The Journey of a Good Name: Sh’mot

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.

A rose is a rose is a rose—Gertude Stein

Today’s Torah portion is the very beginning of the Book of Exodus, which of course tells the exodus from the land of Egypt. In Hebrew, we call this book Sh’mot. Names. It begins by reminding us of the names of the Children of Israel. Well, really, the sons of Israel, those who went down to Egypt with Jacob. Now a new Pharaoh has arisen who doesn’t remember the names. A Pharaoh who doesn’t remember the history.

So the text begins with the names repeated. These are the children of Jacob, the children of Israel. Reuben., Simeon. Levi. Judah. Issachar. Zebulun. Benjamin. Dan. Naphtali. Gad. Asher. Joseph was already in Egypt. No mention of Dinah. But these names are important.

All names are important. They hold power. They convey a certain intimacy. You are known by your name. We learn this, from among other places, Homer in the Odyssey. As part of Odysseu’s journey, he encounters the Cyclops. When asked for his name, he does not reveal it, instead saying that he is “No one,” and not giving away his power.

In the Bible, it is actually, G-d who names things. All the way back at the beginning of Genesis. In the very first paragraph. G-d created the light. G-d called the light day and the darkness G-d called night.

Then G-d gives that power to the first man in Genesis Chapter 2:19-20, “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. G-d brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.”

And in the third chapter, Adam names his wife, Eve, Chavah in Hebrew, Life.

Each of us has a name. Maybe even more than one name. I am Margaret Joy Frisch Klein. I am HaRav Miriam Simcha Bat David v’Ne’ily. I didn’t have a Hebrew name until 6th grade. Ne’ily I gave to my mother, which didn’t exactly make her happy. HaRav got added much, much later. I have also had names such as Mom, Rabbi, Fawn. Fawn, my Girl Scout camp name was even my debit card password for a while.

Last night we talked about our names…and Hebrew names. Not everyone has a Hebrew name. There are many reasons for this. In this country, early Reform Jews didn’t see a need. Your American name was sufficient. Sometimes girls weren’t named with a Hebrew name, although they might have a Yiddish name. Sometimes in more modern times, particularly in interfaith families, no one thinks to have a welcome ceremony like a brit milah for a boy or a simchat bat naming ceremony for a girl.

Sometimes names are changed—when you are sick you might choose a new name to trick the Angel of Death.

We learn in Pirke Avot that there are three crowns. The crown of the priesthood, the crown of kingship, the crown of Torah. Yet, the crown of a good name excels them all.

The chief rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Warren Goldstein, tells this wonderful story, which ties in with last week’s Torah portion and our focus on ethical wills:

“There was a very wealthy man who passed away and left two wills, one to be opened upon his death and the other to be opened after the period of Shloshim, the 30 days of mourning, had passed.  In the first will, he instructed his children to bury him with his socks on.  When the children went to the Chevra Kadisha, the burial society, and said that their father had left in his will that he wants to be buried with his socks on, the Chevra Kadisha refused because it is against Jewish law which dictates that a person be buried wearing shrouds only.  The matter was brought before Rabbinic authorities and it was ruled that he must be buried without his socks.  The children pleaded that the burial society respect their father’s dying wishes.  Nevertheless, they were told that if the wish expressed in the will is in contravention of halacha, Jewish law, it cannot be respected.  And so he was buried without his socks.

After the 30 days of mourning had passed, they opened the second will, in which the deceased was now allocating the enormous wealth he had accumulated during his life.  He began the will by saying to his children, ”I am sure you found that the Chevra Kadisha would not bury me with my socks on.  I wanted to give you the following message: you can have all the money in the world, but you cannot even take your socks with you when you die.”

The moral of the story as he explains:

“This story conveys an important lesson: ultimately, the only things we take with us are our actions, our good deeds, and how we have lived our life.  All of these qualifications can be grouped into one concept, what our Sages call a shem tov, a good name.  A shem tov relates to the totality of the person, what remains long after all else is gone.”

Our portion covers another topic. What is the name of G-d? Moses has been stopped in his tracks by the spectacle of the burning bush, a bush on fire that is not consumed. He knows he is standing on holy ground and he takes off his shoes. Moses is perplexed, and says to G-d, “Who am I that I should to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation.”

Ehyeh asher ehyeh I am that I am. I will be who I will be. I am. It is very difficult Hebrew to translate. So difficult that Onkelos in his Aramaic translation leaves it untranslated. (Bava Batra 73a) To give you a sense of the complicated grammar, Eyhey is the first-person singular imperfect form of l’hiyot, to be. It seems like it is a future verb, “I will be.” Asher is an ambiguous pronoun which can mean, “that”, “who”, “which” or “where” or “what”.

However we translate it, or not, the phrase carries with it the potentiality of G-d. G-d was and is and will be. G-d will be with Moses and with us. G-d is the G-d of our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and continues to be with us through Moses until today.

We have more than one name for G-d. The first person to name G-d was Hagar at the well after her encounter with the angel. “El Roi”, the G-d of Seeing.

There are seven names for G-d that are so holy, that when written out in Hebrew we bury them in a genizah.

We know about Adonai, my master, which is how we pronounce the ineffable YHVH that was only pronounced once a year, only by the High Priest, in the Holy of Holies.

Then there is El—G-d, and words like that such as Elohim which shows up in the first chapter of Genesis, and Eloheinu, Our G-d. Eloah. Elohai. The Hebrew word El and the Arabic Allah are related roots. They are essentially the same word.

El Shaddai, Almighty One, or G-d on High. Tzevaot, Lord of Hosts. Yah is also protected because it is the beginning phrase of YHVH.

In the Talmud they argue about the names of G-d, Rabbi Jose considered Tzevaot a common name and Rabbi Ishmael said that Elohim was. Other names as we know them such as Merciful, Gracious, Faithful are considered attributes not names, per se.

In the Kabbalah, the mystical, received text(s) of Judaism, we find G-d as Ein Sof, Endless. There is also a 42 letter name for G-d and a 72 letter name for G-d. You have to be 40, married and male, very well grounded to learn these additional mystical names of G-d. There was a great novel, the Bee Season, where the young daughter learns the 72 name of G-d.

One of the things I like about the Reconstructionist prayer book is that it uses more than one name for G-d. So if one doesn’t fit your understanding of G-d as you are davenning, praying, then another one might.

Because of this tradition, Rabbi Sandy Sasso, the first woman ordained by the Reconstructionist movement wrote a great book, In G-d’s Name. After the creation of the world, everything received a name, but no one knew G-d’s name, so everyone went searching. Each person thought they had the Name. Source of Life. Mother. Father. Friend. Sheppard. Healer. Comforter. No one was willing to listen to anyone else. It is a charming book, written for children with a very important message. I have used it at services, with Hebrew Schools, for the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. Its message is even more important in these times.

I read the story and on the count of three, we each called out one name of G-d. Whatever you call G-d, however you call G-d, G-d is. G-d is the potential of being. And G-d is one.