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Write Holy Names with Care

He signed his own name Elia, so that no Name of Hashem would stand in his signature.

A teaching ofRav Eliyahu Luantz of Vermeizהרב אליהו בן משה לואנץProfile ›

It is recorded that Rav Eliyahu spelled his first name Elia when he signed. Written in full, Eliyahu contains the letters yud and heh, which together form a Name of Hashem, and he chose not to write them in a signature. For a man who spent his days with holy Names, in his work as a Baal Shem and in his Kabbalah, this is telling. Familiarity did not loosen his reverence. The closer he came to holy things, the more careful he became with them. The lesson is that reverence is built from small, constant habits, long before it shows itself in anything grand, and that those who handle sacred things daily must guard their respect most of all.

Source: His recorded signature practice, as noted in the standard biographical accounts of him

Practical lessonHandle small holy things with care

Pick one holy object or word you handle every day, such as a siddur, a bracha, a page of Torah or Hashem's Name when you say a bracha, and treat it with a little more care this week. Hold the sefer with both hands, kiss it, or pause for a breath before the bracha. Do not add many new rules. One steady habit of reverence, kept every day, does more than a grand resolution.

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