Prohibition of Erasing the Name

In our shul, the carpenter glued wooden letters onto the cantor’s stand spelling out “Shiviti Hashem L’negdi Tamid.” After he finished, we realized he’d used black letters instead of gold.

Now we’re wondering: is there any halachically acceptable way to swap the letters, given that removing them might be considered erasing the Name of Hashem?

One member suggested cutting a cardboard stencil of the Name in the exact shape of the current letters, placing it over the existing ones so that when the black letters are taken off the Name is still technically “written,” and then gluing the gold letters before removing the stencil and burying it.

Would that approach work according to halacha, or is there a better solution?

Shalom uVracha

It is permitted, since at no point is the Name of Hashem actually being erased.

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