Yaakov Hibbert Presents… Moses

Several years ago I performed an interesting Bris in my house. The only Jewish males present at this bris were myself, the baby and my good friend R’ Shmuel Schwarz – who was going be the Sandek (to hold the baby during the bris). The only Jewish females present were my wife, the mother of the baby and an interfering great aunt (there is always one of these around!) Unfortunately however the father of the baby was non Jewish.
The night before the Bris I spoke to the mother about the ceremony. She asked me what she needed to bring and I responded, “All you need to bring is the baby, and a nice Jewish name”. I told her about her special privilege of picking a Jewish name for her son and of the prophetic-like intuition that is bestowed upon parents to help them choose a name. I sensed she was a little clueless in Jewish names so I suggested that she ‘google’ it and see what names she could come up with – perhaps one would resonate with her.
We gathered the following morning in my house for the bris and as we set up for the festive, albeit small occasion, I asked the mother if she had thought of a nice Jewish name. “Oh! I didn’t manage to do that” she shrugged nonchalantly.
It was at the beginning of The Book of Shemos where Moshe is born and is heavily involved in the story line, so I decided to put forward his name as a possibility. Moshe – or Moses as the parents would know it – is a fairly well known uncontroversial leader of the Jewish Nation and it’s easy to pronounce.
At this point the aunt suddenly emphatically spoke up. “I am not going to allow for my great nephew to be called Moses!” I was a little taken aback by her aggression. She proceeded to inform me why Moses was such an inappropriate name. A couple of weeks ago she had watch the newly released film called ‘The Exodus’ – a film depicting (from a Hollywood perspective) the events of the Exodus for Egypt – and the guy who played Moses was such rubbish – I would never let the baby be called a name with such connotations!” she finished.
It was both funny and sad to hear her ‘deep’ insight into the name Moshe. I offered them the name Yehoshua (Joshua) and thanks to the lack of ‘real’ action in his life – I mean there aren’t ten plagues which are pretty dramatic film material (although I am told they only had seven plagues in the Exodus film!) – there is no Hollywood film to ruin the name Joshua, and the Bris continued with no further mishaps.
Let us take a closer look at the naming and the real Torah depth that lies behind the name Moshe. We read how Batya the daughter of Pharaoh rescued Moshe and “he was a son to her. She called his name Moshe as she said, “For I drew him from the water””. But grammatically speaking, according to what Pharaoh’s daughter was trying to commemorate, his name should have been ‘Mashooy’ (meaning: the one who was drawn out). The meaning of the word ‘Moshe’ is “the one who draws OTHERS out!” This name doesn’t describe Moshe?! It describes that which Batya did for him. Perhaps she should have been called Moshe!
We should remember that our Hebrew name carries incredible significance. It is not simply a label attached in order to allow us the convenience of easily communicating with one another, it describes the very essence of the person or object.
The Medresh tells us that the name ‘Moshe’ trumps all the other names, to teach us that nothing equals the merit of a good deed. Batya’s good deed was no small feat – it could have cost her her life by saving a Jewish child!
Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz explains how deeply our actions affect our surroundings. That which we do for someone else changes that person to the point that our actions become incorporated into that individual. The incredible act of kindness that Batya showed in saving what she thought was an abandoned baby in a ‘Moses Basket(!)’ would be infused into Moshe’s psyche. When she called him Moshe – meaning “he will draw others” – she was unknowingly yet prophetically predicting that which was to become the trademark of the leader of the Jewish Nation. He would – like his step mother – be involved in saving and caring for others. We could say that Moshe was named after his stepmother’s actions, because her actions became his essence.
Good Shabbos, Yaakov