Parashat Sh'mot 5769 -- Names and Journeys

This week we begin the book of Exodus. “Exodus,” according to the esteemed www.dictionary.com, means “a going out; a departure or emigration.” And while this is the book of “The Exodus,” meaning “the departure of the Israelites from Egypt under Moses,” it is also the book of “Exodus,” which means that as we read it, we too should imagine our own journeys, the places we are leaving, ourour migrations, (maybe even, if we’re feeling a little chutzpadik, our arrivals). departures,

And yet, this book is known by a different name in Hebrew. In Hebrew, we call this second book of the Torah, “Sh’mot,” or “Names.” The meaning of the word “name,” reports www.dictionary.com, is “a word or a combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated.”

This is the Book of Names and the Book of Journeys.

Is it surprising, then, that in this week’s parashah, the first in this book, we hear of both journeys and names?

The generation of Joseph has died and a new Pharaoh now rules over Egypt. Fearing the size of the Israelite people, Pharaoh persecutes and enslaves them. A Hebrew boy is born. Despite the fact that his very existence, his journey into life, is illegal; he is saved and sent down the Nile on a tiny little ark, the second journey of his life. It is not until he is rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter that he receives his first name (a veteran of journeys, but nameless until then). The Torah tells us, “She called him Moshe [pull out], explaining, "Because I pulled him out of the water" (Exodus 2:9)

Moses is first raised by his mother, who calls herself his “wet nurse,” and then is raised by Pharaoh’s daughter, who called herself “his mother.” Moses comes of age in the Pharaoh’s palace, separated from his people, never called by the name of “slave,” the title by which he should have been known.

And so, knowing what we do about names and journeys, should we be surprised that one day, after seeing an Egyptian beat an Israelite slave, Moses seems to remember that his name should have been “Israelite” and “slave”? Should we be surprised that Moses looks left and right, and then strikes and kills the Egyptian taskmaster? Should we lift an eyebrow when Moses’ memory of his birth-name and all that it inspired in him causes him to flee Egypt and travel to Midian? Yes, we seem to know already, a remembered-name often inspires a journey of one kind or another, just as a journey often inspires a new name.

One day in Midian, while tending to his father-in-law’s flock, an angel of God appears to Moses in the form of a burning bush. God knows Moses’ name and knows just how to call to him from within the bush, “Moses, Moses” (Exodus 3:4)! From the bush, God tells Moses who God is and who God hopes Moses will become: not slave, not wanderer, not child of the Egyptian palace, but redeemer of the Israelite people.

Moses responds by asking God’s name.

Why is Moses so interested in the name of the divine? Because Moses has come to know about names and journeys. God answers, elusively, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh…this shall be My name forever.” (Exodus 3:14-15). God’s name does not have a single meaning. At once, it suggests “I Am That I Am,” and “I Am Who I Am,” and “I Will Be What I Will Be.” God is both a name and a journey.

Yes, I believe this is the message we are meant to hear this Shabbat. Created b’tzelem Elohim, we too are names and journey.

On this Shabbat, as we enter into this new book of Torah, let us reflect on the names others call us, on the names we whisper to our own selves, and on the names we choose for those around us. Let us reflect on where we are, where we have been, and where we are going. On this Shabbat, our God of Being, let us live up to the name by which You call us.