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Isaac’s Parsha Corner – Shmot 2023
Isaac Shulman
What Is in a Name?
“And these are the names of the Children of Israel who came to Egypt. They came with Jacob, each along with his household: Reuven, Shimon, Levi, and Yehuda. Issachar, Zebulun, and Binyamin. Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. And all the souls who were Jacob’s progeny were seventy. And Yoseph was in Egypt.” (Ex. 1:1-4)
“The Jews had four merits which enabled them to leave Egypt. They retained their original names, their own unique language, their family purity, and their unity.” (Midrash Rabah Vayikra 32:5)
The difficulty with this Midrash is that the redemption had been predicted by God himself at the Covenant of the Pieces. The Midrash may be attempting to answer why they left before completing the full four hundred years of enslavement. The difficulty with that answer is that it is missing in the text! It should have read “four merits that enabled them to leave early”. Furthermore, how does repeating the birth names demonstrate that they did not later change the names?
The answer may be found in another pasuk. "And a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Yoseph.” (Ibid. 8) How could Pharaoh not know Yoseph? It was Yoseph who single-handedly saved the entire world, enriched Pharaoh beyond riches, enslaved the entire nation of Egypt to Pharaoh, and developed an ongoing tax code that existed in his time. Pharaoh knew all this, and that Yoseph was the one who did all of it. However, in his mind it was not Yoseph the son of Jacob who received the credit. Pharaoh had given Yoseph a new Egyptian name, “Zaphnath Paaneah.” He did this to disassociate Yoseph from his birth family and to create the myth of the great Egyptian astrologer/necromancer/dream interpreter. “Don’t you know that a man like me practices the art of nichush (necromancy)? (Genesis 42:15) The enslavement of Yoseph’s family could only have occurred had the family not followed Yoseph and had adopted Egyptian names. If they had done so, they would have been no different from Yoseph. The pasuk subtly points this out by reporting “and Yoseph was in Egypt,” a totally unnecessary comment. It serves to distinguish within the pasuk between Yoseph who had his name changed by Pharaoh and his brothers who did not.
The Midrash in attributing the four merits associated with the redemption is merely making a point. The definition of our people is in our uniqueness. We are like no other nation. We act differently, dress differently, speak our own language (Yiddish and Ladino are also particular to our people) and name our children after beloved and respected family members. The emergence of Hebrew following our most recent redemption is similarly associated with great merit. Even the least practicing Israeli converses in a language of redemption! May it continue to bring us merits of redemption soon and in our time.
Shabbat Shalom
* Dedicated to my dear wife Wendy who inspired our recent partial Aliyah to Katzrin in the Golan.
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