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Shemot 5768

It's been remarked (at least by me, maybe by others) that the name Shemot is an ever-so-fitting title for this Chumash. The entire book is held together by revisiting the theme of names. Hashem's Name presented and represented in various settings, changing as the situation calls for, is only the most prominent of the name-themes woven throughout the text. We'll note a few others in this week's parashah:


  • The names of Ya'acov and his sons are repeated at the opening of the chumash/parashah, though the same passage occurs with more detail only a few chapters back in Parshat Vayigash.
    The names of seemingly minor characters, the two midwives, Shif'rah and Pu'ah, (Rashi says they were Yidden; Ramban says they were Egyptian) are announced.
    The people in formation are named by Par'oh - AM B"NEI YISRAEL
    Moshe is named by Bat Par'oh when he is drawn from the Nile.
    Moshe names his son Gershom in a distant land.
    Moshe asks Hashem's name and Hashem tells him first one name and then another.

But what I find equally interesting are those who do NOT receive names in this parasha of names: none of the characters involved in Moshe's emergence from the house of Par'oh - the Ish Mitzri, the Ish Ivri, the Shnei Anashim NItzim - all are not named:


  • Moshe's father, mother and sister, although subsequently named in the Torah, are referred either by a generic term (Ish, Ishah) or by their relationship to Moshe.
    Moshe himself is NOT NAMED BY HIS MOTHER!!
    Moshe remains nameless to Re'u'el (who himself is called by name only subsequent to his appearance and incidentally, at that) - he is the Ish in the conversation between Re'u'el and his daughters.
    The name Hashem shares with Moshe at the burning bush is hardly a name: I-will-be-what-I-will-be! The very name suggests that there is no guarantee of stability in the relationship.


And that's the key: A name is a key, opening the door allowing manifestation of the unstable, shifting, changing, but it only opens one door. It gives assurance, identity, it anchors one, but at the same time, it also threatens to lock one into a routine of being that, as comforting as it might be, denies the constancy of change and growth. It can hide one's essence from oneself. To paraphrase the Midrash on Hashem's name: Zeh Shmi L'Elem – “this name of mine is for hiding”.Changing one's name helps only very temporarily. Rather, the solution to the quandary is to relate to one's name as Hashem does - not to associate all of one's being with how one happens to be called. Rather, one should see one's name as the conduit through which the plenty emerging from one's being is funneled into the world. That plenty, called Tov in Hebrew, is what confers honor and substance on the name, and it is for this reason that the Sages said, "A name of goodness ascends above all".

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