Parashat Vayishlach by Seth Pertain, High School Talmud Teacher
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam…
When I’m in Israel, I seem to have more names than one can count. There are people who call me “Seth.” There are those who use my Hebrew name. There are about 10 different names that I get called by Israelis who cannot pronounce my name but think that they are addressing me by my given name. And then there is that small group of friends who like to call me by my father’s Yiddish name. I respond to all of them.
While Parashat Vayishlach is not the only parashah where people and places are named, it does have a uniqueness to the naming process. First, Jacob names six different places based on his experiences in those places. Those names range from “Beit El” (House of God), marking an encounter with God, through “Eilon Bachut” (Plain of Weeping), commemorating the loss of an important fixture in the family. He projects his emotions onto a place, and that name becomes the new identity of that place.
When I’m in Israel, I seem to have more names than one can count. There are people who call me “Seth.” There are those who use my Hebrew name. There are about 10 different names that I get called by Israelis who cannot pronounce my name but think that they are addressing me by my given name. And then there is that small group of friends who like to call me by my father’s Yiddish name. I respond to all of them.
While Parashat Vayishlach is not the only parashah where people and places are named, it does have a uniqueness to the naming process. First, Jacob names six different places based on his experiences in those places. Those names range from “Beit El” (House of God), marking an encounter with God, through “Eilon Bachut” (Plain of Weeping), commemorating the loss of an important fixture in the family. He projects his emotions onto a place, and that name becomes the new identity of that place.
These episodes are punctuated by two other renamings. First, God renames Yaakov. His original name comes from the circumstances of his birth, in which he was holding his brother’s heel – a name that is dependent on his being compared to another person. Jacob has reinvented himself, and he will now be known as Yisrael – a name that reflects his grappling with God. Moving forward, his descendants and their land will also be known by this name that emphasizes Jacob’s independence.
The second renaming in the parashah occurs on Rachel's deathbed as she’s giving birth to her second son. Rachel names him “Ben-Oni” often translated as something along the lines of “son of my sorrow." Before that verse ends, Jacob decides to call him “Binyamin” (Benjamin). While there are different traditions as to what that name refers to, one of the more common ones is that he is called his “right hand son.”
Names often have emotional ties to them. There are times when we try to redefine ourselves through a new name, and other times that we try to live up to our names. The names that we create are often ways for us to express more than a way of identifying something. A rose by any other name might smell even sweeter... What would you like to call it?
Shabbat Shalom.
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The second renaming in the parashah occurs on Rachel's deathbed as she’s giving birth to her second son. Rachel names him “Ben-Oni” often translated as something along the lines of “son of my sorrow." Before that verse ends, Jacob decides to call him “Binyamin” (Benjamin). While there are different traditions as to what that name refers to, one of the more common ones is that he is called his “right hand son.”
Names often have emotional ties to them. There are times when we try to redefine ourselves through a new name, and other times that we try to live up to our names. The names that we create are often ways for us to express more than a way of identifying something. A rose by any other name might smell even sweeter... What would you like to call it?
Shabbat Shalom.
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