something that makes sense] out of respect"? You can get out of shema by בכל לשון, but how can the kohanim fulfill birkat kohanim without some deoraita rationale to say אדני specifically? (This is all for saying it as אדני, I can't think offhand of any אדני יהוה in the ones that have to be said in lashon hakodesh.) – Heshy Feb 11 '18 at 22:13
  • @heshy birkat kohanim is indeed supposed to be with Shem haMeforash. See Sotah 38a – Double AA Feb 11 '18 at 22:46
  • @DoubleAA ??? ובמדינה בכינויו. Are you saying it's derabbanan in the medinah? – Heshy Feb 11 '18 at 23:49
  • @heshy certainly some opinions have held that (consider how it can be Deorayta without Avoda if Tefillah is Derabanan). But anyway if you look at the Gemara I referenced they search for a special derasha to allow kinui in the medinah. So that answers your question: it's a special gezera to allow kinuyim for birkat kohanim – Double AA Feb 11 '18 at 23:50
  • http://mg.alhatorah.org/Full/Bereshit/15.2#e0n7 Radak and RDZ Hoffman discuss the reading of the first one as Ado- and second one as Elo- likely an answer – רבות מחשבות Feb 12 '18 at 03:06
  • However, note these cases as well: http://mg.alhatorah.org/Search?mode=basic&p=0&c=0&s=0&t=יהוה%20אדני&distance=0&inorder=1&en=0¬es=0 – רבות מחשבות Feb 12 '18 at 03:11
  • Indeed @רבות the question no longer specifies the order the names appear in so long as they are consecutive – Double AA Feb 12 '18 at 04:06
  • @DoubleAA I get it, but according to the opinions that it's deoraita [I'd need to see it inside but as you've articulated it I'm not convinced by the tefillah argument, that's like saying how can zachor be deoraita if leining in general isn't, maybe we just do both together] that means either (1) there's a deoraita reason to read it as אדני specifically or (2) it would work bedieved if you would say another kinuy like Elokim instead. The second would be a chiddush to me, but I guess it's possible. – Heshy Feb 12 '18 at 10:56
  • @Heshy Working bedieved and valid deorayta are different. It could still be the rabanan invalidate it or something. But ya, that's the simplest understanding of the situation methinks (if you hold birkat kohanim nowadays is deorayta). I also wouldn't find it crazy for someone to consider that the rules of name substitution are Halakha leMoshe miSinai or something. See too https://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/66860/759 who also assumes this is substitution. – Double AA Feb 12 '18 at 16:34
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    @Heshy The Keren Orah to Sotah is bothered by your point btw: והיה נראה קצת, דחיוב מצוה זו בגבולין לאו דבר תורה הוא, דכתיב "ושמו את שמי" וכו' – שמי המיוחד לי, והיינו בבית הבחירה דווקא אבל לא בגבולין. אבל מסתפינא לומר כן. The most famous (IMO) proponent of it being derabanan nowadays is R Yaakov Emden. – Double AA Feb 12 '18 at 16:47
  • IIRC, any time we see YKVH twice consecutively in Tanac"h, the 2nd one is pronounced Elohim. There's just one exception to this - in the 13 middot. Something tells me this is discussed in some Gemarah, but I don't recall where. Before I research, would this angle answer your question? – DanF Feb 12 '18 at 20:53
  • @doubleaa see gemara pesachim 50a, implies that substituting name אדנ-י for יהו-ה is מן הדין and not just out of respect. ר' אבינא רמי כתיב (שמות ג, טו) זה שמי לעלם וזה זכרי לדור דור אמר הקב"ה לא כשאני נכתב אני נקרא נכתב אני ביו"ד ה"א ונקרא אני באל"ף דל"ת – Yaakov Ellis Feb 14 '18 at 21:39
  • @danf definitely sounds promising – Yaakov Ellis Feb 14 '18 at 21:40
  • @yaa I had seen it but don't see anything about din. It's an eschatological aggadita. The proof is they would read it correctly under certain circumstances like the KG on Yom Kippur. If that was din there's be no other correct way – Double AA Feb 14 '18 at 21:41
  • @danf there is only one time in Tanakh that YKVK shows up twice in a row, so that's not an exception to anything... – Double AA Feb 14 '18 at 21:42
  • The gemara implies that the alternate pronunciation is based on a derasha from the passuk, and not just out of respect. – Yaakov Ellis Feb 14 '18 at 21:43
  • @DoubleAA I thought my comment was clear. The exception is in the 13 middot where YKVH appears twice they are both pronounced Adonai. Everywhere else, the 1st is Adonai and the 2nd is Elohim. If I'm wrong about this, inform me, please. – DanF Feb 14 '18 at 21:53
  • @danf there is no exception since YKVK followed by YKVK only happens once in Tanakh. There are no other cases besides the 13 Middot. There is no everywhere else. – Double AA Feb 14 '18 at 21:55
  • @yaakov drashot in aggadeta are hardly binding as law... Respect could be a bases for a rabbinic enactment. I don't know why you think respect for God is a diminutive reason. It could even be a basis for a God given law or tradition. The point doesn't matter much. Either way whoever instituted the practice chose a different name to use when it would be confusing by 2 in a row – Double AA Feb 14 '18 at 21:57
  • Interesting that one of these instances is the only place in Tanach where all three forms of שם הויה, אדנות and אלקות appears in successive words - (עמוס ג:יג) שמעו והעידו בבית יעקב נאם ד' ה' אלקי הצבאות

    Also interesting is that while אדנות followed by שם הויה to cause the latter to be pronounced אלקים occurs fairly commonly, as @רבות מחשבות mentioned above, it occurs in reverse only four times in Tanach: חבקוק ג:יט, תהלים קט:כא, תהלים קמ:ח, תהלים קמא:ח where the שם הויה preceding אדנות is pronounced as אלקים.

     – EraserX May 19 '22 at 14:34
  • Also to note a close cluster of these three forms in דברים:י:יז (but not a case of שם הויה pronounced as אלקים) which is one of the source pesukim for the first bracha of shmoneh esrei. – EraserX May 19 '22 at 14:34

1 Answers1

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Shadal on Bereishit 2:4 points out that the Tetragrammaton was originally read as written. (Later in the piece he goes on to attempt to reconstruct the original vowels.)

However, sometime during the Second Temple period, it was enacted not to read it as written, instead replacing it with the name of Adnut (Ad-noy).

He notes further that:

שלא ניקדו אותו על דרך אחת בכל מקום, אלא לפעמים ניקדוהו בניקוד אלהים, וזה כשלפניו או לאחריו שם אדנות (אדני ה' או ה' אדני), והיה טעמם כדי שלא לכפול שם אחד בעצמו שתי פעמים רצופות בקריאה במקום שלא נכפל בכתוב

[The Masoretes] did not vowelize [the Tetragrammaton] in the same way in all places; rather, sometimes they vowelized it with the vowels of Elokim, in cases where it is preceded or followed by the name of Adnut (Ad-noy YKVK or YKVK Ad-noy). Their reason for doing so was so as not to double a Name, reading it twice, consecutively, in a place where it was not written doubled.

Joel K
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