Adonai started as a personal project more than ten years ago: the idea that information useful for people's wellbeing should be able to reach anyone, for free, no matter where they live or what they can afford.
What does "Adonai" mean?
You don't need any religious background, or to belong to any particular tradition, to understand where this site's name comes from. Here's a short, plain-language explanation.
Adonai comes from adon (אָדוֹן), which means "lord" in the sense of someone with authority, responsibility, or standing. Even today, in everyday Hebrew, "adon" can simply be a respectful way to address a man, with no religious meaning at all — similar to how we use "sir" or "mister" in English.
Grammatically, "Adonai" is plural — literally "my lords" — but it doesn't mean there's more than one. It's what linguists call a "plural of majesty": a way of pluralizing a word to express greatness or respect, not quantity. Other languages use the same trick, like the "royal we" some monarchs historically used to refer to themselves.
Why it's so closely tied to the sacred
In Jewish tradition, God's proper name in the Hebrew Bible is written with four letters (י-ה-ו-ה, called the Tetragrammaton) that, out of reverence and for centuries, aren't spoken aloud. Whenever those four letters appear in the text, the reader says "Adonai" instead.
This custom isn't exclusively Jewish: most Christian and Catholic Bibles — including the one used at Mass — do something similar, even though hardly anyone notices. Wherever the original Hebrew text has those four letters, translations usually render it as "Lord" (sometimes in small caps, LORD), which is a translation of "Adonai," not of the four-letter name itself. In 2008, the Vatican formally instructed Catholic liturgy worldwide to keep following this same custom. So plenty of people who've never heard the word "Adonai" have been hearing it, in translation, every time they go to Mass.
Why we chose this name
You don't need to share a religion — or have one at all — to recognize what this word points to: someone or something worth trusting, a guiding presence, something greater to turn to in hard moments. That's why we chose this name — for what it evokes, not as a theological stance or a religious affiliation. This project doesn't represent any particular religion, church, or tradition: it's an open space for anyone looking for a bit of calm, meaning, or company, wherever they're coming from.
A lesson learned
In an earlier version of this project (a mobile app about the 72 Hebrew letter combinations from the Kabbalistic tradition), I used meditation texts that were too close to those in a copyrighted book. It wasn't my intent to harm anyone — quite the opposite, I wanted to share something beautiful for free — but I learned that sharing with good intentions isn't enough: you also have to respect the specific way each author expressed their own ideas, even when the underlying subject is an ancient tradition that belongs to no one.
That's why, in this new chapter of Adonai, all of the site's new content — including content on that very same tradition — is written completely from scratch, with its own name and design, and with historical sources clearly cited where relevant.
What you'll find here
Short, original articles about spiritual and emotional wellbeing: mindful breathing, gratitude, forgiveness, prayer, meditation, and the wisdom of different spiritual traditions explained clearly. You don't need to belong to any particular religion to find something useful here.
Non-profit
This is, and will remain, a non-profit project. Over time, the goal is to be able to dedicate more time to it thanks to voluntary donations from people who find value in the content — never by charging for access to the content itself. You can read more at Support the project.
Contact
If you notice an error, have a suggestion, or want to share your own experience, write to me at luis.cabrera@adonai.com.py.