Our fifteen-year-old daughter recently solved a family mystery that has plagued my father for his entire 76-year existence. I have never known anyone else who has had to live so long with such a mystery. While I have no statistical proof, I think every child learns for whom they are named after. In the non-Jewish world, if the given name ends with Junior then it is pretty obvious. Frequently Jewish children, when asking their parents this question, receive several different answers. English names have an origin and Hebrew names have an origin. If the person is Ashkenazi, then usually the name comes from a deceased family member(s). If the person is Sephardi, then the name may originate from a living family member (s). Until his fifteen-year-old granddaughter completed a school project about family origins and immigration to this continent, my father never knew the origins of his Hebrew name. The story he had told me was that he never knew his Hebrew name and always thought that his Hebrew school teacher gave him a name. I always thought that such a story was completely ridiculous and far fetch. Finally, our daughter uncovered the great mystery. It turned out that my father was named after his maternal great-grandfather who was born in 1860’s back in Russia and came with his family to America in 1903. When our daughter completed the project and recently showed this “Family Tree” with commentary to my parents, they both welled up with tears. Besides the mystery of my father’s name being solved, their granddaughter reminded them both of their origins as they saw their respective family’s traced back to the Napoleonic Wars.
This week we begin the second book of the Torah; the Book of Exodus – Sefer Shmot, literally translated into “The Book of Names”. This second book begins with the Parsha Shmot. The first few verses essentially recount the ending of the Book of Genesis. Shmot re-iterates names of Jacobs’ sons and the fact that Jacob and his sons came to Egypt. We are reminded that Jacob had already died. We are reminded that next generation, Jacob’s sons (including Yosef) passed away. A new king assumes the mantle of power and does not know of Yosef’s great deeds. Instead, the new Pharaoh believed that this foreign population was tantamount to a fifth column. Therefore this tribe must be enslaved in order to prevent their uniting with Egypt’s external enemies. We read about the birth and growth of Moses, and his flight to Midian. We read about his becoming a husband, a shepherd, a father. We learn of his epiphany with the Burning Bush and God’s instructions plan to redeem B’nai Israel from slavery and Moshe’s role in the redemptive process.
Considering, that this is a completely new Sefer, a new Book of the Torah, and that dominant theme of this new book is redemption from slavery and the national revelation at Mt. Sinai, why should the text be known as a Book of Names and why should it begin with a re-iteration of the names of Jacobs’ sons: V’Eilah Shmot B’nai Yisroel Ha’Baim Mitzrayaima Eit Yaakov Ish U’Veito Ba’u- And these are the name of the Children of Israel who were coming to Egypt with Jacob, each man, and his household came, Reuven Shimon, Levi, Yehuda; Issachar, Zebulun , and Benjamin; Dan Naphtali; Gad and Asher. We don’t normally begin a new book with a conjunction, especially the conjunction “And”. Instead of beginning the Parsha and the Book of Shmot with Eilah (These), the Parsha begins with V’Eilah (And these). Also, we know, based upon the conclusion of Sefer Breishit that the sons, along with Jacob, arrived in Egypt decades before (Gen. 46:8-30). Why do these opening verses repeat the concluding verses of the previous book? RaMBaN, (the great 12th century Spanish doctor, commentator and Halachist), and R’ Bachya (late 13th early 14th century Torah commentator), explain that the conjunction which begins the Parsha purposefully connects this new book to the previous book. “B’nai Yisroel”, the term now used for the extended tribe owe their existence and their future existence to V’Eilah –“ and these”…. these sons of Jacob, these sons who were “with Jacob” in his descent into Egypt. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsh (19th Cent. Germany) explains that these twelve sons and their resulting twelve tribal families were intimately attached to Jacob, and this was the secret of Israel’s strength and survival in Egypt. Although each son had his own family, he remained connected and united with Jacob. Implicit to these opening verses, we understand that the secret to B’nai Israel’s survival in Egypt as slaves: past, present, and future were connected through values and covenant of the name of Jacobs twelve sons, Jacob, and his father and grandfather, Isaac and Abraham. The strength of those connections, the strength of being connected to the past with an eye towards a hopeful and positive future kept B’nai Israel spiritually free despite physical hardship and bondage.
The names explicitly mentioned, Jacob and his son’s, stood for something. Implicitly, these names stood for and symbolized a covenantal relationship with God. These names stood for inheriting a land, as well as making a great name for itself. For their descendants, the names gave them an identity, an identity that kept them spiritually free despite their physical bondage. A given name matters as does the surname. Often times, a given name reflects the parents’ hopes and dreams for that child. A given name expresses a parents’ hope of whom the child should emulate, and whose values the child should grow to aspire to and embody. As my parents sat there studying their family’s origins, history, and narrative, looking back at 200 years of history, I noticed my parents frequently looking up at their grandchildren. I was struck by the fact that there must be such a sense of contentment looking at the past while sharing it with the future, with their grandchildren.
Peace
Rav Yitz
No comments:
Post a Comment