BackWhat's in a Name?
By: Rabbi Dr. Abraham Unger
How many of us think about our names? Our names were not within our control, and we simply grew up with them. Yet, the Torah thinks a lot about the significance of names. This Shabbat we start reading Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus. It is the history of the transformation of the Children of Israel into the Jewish people. We went from being a family to a nation through this experience of Egyptian servitude and liberation. And it all begins with a list of names. Indeed, Sefer Shemot literally means “Book of Names.”
Exodus opens not with the grand story of Moses and miracles, but with a deceptively simple list of the names of Jacob’s sons, mentioned in order to represent the households of the Israelite tribes that had migrated to Egypt. Rashi comments that these names were mentioned – indeed, that names matter – because these people, long gone, were “dear to G-d.”
The great Israeli poet Zelda wrote a classic poem called “L’Chol Ish Yesh Shem,” which means everyone has a name. It is read on Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel. Every person is known by their name. Every person is a world, as the Talmud reminds us.
We could not form a Jewish people without first remembering that each person is sacred, and all members of society are equally valuable. We all have a name. Moses came to rescue real people, men and women of flesh and blood. The great contemporary Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, instructed us that Jewish tradition’s ultimate lesson is to value the other. L’Chol Ish Yesh Shem – to all there is a name.