ia have just been looking through a siddur and noticed that instead of the four letter name of G-d, it has instead a pair of yods with vowel points.

please can you tell me where this circumlocation comes from and where i can get more info on this particular usage.


many thanks

Steve

You will also find it on the atarah, the crown or collar of a tallit, the name of G-d is sacred and to avoid it being desecreated it is spelt this way.

One explanation:

Quote:

yud yud is an abbreviation (1st & last letter)for: YUD aleph HEH dalet VOV nun HEH yud. The above is combination of 2 names: YHVH & Adonoy. You are supposed to have this in mind when we pronounce Adonoy. If you take a look at a sephardic siddur you will see this combination immediately after each YHVH

And another similar

Quote:

The double yud comes from the "shiluv" (intertwining) of the "Havaya" (Tetragramaton) and Ad-nai, thus giving the name "YAHDONHY" (the Y representing the yod of the Tetragramaton-the A the alef of Ad-nai, the H the he of the Tetragramaton, the D the dalet of Ad-nai, etc.) thus giving us a yod at the beginning and a yod at the end. The double yod was taken from that, for two reasons. It was a covert way of reminding the mekubalim to concentrate on that name while at the same time removing the problem of people being careless with the books. In answer to the question by Akiva Miller as to whether a paper on which it is written can be discarded or brought into a bathroom, the answer is; that was the purpose of using it.

Hope that satisfy's your curiosity, good observation!