Jul 6, 2026
Interesting Psak: Tiveria or Tiveriah?
Names are very important in halacha. Not just what the name is but also how the name is spelled. And not just names of people but also names of places.
I always found the specificty of how names of places or even names when being transliterated from a foreign (ie a language other than Hebrew) language to be somewhat inane as the entire spelling is really made up so as long as it sounds accurate, does it really matter halachically if it is spelled with an aleph here or there, an aleph or a hei or an ayin, a tet or a tav, etc? is one really more right than the other? I am not talking about names that are Hebrew names that have sources for the spelling (though someone might create a name that is a derivative of a name like that and spell the new name slightly differently...), but names that are really foreign names being spelled in Hebrew.
Despite my feeling that being specific regarding the spelling of names that are not originally Hebrew is inane, halacha and batei din place great importance on the "correct" spelling of names, including the spelling of non-Hebrew names being written in Hebrew. This is important in beis din for all sorts of contracts and ketubas, and even treated with greater importance regarding the writing of a gett, the divorce document.
Tiberias has been an inhabited city for over 2000 years. It is a question or debate if Tiberias has the status of a walled city from the time of Yehoshua, Joshua, when the Jewish nation entered the land of Israel (though it might have existed under a different name back in those days, with the more modern city of Tiberias been built later on the ruins of those more ancient towns, whatever - point being, it is a very old city and has been around since biblical times in some form or another).
The Eida Hachareidis is, reportedly, now debating and coming to a conclusion as to the proper spelling of the name of the city Tiberias. According to Bechadrei, they began debating if the properlys pelling in Hebrew has the word ending in an aleph or hei - טבריה or טבריא... how has it been spelled until now? how were gittin and kesubas written in Tiberias until now? I don't know but suddenly it became a question for the Eida.
To cut to the chase, Rav Avraham Yizchak Ulman, a dayan of the Eida, concluded after much research that it should be spelled with a hei, טבריה.
According to the article, with the recent expansion of the Haredi community in Tiberias the discussion of the proper spelling has been renewed and discussed, with Rav Ulman now coming to the above conclusion.
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