)
Nobody can really know God in all His glory. We can know Him only through the ways He manifests Himself in the world. The Torah expresses each type of manifestation with a different name. The most holy of His names is the Tetragrammaton (the four-letter Hebrew name spelled yud, hey, vav, hey). This divine name is so holy it is forbidden to pronounce it as written (except by the priests in the Temple, and even then, only on special occasions). When the Tetragrammaton appears in the Pentateuch or the prayer book, it is pronounced as Adonai, the second holiest name.
Other divine names include El, Elohim, Eheyeh, Shaddai, and Tzeva’ot. They too should be treated with respect. For example, they should not be spoken except in the context of prayer or Torah study. One may not erase any of these holy names (assuming they were written with God in mind, as some of them have other meanings as well). In contrast, adjectives used to refer to God (gracious, merciful, great, mighty, awe-inspiring, loyal, jealous, strong, and the like) are not considered sacred, and may be erased.
Even the versions of God’s name in other languages (such as “God” in English, “Gott” in German and Yiddish, and “Bog” in Russian), have some sanctity and should not be treated disrespectfully. Nevertheless, these names may be erased if necessary, and there is no need to bury papers on which they are written.
