What’s in a name? And what does it mean to change our names, or to acquire an additional name?
As a rabbi, one of the really delightful conversations (or actually, genre of conversation) that I get to have on a regular basis is about names.
I talk with parents who are welcoming new children about the names they are choosing for their child, what those names mean to them, and what their hopes are for their child – often expressed, in part, through their name(s).
I talk with adults who are converting to Judaism (or who have always been Jewish, but didn’t previously have a Hebrew/Yiddish/Ladino/other-Jewish-language Jewish name with which to be called to Torah) about the Jewish names they are choosing for themselves, and what those names mean to them.
I talk with people who are planning Jewish ceremonies to celebrate having come out as transgender about whether or not they also want to choose a new or additional Jewish name, to match their gender, and what this means to them.
And I talk with people who are getting married about the new names they are taking on, or the names they are keeping, or both, about what their names mean to them …
… and the list goes on. There are so many different reasons we might find ourselves choosing new or additional names for ourselves or other people, at so many different times in our lives. And when it comes time to choose these names, so many different factors can guide our choices. There is often so much that we hope these names can carry and convey – about our relationships, our identities, our dreams, and our ideals.
This week’s Torah portion, Vayishlach, contains one of Jewish tradition’s most famous (re)naming scenes. In Vayishlach, our patriarch Jacob wrestles all night with an unnamed being (maybe a person, maybe an angel, maybe God, maybe himself), and demands, as the sun rises, that he receive a blessing.
The blessing that the being gives Jacob is an additional name: Yisrael (Israel). Why Yisrael? The being says to Jacob: “because you have wrestled (sarita) with God (Elohim – or El) and with human beings, and you have prevailed” (Genesis 32:29).
From this one verse, we get so much: the idea that a big part of being Jewish is wrestling, with God and with the world as it is; the idea that one thing a name can do is honor part of our journey and story (or our family’s journey(s) and stories); the idea that a name can be a blessing.
Interestingly, Genesis 32:29 is not the only moment in this week’s Torah portion in which Jacob is gifted the name Yisrael. He is also given the name Yisrael by God in Genesis 35:10, as part of a slightly different story. In this slightly different story, right after God gives Jacob his new name, God describes plans for Jacob/Israel’s future, and the future of his descendants. In Genesis 35, the name Yisrael is, in part, an expression of hope for what might be.
Like Jacob/Yisrael (who went by both names for the rest of his life), the names we gain as our lives go on can also tell multiple stories. Sometimes our names tell the story of where we have been (“because you have wrestled …” (Genesis 32:29)). Sometimes our names tell the story of where we are going, or hope to go (Genesis 35). Sometimes, our names tell both of these stories, and more.
We don’t all have Jacob/Yisrael’s experience of taking on new or additional names in adulthood. And we may not all experience our names as blessings. But we all can, like Jacob/Yisrael, take time to honor where we and other people have been, and where we hope to go in the future. We can try to offer and receive blessings – in all of their many forms. And we can try to be open to change, in ourselves and other people – as God the unnamed being, and Jacob himself, were all open to the ways Jacob grew and changed over his life, into a person who could also be called Yisrael.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alexandra Stein
