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January 16, 2026 What's In a Name?
Dear Friends, Immediately following tomorrow morning’s service, please join us in the social hall for our Kiddush luncheon, which is sponsored by Marj Goldstein, to honor and mark the Yahrzeit of her husband, Herb. We thank Marj for her generosity and helping to make tomorrow’s Kiddush extra special. When I have the honor and privilege of officiating wedding ceremonies, one of the things I share with my couples is that, if they wish for their witnesses to sign their Ketubah in Hebrew, the witnesses have to at least know their own Hebrew names. Even if they haven't written it out in three decades, I can help them with a "cheat sheet" on a napkin, but they have to at least know what their name is. It sounds silly, I know. It sounds silly to me when I say it. But, as I share with my couples, we don't want folks frantically calling their parents from the signing room, and, more significantly, I am not in the business of doing as some colleagues do, which is giving folks Hebrew names on the spot based on their English monikers. Names, both personally and within Jewish tradition, are sacred. They are chosen by our parents with intention and purpose, almost always tied to memories of loved ones in our families who came before us. A Midrash from our Sages says, "In life, you discover that people are called by three names: one is the name the person is called by his father and mother; one is the name people call him; and one is the name he acquires for himself. The best one is the one he acquires for himself." In modern times, it seems we have more than just three names. For example, I am "Joshua Hillel" to my parents; "Josh," "Strom," or occasionally "Stromboli" to my friends; "Abba" to my children, "Uncle Josh" to my niece and nephew, and, of course, "Rabbi Strom" and "Rabbi Josh" in my professional role. I don't know that I would agree with the assertion that the name we acquire for ourselves is necessarily the best, but I do believe that it is the most important one. That is how we are known to others, the reputations we earn, what they really think of us. All of the names we are given, and acquire, throughout our lifetimes, speak to the different facets and dimensions of our multi-layered personalities. This is true even of God. This week's Parashat, Va'era, begins with God still trying to convince Moses that he will be successful in the enormous mission placed before him, because God will be with him: וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו אֲנִ֥י יְהֹוָֽה׃ וָאֵרָ֗א אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֛ם אֶל־יִצְחָ֥ק וְאֶֽל־יַעֲקֹ֖ב בְּאֵ֣ל שַׁדָּ֑י וּשְׁמִ֣י יְהֹוָ֔ה לֹ֥א נוֹדַ֖עְתִּי לָהֶֽם׃ 'God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am Adonai (yud-hay-vav-hay). I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make Myself known to them by my name Adonai."' The tetragrammaton - the fancy word for the four-letter name of God whose original pronunciation has been lost for centuries - we pronounce as "Adonai." These four letters are considered the actual name of God, and different guesses throughout history have rendered it Yahveh or Yahweh, and it's also where the word "Jehovah" comes from. The first reason God shares this with Moses is to offer a different and deeper level of intimacy to Moses than was presumably presented to the patriarchs of Genesis. Moses needs to know that he is God's "guy," that the relationship God aims to establish with him will be unlike any before or after it; that God is and will be willing to do all kinds of quite literally unbelievable things to help him achieve their shared goal of redeeming the Israelites from slavery. The second, in my opinion, is that the tetragrammaton contains the letters that comprise all the tenses of being: hayah ("was"), hoveh ("is"), and yihyeh ("will be." In last week's parasha, God shares with Moses the name Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, which, as we discussed, literally means "I Will Be What I Will Be." And yet, יְהֹוָֽה represents all facets of an eternal existence, which is why the untranslatable word is often rendered "the Eternal." God always was there, is there, and always will be. This name of God, it would seem, encompasses them all, and is the name God seeks to be known as, most especially from this moment on. May all the names chosen for us, given to us, and acquired in our lifetimes, be names worthy of the divine image God made us in. And may we strive in our daily lives and conduct to make them so. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Strom
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