What does the Tetragrammaton (four letter name of God in Hebrew, YHVH) 

mean, in the Sh'ma (declaration of faith)?

I was sent this answer: 'Adonai is One and we should love him'

I responded: I appreciate the care to write 'Adonai' rather than 'Lord'.  However, though it is better than a clearly gendered term it is not a great rendering of YHVH.  That is why in the Siddur (prayer book) for our region (Mishkan T'filah World Union Edition) we have used 'Eternal' or 'Eternal One'.  Our best understanding of the Tetragrammaton is that it contains the letters of the verb to be, in past (HaYa), present (HoVeH) and future (YiHYeH), thus symbolising God's 'always-ness' or 'Eternality'.

Though traditionally used in Hebrew when we see the tetragrammaton, Adonai is also not ideal in translation since it is not only gendered (the root is 'Lord'), but it is also technically plural ('my LORDS') - my LORD would be 'Adoni'! 

However, having said Adonai, you then went on to say 'we should love him..' God is far beyong our human understanding, but one thing we can be confident of is that God is not male (nor female) and a central plank of Progressive Judaism is equality, which means removing references to God as male, which is both wrong, and subtly reinforces the belief that men (and boys) are superior to women (and girls).

and 'Please translate the first part of a blessing, Barukh atah Adonai,

eloheinu melech ha'olam':

This was answered: 'Blessed are you Adonai, our God, master of the universe. (it is our convention to use capitals, eg for You in the above example).

The hebrew you have translated as master' is Melech.  Melech is usually 'King' but because Hebrew has no neuter, it can also be 'Sovereign' or 'Ruler' (gender-free).  As an anaolgy, when we translate 'Bnai Yisrael' we render it 'Children of Israel', not 'Sons of Israel'.

L'shalom

Rabbi Jonathan

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