Shemot 6:2-9:35
“There are three crowns, the crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of royalty. However, the crown of a good name is greater than all of them.” Rabbi Shimon… Pirket Avot 4:13
Vaera begins with Hashem calling out to Moshe, using the name that is not spoken out loud with Jews, the letters Yod Heh Vav He (Y-H-V-H), replaced by saying Hashem (The Name) or Adonai (Lord). Hashem goes on to say previously They were known as El Shaddai. More on this later. Again, Hashem calls out to Moshe to go to the people and tell the Israelites They will deliver them from bondage. Moshe says they won’t listen. But Hashem instructs Moshe to go and tell Pharoah to let Their people go.
What follows are the genealogies of the various clans (tribes) bringing us up to the time of Moshe.
Moshe and Aaron are told to tell Pharoah to let the people go. Hashem places Moshe to speak as Hashem and Aaron to be the role of prophet, i.e., spokesman because of Moshe’s speech impediment. They say Pharoah will say no, opening the path to a series of plagues to be visited upon Mitzrayim (Hebrew for a narrow place, Egypt.) Ten in total, divided into three groups of three, plus the final one on a far larger scale. The first two in each group have a warning, culminating in a third without warning. In this parsha we see the first 8 plagues: serpents, water to blood, frogs, lice, insects, Egyptian livestock die, boils, and hail. We name each during our annual Passover seders.
In the beginning of our parsha, we see Hashem speak the name Yod Hey Vav Hey. If you were to just open the Torah to Shemot, you would think this name had not been shared before. However, it appears often in Bereishit (Genesis). Midrash suggests Hashem has two attributes. Justice is represented by Elohim, mercy by Yod Hey Vav Hey. The term Hashem says They were known as was El Shaddai. Now according to a modern midrash per Etz Chaim commentary, the word is related to the Hebrew “Shadayim” which means breasts. Suggesting a rather maternal role played by Hashem nurturing the Patriarchs and Matriarchs as they became Their people. Interestingly, Cantor Martin Levson of URJ observes, the four letters Y-H-V-H is related to the future tense of the Hebrew verb “to be.”
Names mean something to the early Hebrews and still today. We saw Abram and Sarai take on the names Abraham and Sarah to mark their movement towards HaShem. A very imperfect Yaakov who stole his brother’s birthright, wrestles with the wrongs he has done his brother in the night with what may have been his guardian angel and is renamed Israel, the name of our people to this day, B’nei Yisrael. Israel, “he who struggled with Hashem and prevailed.”
Hashem goes by many names. Per Rabbi Abba bar Memel: “The Holy One said to Moses: Is it my name you want to know? I am called after my deeds. Sometimes I am called El Shaddai, Tzevaot, Elohim, Adonai. When I judge humanity, I am called Elohim. When I make war against the wicked, I am called Tzevaot and when I give man a suspended sentence for his sins, I am called El Shaddai; and when I have compassion on my world, I am called Adonai. (Shemot Rabba 3:6.)
Names today have meaning as well, and sometimes our names change according to our circumstance. I am a trans woman. When born, I was raised as a boy and called Roland, a name held by my father and my great grandfather. With my dysphoria, the name was an uncomfortable reality, but one that I lived, nonetheless. When I transitioned, in my new role in life I became Jessica Rolanda. Jessica was a name to which I aspired, named after very strong women who held that name, and Rolanda as a vestige of my past reality, a memorial to that child who struggled in the search to find their true self. But then I converted to Judaism and of course took on a Jewish name, Yiskah Rachel. Yiskah was related to Abraham, noted for the simple fact that her name appears at all. Her name suggests she may have been a prophet with a story of her own, long lost to time. It also is the Hebrew version of Jessica. For a middle name, I chose my mother’s name Rachel of blessed memory.
In each case, the names respect roles I play in society, and transformations in who I am over the course of time. We all have our own stories, our own transformations, names by which we are known, as proper names or as descriptions of who we are. In our life journeys we may pick up names such as reliable, hardworking, loving or perhaps one not so kind like untrustworthy, violent. Reading this, what might be the names attached to you? I began with a quote. Let me rephrase a portion of it to conclude: However, the crown of a good name is greater than all of them.” Rabbi Shimon… Pirket Avot 4:13
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