A Name Should Continue the Golden Chain

This past Shabbos, my granddaughters went to receive a bracha from a Tzedeket. The person asked them a simple but profound question: what are your names, and what do your names mean? For her, a shem was not just a label. She listened carefully, sensing the depth behind each name and the thought invested by the parents. That encounter stayed with me, because Parshas Shemot begins with names—shemot—and teaches us their importance.

The Torah opens Sefer Shemot with the words, “These are the names of the children of Israel who came to Egypt” (Shemot 1:1), and then repeats the number again (1:5). Rashi explains that Hashem counts Bnei Yisrael by name to show His love for them, mentioning each one individually, as one counts something precious (Rashi to Shemot 1:5). But this is more than an expression of affection. This sefer tells how Am Yisrael entered the deepest exile and yet did not lose their identity. They went down to Mitzrayim with names, and they emerged with those names intact.

This truth is embodied most clearly in Yosef HaTzaddik. The Torah describes him simply as “Yosef was in Egypt.” Rashi explains that Yosef remained the same Yosef whether he was tending his father’s sheep or ruling over Egypt (Rashi to Bereishit 39:11, s.v. la’asot melachto). Pharaoh gave him another name, Tzafnat Paneach (Bereishit 41:45), but the Torah........

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