04 Jan THE IMPORTANCE AND MEANING OF JEWISH NAMES

In the beginning of
parshas Shemos,
the posuk says,
“… Shemos Bnei
Yisroel habonim
– The names of
the Jewish People
who came.” The
Baal Haturim revealed that the first
letter of these four words spells
shevi’ah, which means captivity.
And it conveys the lesson that
the Jews kept their Jewish names
throughout their captivity, one of
the three merits which allowed us
to be redeemed from Egypt.
The Maharam Schick, zt”l, zy”a,
states in strong terms that it is of
Biblical importance to maintain
Jewish names. He says it is the
fulfillment of the Torah directive,
“Vavdil es’chem min ha’amim
l’hiyos Li – I will separate you from
the nations to be Mine.” The great
Maharsham, zt”l, zy”a, was asked
about a beautiful embroidered
cover for the shul amud dedicated
by a certain woman. At the
bottom, she embroidered her name
in Hungarian. The Maharsham
poskened that if it was a Jewish
name just written in Hungarian,
that’s fine. But if it was a gentile
name, he wrote that it shouldn’t be
displayed for it can be a stumbling
block to impede the redemption
since in Egypt we were redeemed
because we didn’t change our
Jewish names.
The Otzar Hapla’os wonders if
so, why were there so many sages
in the Talmud who bore secular
names. He proposes that it was
because we were persecuted by
the goyim and many times it
was necessary that we shouldn’t
have Jewish names that were
recognizable as such. My name
on my own birth certificate is a
proof to this idea. My father, Reb
Aharon Tzvi ben Meir Weiss zt”l,
zy”a, was a survivor of Auschwitz
who also lived through the terrors
of the death march after Auschwitz
was disbanded. When he arrived
in America in the early 50s, the fear
of the gestapo was still very real.
So much so that when I was born,
he put on the birth certificate the
name Mark M. instead of Moshe
Meir. Similarly, three years later
my brother got the name Arthur
J. instead of Yosef Asher. It was
only eleven years later that he felt
sufficiently safe to give
my next brother the
name Yisroel Dov.
But if all things are
equal, we should
certainly pick for our
children purely Jewish
names. Even the
surnames should be
distinctly Jewish. When
in Austria they insisted
on people having last
names, the Maharam
Schick adopted the name
‘schick’ for it is an abbreviation of
sheim Yisroel kodesh, the name of
a Jew is holy. So too, for example,
names like Goodfriend points to
the importance of being a chaver
tov, Weiss means white – a stamp
of purity, and Klein, meaning,
small hints to the shining virtue of
humility.
Names in the Jewish belief are
not simply a label to differentiate
people. The gematria of sheim is
tzinor, a pipeline, for one’s name
is a conduit to bring down good
or bad, depending on a person’s
behavior from heaven.
The Gemora teaches us Shma
Gorim, a name foretells a person’s
destiny. So Noach was an ish
naicha, a gentle person and the
letters of Noach, nun ches, spell
chein, charm for Noach found
favor in the Eyes of Hashem.
Hevel means vanity for he died
in vain, killed cold-bloodedly
by his brother Kayin. Hagar
is the same letters as hageir,
the ultimate convert, for she
was a royal princess who
gave up everything to become
Sarah’s handmaid. Moshe is
the same letters as Hashem
for no one saw Hashem face
to face as did Moshe. Basya,
or more precisely Bisya, is the
same letters as teiva, for she
retrieved the ark that contained
Moshe Rabbeinu from the
water. Basya is also the same
letters as bas Kah, the daughter
of G-d, for Hashem said to her,
‘You treated Moshe like your
own child even though he
wasn’t your own; I will treat
you like my daughter.’ She
would never die and entered
alive into Gan Eden.
I mentioned that a name has
an option to be both positive
and negative in the true spirit
of bechira. Thus, Tziporah,
the very great wife of Moshe
Rabbeinu can be anagrammed
to read prutzah, an immodest and
abrasive women. In truth, the
Midrash says, she was wholly pure
like the pure bird variety known
as tziporah. The Rabbeinu Efraim
says that the gematria of Tziporah
equals the gematria of l’Moshe,
showing that even though she was
in far out Midian, she was Moshe’s
basherta. Tziporah is also the
numerical values of tzor milah, for
Tziporah would take a flint stone
and circumcise her son, saving
Moshe’s life. Tziporah is also the
gematria of ratz milah because she
ran to do the circumcision. It was
only her alacrity that saved Moshe
Rabbeinu from being swallowed
by the snake.
All Jewish names carry these
harbingers and messages and I
just wanted to give you a little
taste to impress upon you the
importance of always picking
and using our wonderful Jewish
names. May we merit to mine the
beautiful forecasting encoded in
our names and may Hashem bless
us with long life, good health, and
everything wonderful.