What is your name?
Not necessarily your legal name, but your Hebrew name.
Does it matter and is it even important to have a Hebrew name, after all my legal name is good enough, why make things more confusing?
Yet the truth is, names matter, and Hebrew names certainly matter.
As a people, we are referred to with different names, sometimes we are called the children of Israel, referencing the fact that we are descendants of Jacob, who had his name changed to Israel, and sometimes we are referred to as Yehudim, Jews, or Yidden in Yiddish, which all come from the name Judah, one of the most powerful tribes, and the one who ended up ruling over the Kingdom of Judea, which included Jerusalem and its environs, and was led by the House of David for many years.
Either one of these names for our people and our identity, convey a depth and inner strength along with a message that are inherently part of our spiritual DNA. Jacob was given the name Israel, which means "struggle and overcome" after he battled the angel and had previously overcome Laban. The Jewish people inherited this name, as this quality of dealing with adversity and challenges, yet overcoming them, is an innate strength that we have been blessed with and which we remind ourselves to live by each and every day.
Likewise the name Jew, which comes from the name Judah, is connected with the word "thanks and acknowledgment", and it was Judah's mother, Leah, who named him with that name after his birth, as she said "now I will give thanks to G-d".
In other words, being called a Jew, is a calling to always have gratitude and humility while being thankful to G-d for the blessings in life.
Just as the names of the Jewish people convey so much depth to who we are and what we seek to live by, the individual Hebrew names that we are given, also convey a spiritual blessing and connection with one's inner calling and soul.
The Midrash tells us, that during the exile in Egypt which we start reading about tomorrow, despite the Jews living under so much unbearable pressure and stress, they tried very hard to keep using and keep giving Hebrew names to their children, as they knew this would remind them who they truly were, and help connect them with the depths of their identity.
In the Jewish tradition we use the Hebrew names for being called to the Torah, for wedding documents, for prayers on behalf of people and many other circumstances, and at times, we even add an extra name if someone is very sick, in the hope that this will help bring an extra dose of blessing.
Think about your name, who you are named after and what they represented, and perhaps what the meaning of your Hebrew name is, it will be a blessing.
If you don't yet have a Hebrew Name and want to have one, let us know and we can help you choose, and make a small ceremony for the naming.
And, in addition to remembering our individual Hebrew names, it is so important to remember our collective name as children of Israel and Jews, and what those messages of overcoming struggles, and being thankful to G-d each and every day, mean to us in the here and now, especially these days.
Finally, may Israel be blessed with living up to its name and overcoming all of its struggles very soon. Perhaps just like in the struggle with the angel of Esau, instead of killed Jacob, it ended up blessing Jacob, now too, we can hope and pray that one day people will no longer seek to destroy us, but instead they will recognize and be grateful for the blessings we seek to bring to the world.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel
P.S Please read below an article I wrote to remember a dear friend of mine, Adi Baharav Rabinovitz, who was murdered in Oct 7th, while saving the lives of his community members.