A Good Name — Sh’mot 5786 |
Last week, I was stopped on the street by a woman who smiled and said hello. I smiled back and said hello.
Then she said, “You don’t remember who I am, doooo you?
“Of course I do.”
I didn’t.
She continued, “I haven’t seen you in years.” We smiled, and she rushed off to her lunch engagement.
Sometimes those awkward moments end mercifully.
But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people keep pushing.
“So… what’s my name?”
And the truth is: sometimes, I don’t remember.
Remembering names can be a challenge.
And it’s why I try to introduce people to one another, even when they may already know each other.
I might even overdo it.
But I do it intentionally — I try to model a practice and spare people feeling embarrassed.
Because names matter.
*****
This week, we began a new book of the Torah.
The second book.
You might know it by its English name: the Book of Exodus.
But in Hebrew, its name is Sh’mot.
Literally, the Book of Names.
The book opens not with drama, or miracles, not with oppression or redemption — but with a list of names.
וְאֵלֶּה שְׁמוֹת בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הַבָּאִים מִצְרָיְמָה…
“Now these are the names of the children of Israel, who came into Egypt…”
Before slavery. Before Pharaoh.
Before the Plagues. Before the Sea. Before Sinai.
There are names.
And it’s fitting that once the Torah finishes listing names, it gives us one name that changes everything: Moshe.
וַיִּגְדַּל הַיֶּלֶד וַתְּבִאֵהוּ לְבַת־פַּרְעֹה וַיְהִי־לָהּ לְבֵן וַתִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ מֹשֶׁה וַתֹּאמֶר כִּי מִן־הַמַּיִם מְשִׁיתִהוּ׃
“And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said: ‘Because I drew him out of the water.’” (Ex 2:10)
A play on the word – drawing out – m’shee’tea’hu.
Moshe is named by an Egyptian princess, raised between worlds, and his name carries a........