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What is the Noahide sin of cursing God and is it the same as taking God's Name in vain? Like, would saying "oh my god" count?

ezra
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Imconfuzzled
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1 Answers1

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You misunderstand the usage of the term cursing God. It does not mean using bad language or taking the name in vain. The actual meaning is stating a curse upon the Deity using the actual name of the Deity.

For example, Is G-ddamn considered cursing God? explains:

The Talmud (Sanhedrin 56a) explains that the only form of true "blasphemy", as described in Leviticus 24:15, would then be to curse G-d in a biblical sense, i.e. to say "may Joe strike Joe" (or "may Joe damn Joe", for that matter), substituting "G-d" for Joe. (Which is a bit strange, if someone doesn't believe in G-d, why they're calling on Him to smite anything, but never mind.) Maimonides, Laws of Foreign Worship 2:7 discusses the severity of punishment may depend on exactly which name of G-d is used.

Joel K
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sabbahillel
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  • So your point being, saying "oh my god" isn't technically blasphemy? – ezra Apr 10 '18 at 13:30
  • Isn't G-d a Name of the Deity, though? – ezra Apr 10 '18 at 13:31
  • @ezra The usage of the English word is not part of this. The usage implies using one of the specific Hebrew Names, not the English. – sabbahillel Apr 10 '18 at 21:46
  • Wouldn’t the curse have to be linked to a specific name of God? The name El is used in reference to God as well as false gods. The pronunciation of YHVH is supposedly unknown to all but a handful of tzaddikim so it would not even be possible to blasphemy God using that name – JJLL Apr 12 '18 at 00:11
  • Is saying an extra word in omg a bad word starting with the 6th letter in the alphabet cursing god – Imconfuzzled Apr 12 '18 at 23:14
  • @Imconfuzzled No it is using bad language and being disrespectful which is different. Cursing is treated literally. That is actually attempting to utter a curse. If one curses a human being one would speak as Bil'am attempted to do when he wanted to curse the Bnai Yisrael. If one said, May Hashem cause Ploni's house to burn down, that is a curse. – sabbahillel Apr 13 '18 at 01:34
  • Conversely, using "G-d" in this case would be using G-d's Name in vain. – ezra Apr 13 '18 at 12:38
  • @ezra Not necessarily. Note that using the Name in vain may be restricted to those Names that cannot be erased. Since it is an English word for deity, it may not be considered using Hashem's name in vain. In fact, it may be like saying the deity or no worse than Hashem. However, that is a different question. – sabbahillel Apr 13 '18 at 22:38