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[Opinions] Re: Sarai
I mess with it. I wouldn't use it over Sarah, as a Jew, because Sarai and Avram are seen as "deadnames" in jewish tradition
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What's your opinion about certain figures in the tradition that were less desirable to be named after? Like Jezebel, but could be considered someone less evil obviously. That was just the most obvious example that came to mind.
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my opinion is that everyone can use whatever names they want. I like names like Absalom and even Cain, but I wouldn't use names that have become symbols for incest, fratricide or idolatry. Just like I wouldn't use the name Paul, Peter or Zarathustra, because they symbolize a religious tradition that at best is not my religion, and at worst is directly opposed to mine.
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Fair enough
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I was going to ask if you felt the same about Saul versus Paul but I forgot that that was in the New Testament / not applicable to you. I'm too far removed from my fundamentalist cult roots to remember the basics anymore lmao.

* I'm not saying all christians, or all religious people are cult members just so we're clear, I'm just saying that I specifically grew up in a religious cult rooted in Christianity)
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Very interesting! I didn't know there ws such a thing. Is it because their names were changed by God, so the original ones were unworthy and shouldn't be used?
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yes. I'd preface this and say that Avraham and Sarah weren't popular names in Talmudic times at all, but one sage said "whoever calls Abraham (the biblical patriarch) Abram is tragressing an active commandment", as God says "your name shall not be called Abram anymore".
As such, jewish communities only used Abram as a nickname for Abraham, or in rare cases when one grandfather named Abraham died and the other grandfather was also named Abraham and he was alive (Ashkenazi jews don't name after the living), then they'd name the son Abram after the dead one.
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