Shabbat Parashat Shemot 5785

Parashat Hashavua: Men of Names

What is so special about names that the second sefer of the Chumash begins with it?

A midrash on this opening (Midrash Aggada, Shemot 1:1) teaches that a person has three names: The one Hashem gave him from the outset, the one his parents call him, and the one he acquires through his actions. We also know that one of the merits that justified Bnei Yisrael’s liberation from Egypt was in not changing their names (Shemot Rabba 1). The centrality of one’s name also finds expression in a minhag that many follow at the end of Shemoneh Esrei – to recite a pasuk that either includes his name or that begins and ends with the first and last letters of his name, respectively. This is connected to the tradition that one of the first questions a person is asked at his Heavenly inquiry is “What is your name?”

We find that the name of Shem (Noach’s son, whose name means “name”) has a special place in the Torah. When Noach woke up from his drunkenness and realized the difference between his sons, he mainly blessed Shem: “Blessed is Hashem, the G-d of Shem … and He shall dwell in the house of Shem” (Bereishit 9:26-27).

We will suggest a thesis that combines these various ideas about names.

A person’s names distinguish him from others and enable him to reveal his uniqueness in the world. The first name he receives is from Hashem, and there are two points about it: 1. It connects him to his Creator. 2. It gives him the opportunity to turn his physical life into a part of lofty, spiritual worlds.

A person’s second name comes from his parents. Through the name they give, they express their prayers and hopes for their child, which accompany him wherever he goes. When a person recites or hints at this name at the end of Shemoneh Esrei, he reminds himself of the goal he is supposed to reach during his life on this earth.

The third name is the one a person acquires through his actions. The poet Zelda (Mishkovsky) added to our appreciation of this idea with her beautiful poem, “For Every Man There is a Name.”

We suggest that this third name comes from one’s interactions with his friends and is impacted strongly by social elements, i.e., “bein adam l’chaveiro” (between man and his fellow man). This raises an important idea. A person who wants to define himself based on how he tries to live and serve Hashem by “the name Hashem gave him” becomes an ambassador for those who strive to increase the presence of the divine and strengthen the connection with Hashem. This actually makes it doubly important to be connected to society, add to it, and sanctify Hashem’s Name with his actions, in the realm of bein adam l’chaveiro. If one excels in his “religious” obligations without excellence in human interactions, he can make a chillul Hashem and thereby impact in the opposite way from the positive one he intended. That is why one is asked in his divine trial what his name is. In other words, did you live your life in proper accordance with all three names.

Sefer Shemot, which deals with the liberation of Bnei Yisrael from Egypt and their emergence as a nation, reminds us of the important matter for every Jew – his fulfillment of mitzvot in service of Hashem and between him and his fellow people. Only with success in both can one really connect to Hashem.

Top of page

Print this page

Send to friend