CLERGY CORNER: What’s your name?

Posted on 21 February 2013 by LeslieM

I was talking to a prospective bride and groom the other day. The bride happens to be a doctor. And she let me know that she has opted to keep her own name.

She told me that she does not want to have to go through “the burden” of all the red tape it would take to change the name of her medical practice, her medical degrees and all the other certifications she has.

The future groom wanted to know if I had ever heard of such a thing and I told him about a verse in the Torah where we read, “I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”(Exodus 6.6)

What were the burdens that we faced under the Egyptians? Sure, we know we were slaves, but what specific burdens did we have? Back breaking work, no days off, meager food to eat — those are givens. But how many of you remember the miniseries Roots? In the process of taking away a slaves freedom, what was one of the first things that the masters did?

They took away their given names, their African names and forced them to accept a new one at the master’s whim. Our people who were herded into the Concentration Camps … they weren’t even entitled to a name; they were given a number.

In the Torah, we read about two midwives, but according to many, Shiphrah and Puah had those names forced upon them. Their real names were Jewish names. And, when the Egyptians were not around, they made sure to use their Jewish names.

During our lifetimes, we will each be known by many different names … in our younger years, perhaps a nickname. Our parents probably had special names for us and some of us have titles that have become like names to us.

Being able to create a new name for ourselves by the way we live our life is a great freedom that we have been blessed with. In fact, the Torah even uses several names for the Holy One and, according to Biblical Scholars, each name of G-d can denote a particular period or a particular attribute of Gd. The same can be said for the names we are known by.

Rabbi Marci Bellows reminded me of a poem printed in Mishkah T’filah that teaches us a lesson about names with these words:

“We each have a name given by G-d and given by our father and mother.

We each have a name given by our stature and smile and given by our attire….

We each have a name given by the stars and given by our friends.

We each have a name given by our sins and given by our yearnings.

We each have a name given by celebrations and given by our work …

We each have a name given by the sea and given by our death.”

Let us have the wisdom to behave in such a way that we create a good name for ourselves and for others. There is an ancient Japanese proverb. My Japanese is more than a wee bit rusty, but let me try to translate it. It says, “Tigers die and leave their skins: People die and leave their names.”

Let us have the wisdom to behave in such a way that we create a good name for ourselves as a lasting legacy to our children, to our children’s children and to the world.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

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