What's In a Name? (by Cantor Robins)

What's in a Name?

Parashat Vaera by Cantor Rebecca Robins, Director of Congregational Learning

“Everyone calls me Mr. Goldberg, but you can call me Robert.”

Most of us have had an experience like this at some point in our lives.  Whether the speaker or hearer of the message, whether we found ourselves being called something other than usual by our intent or by the evolution of a relationship, whether we called someone the right name (or the wrong one), this experience can resonate with each of us.

Perhaps you have experienced the sheer joy that comes from someone giving you an affectionate nickname, or the comfort that comes from addressing someone less formally or more formally than you had anticipated.  William Shakespeare may have asked “what’s in a name,” but in this week’s Torah portion we get a bit of insight into the answer.

In the opening line of this parasha, the second in Sefer Shmot, the Book of Exodus, we read “² God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the Lord. ³ I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by My name YHVH. ^4””  (Translation from JPS)  YHVH is the acronym for the Hebrew letters Yud-Hay-Vav-Hay, which we read as Adonai.  My goodness!  At the very outset of their relationship, before God is about to set Moses and Aaron up to approach Pharaoh and ask him to “let my people go,” before God (in this same portion!) starts sending plagues upon the Egyptian people to force Pharoah’s hand, God reveals God’s name to Moses.

Not unlike the opening quote of this blog entry, we can interpret, from a few lines of Torah, that this is a serious and powerful moment.  This moment is a declaration of relationship, not unlike when your best friend gives you a nick name or your sweetheart calls you honey – but of the significant change in the real-life relationship between the Patriarchs and God and Moses and God.  (Of course, stay tuned to the Torah to see that relationship develop…)  On one foot, perhaps the greatest change is that while God will remain a commander to Moses as he was to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses will be discharged with doing God’s work in the world.

How might Moses have felt when God made this statement to him?  In the act of revealing God’s name to Moses, God also acts on the relationship – and from that we can ask ourselves, where have we seen ourselves operate in this way, and where can we use our name, or the name we call others to help us redefine relationships?