The Yalkut Shimoni quotes a tradition that Moshe had ten additional
names.
He was called Levi- because he was a member of that tribe.
He was called Tuviyah, because there was goodness that
was visible from the time of his birth.
Miriam called her brother Yered, because she went down to
the Nile to see what would happen to her baby brother.
Aharon called his brother (Avi) Zanuach “master of rejection”
because Moshe’s father left his mother, but he came back to her after the birth
of Moshe.
Along the same lines he was called Chever (to join) because he
caused his parents to reunite.
His grandfather Kehat called him Avigdor, literally “master of
the fence”- Avi G’dor, because after Moshe’s birth, Pharaoh was fenced
in and gave up on his decree to drown all Jewish baby boys.
His mother called him Yekutiel, related to the word for hope- as
a prayer that she hoped to one day be reunited with her son.
He was also called (Avi) Socho- Master of Prophecy - because he
would grow up to become the greatest Jewish prophet of all time.
In this week’s Daf
Hashavua (Megilah 13, which meets weekly in the library on Tuesdays after the 8:00
a.m. Minyan) we learned different reasons for these names (based on a verse in
Divrei Hayamim I:4:18):
Yered: because Moshe facilitated the Manna to fall in the
wilderness.
(Avi)gdor: because Moshe helped mend the breach between
God and the Jewish People after the sin of the golden calf.
Chever: because Moshe connected the Jewish People to
their Father in Heaven.
Socho: because Moshe was able to provide protection to the
Jewish People, through Hashem, like a sukkah.
Yekutiel: because Moshe
encouraged the Jewish People to trust in Hashem.
(Avi) Zanuach: because Moshe
was able to push aside the people’s sins.
And then there is
the name Moshe. In Parshat Shemot we are told how and why Moshe got this name.
After being placed in a basket in the Nile River, the daughter of Pharaoh finds
the boy and saves him. After the boy grows up we are told that (2:10): “she called
him Moshe, as she said, for I drew him
from the water”. Although he had all these names, God and the Torah only
refer to him as Moshe. The Midrash at the beginning of Sefer Vayikra is
emphatic on this point. Vayikra el Moshe: It states that Hashem said to
Moshe, “By your life! Of all your names, I will only call you by the name given
to you by Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh.”
What is it about the name Moshe, given by the Egyptian princess, that is
worthy of being the only name by which God calls him?
Rabbi Dr. Abraham
Twerski suggests that the most formative experience of Moshe’s life was the
fact that his adoptive mother was willing to sacrifice everything in order to
save the young boy. Although he probably didn’t remember the incident, Moshe surely
knew the story of how he got his name. This story of self-sacrifice accompanied
Moshe his entire life, shaped his attitude towards others, and provided him
with the strength to similarly sacrifice on behalf of the Jewish People.
More important
than the lessons we try to inculcate into our children with our words, are the
lessons that we teach through our actions. Do the right thing, as much as
possible and as often as possible, when your children are watching you- even if
they don’t intellectually understand what they’re seeing. By doing so you will
leave a legacy not only on the beneficiaries of your good deeds, but on the
beneficiaries of the good deeds performed by your children inspired by your
model.
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