[evilbit]

If you think you can avoid knowing SQL by using ORM, you don't understand what ORM is and what problem it tries to solve.

Namely, what you can't avoid, if building an object-oriented system, is that you ultimately need to map those DB values to your live objects. Whether you end up using an off-the-shelf ORM or you hand-code the SQL yourself is less relevant.

Odds are if you eschew an ORM in favor of hand-coded SQL layer, you'll end up writing one anyways - only you're likely to do a shittier job of it than people who understand the problem area far more intimately (e.g. Hibernate committers).