The billboards

UPDATE: Click here. H/T VIN

An article caught my eye today about an atheist organization that is planning "to erect billboards proclaiming, “You know it’s a myth… and you have a choice” — one in the heart of a predominantly Orthodox Jewish community in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn, N.Y. on Tuesday, and another on Wednesday two blocks from a mosque in Paterson, N.J., which is home to a large Muslim population.

The Arabic word for Allah will appear on the billboard in Paterson while the Hebrew translation of God will be printed on the one in Williamsburg."

I subsequently wrote an email to the head of the organization.

This morning I read an article in the Daily Caller about a series of billboards that are to be put up in religious neighborhoods. I must admit I was perturbed when I saw a billboard with the Hebrew name of G-d. The article states that you don't mean to offend with your billboards but you are, indeed, causing hurt to Orthodox Jews who don't take the name of G-d lightly. I refer you to an excerpt from an article taken from http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/name.html.

Jews do not casually write any Name of God. This practice does not come from the commandment not to take the Lord's Name in vain, as many suppose. In Jewish thought, that commandment refers solely to oath-taking, and is a prohibition against swearing by God's Name falsely or frivolously (the word normally translated as "in vain" literally means "for falsehood").

Judaism does not prohibit writing the Name of God per se; it prohibits only erasing or defacing a Name of God. However, observant Jews avoid writing any Name of God casually because of the risk that the written Name might later be defaced, obliterated or destroyed accidentally or by one who does not know better.

Knowing that the billboards with the holy name of G-d written on them will be disposed of at a later date in a disrepectful manner causes great anguish to me. I urge you to reconsider going ahead with this particular ad...

To his credit, the organization head answered promptly, but, alas, not with the - Sorry. I didn't realize the sign would offend certain people. I hereby withdraw it. -response that I had envisioned.

It is interesting to note that in the week that we read in Parshat Ki Tissa how Moshe Rabbeinu beseeches Hashem to reveal Himself in all His glory, an organization is making the news by seeking to diminish G-d's stature.
Tomorrrow night Jews the world over will read the story of Purim in a Megilah which doesn't mention the name of Hashem even once. But Jews acknowledge that it is only through divine help that salvation was achieved.
May we be able to recognize G-d in all our daily activities.