Rabbi Micah Citrin

January 20, 2006

Shabbat Shemot 5766

My sister-in-law is named Laura.  At least that is the only name by which I have known her.  But I am told that she did not always go by the name Laura.  When Laura was in second grade, she announced to her family that she would no longer be called Laura.  From that point on, she wanted to be called Mathew.  And she insisted upon it.  For several months, she would only answer to Mathew.  One can only guess what her parents, my in-laws, thought about this Mathew stage at the time.  Well, eventually Mathew became tired of being called Mathew and went back to Laura, but this story reminds us of an important lesson.  Our names matter. 

            The great conductor Leonard Berstein recalls how early in his career he was encouraged to change his name.  He was told that Bernstein would be an obstacle to his success, too Jewish, he would never make it to Carnegie Hall.  One conductor told a young Berstein that he should change his name to Leonard Burns.  Bernstein reminisces, “…my heart sank, I did lose a night’s sleep over it, I tossed and turned and thought about it, and I reported to him the next morning, no sir, I’m sorry-I will have to make it with the name Leonard Bernstein or not at all.”  Our names matter.  My heart swells when I think about stories like Berstein, about Jews who embrace their Jewish names because that is who they are, Jews.    

            This Shabbat we begin a new books of Torah, Shemot, the book of names.  In English this book is called Exodus, emphasizing the Israelites’ flight from Egypt .  But, the Hebrew name of this book of Torah captures the secret of this our people’s story, our people’s freedom.  The secret is in the power of the name.  “Eleh Shemot - these are the names of the children of Israel who went down to Egypt with Jacob,” are the first words of our portion.  This list of names seems like insignificant detail.  Yehudah, Shimon, Levi, Reuven, Asher, these are the names of the children of Israel who arrive in Egypt , escaping famine with their father, Jacob.  As the Midrash states, the children of Israel were redeemed from Egypt because they kept their Hebrew names.  They held on to who they were.  Yehuda, Shimon, Reuven, Asher went out of Egypt 400 years after the original children of Israel , their namesakes, went down into Egypt . 

            Names do not only tell us about our past but they connect us to the future.  In Shemot, we learn about the birth of Moses.  The Torah tells of a certain man in the tribe of Levi who married a certain woman from the tribe of Levi.  They had son and we know the familiar story of what happened to him.  In order to escape Pharoah’s decree of death to all male Hebrew infants, the child’s mother put him in a basket and set him afloat on the Nile with prayers of meeting a better fate.  Pharoah’s daughter finds the basket and the child, and names him Moshe, meaning, “I drew him out of the water.”  One day Moshe would be the one to draw his people out of the suffocating waters of Egypt , to take them through the Red Sea of slavery and into the fresh air of freedom.

            But the children of Israel and Moses are not the only ones whose names are emphasized in the text.  God reveals His name, too.  “Moshe! Moshe!”  said the voice from the bush that burned without being consumed in flame.  I am the God of your ancestors, go to Egypt and  tell Pharaoh to let my  people go.  “Who me?” said Moses.  “And who are you?”  Moses wants to know who this God really is, so he asks God, what is your name?  God responds, “Eheyeh Asher Eheye.”  “My name,” God says is, “I will be what I will be.”  Certainly, not a very satisfying answer, but a truthful one, God is potential and possibility waiting to be realized; being with a capitol B.  Luckily God took pity on Moses, and said something to the effect of, but don’t worry I have a nickname, you can tell the Israelites that I am, “The God of your fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob-Elohai Avraham, Elohai Yitzhak, Veilohai Yaakov.”  And God concludes, “this shall be my name forever.”  In other words, God’s name, God’s identity is not just the infinite possibilities of the Divine, but also a connection to the past, a relationship with people, being rooted in history.  Like God our names connect us to the past and point to the future.

            Tonight is Shabbat Shemot, Shabbat when Jews around the world are reading this very Torah portion, recalling the names of our people and the name of God.  Tonight is Shabbat Shemot at Congregation Beth Am, a night on which members of our community will take on Hebrew names, that will identify them within the community of Israel, names that will accompany them to the bima when they make aliyot to the Torah, names that will accompany them when they stand underneath the chuppah, names that will escort them out of this life, but will be their eternal memorial. 

            Mark, Sharon, Graham , and Lauren Delman;  Lorie Prouty, Jackie Wolff Calderon, Emma Calderon; Sophie and Charlotte Fron and their parents; Marian Sagan 

            The names that you have chosen connect you to the past.  You chose names that connect you to the memory and legacy of your relatives who came before you.  You chose Hebrew names whose characteristics speak of Jewish values of strength and beauty, of great Torah scholars, matriarchs, and patriarchs.  These names will also be open to vast potential just like God’s name. 

            These names will become what they will become as they take on a life of their own, a life infused by the deeds and character of each of you who possess them.  You will make a name for yourselves, that we pray will be based on a life of Torah, loving relationships, and good deeds.  We pray that these names will be an everlasting link between each of you and our community, between each of you and the community of Israel .  We pray that these Hebrew names will be a source of Jewish pride, confidence, and blessing.  We pray that your names will bring you honor, and be an inspiration for generations of your family who come after you, that one day you will be a namesake as well.  Most all, we pray that when you hear your Hebrew name called, it brings a smile to your face and satisfaction to your soul because it reminds you of the goodness of who you are.  Shabbat Shalom.