Chai Means "Living"...

So what is the Hebrew word "Chai" doing in the Shema, on this bracelet? It's a mystery I've been pondering since Sr. Maria Louise Edwards, of the Felician Franciscan Sisters, gave me this bracelet at the end of school year:

Inserting the word "living" (chai) seems to be a "circumlocation" (circling around the point) for the name of "the LORD" (YHWH), which is the Hebrew word found in the Shema:

"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone! Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength." (Deuteronomy 6:4-5: NABRE)

Of course Jews consider "the name" (Heb ha-shem--another circumlocution) too sacred to be pronounced, and Catholics, in reverence, no longer pronounce the name in our liturgies.

Since God is LIFE, the substitution makes a certain amount of sense, though I would have expected "Adonai" (my Lord), which for thousands of years Jews have pronounced in place of the divine name when reading from Scripture. The Hebrew script for "chai" (het yod--see right) also resembles an abbreviation (yod yod) of the divine name (yod he waw he). (Transliterations from Lamdin, Introduction to Biblical Hebrew)

The Shema is one of only two prayers commanded in the Torah, "recited morning and evening since ancient times." (Source: the website Judaism101--http://www.jewfaq.org)