Parashat Shemot

This week, our Parashah opens with Ve’eleh Shemot – And here are the names. I would like to focus on this word, Shemot – names. 

God presents to Moses in different ways. First, as the “God of Your Father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” But when Moses asks how to explain to the people who God is, God tells him, enigmatically, “Ehye asher Ehye” (Exodus 3:14). Unlike the immutable God of Aristotle, the God of Abraham is an active God who is in constant dialogue with God’s people. A God of the future who explains to Moses that it will be through God’s actions that God’s People will know God. 

And the way we present ourselves is of utmost importance. The name is one of the pillars of our identity, it is our frame of reference and the first element that challenges us. It is so important, the “Chazal” say that one of the things that our ancestors did not lose in Egypt was their name. 

Through our names the special quality of each person is declared, the particular and different in each one of us. 

As we read in the Midrash Tanchuma: 

“You find that a person is known by three names: the name by which his parents call them, the name by which other people call them, and the one they earn for themselves; the most important name is the latter.” 

It is my hope that when reading this Parasha, we think about our names, who we are, and who we want to be. And in the same way, that we learn to see in others their special quality, the particular and different in each one of us. 

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