HaShem — the Name.
The one God, whose four-letter name is not pronounced: creator, covenant-partner, and the only being to whom prayer is directed.
Judaism's reticence about the divine name is practical theology: the four-letter Name is not pronounced, substitutes are used in prayer (Adonai) and in speech (HaShem, literally "the Name"), and even written substitutes are treated as unerasable. The practice keeps God grammatically present and semantically out of reach. It also has a doctrinal edge — a God who cannot be named cannot be captured, invoked as a formula, or made into a possession, which is the same instinct that forbids images.
The same ground, other faiths
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