We begin reading the book of Exodus this week and learn of Moses’ birth. The daughter of Pharaoh gives him the name, Moshe or Moses after the circumstances in which she found him. Exodus 2:10 states, “The child (Moses) grew up, and she (Yocheved) brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and she said, “For I drew him from the water.”

The Hebrew name, Moshe, literally means drawing. This name is a description fo how Pharoah’s daughter found Moses, floating in the Nile as well as a foreshadowing to Moses’ life of drawing people out, to freedom and to safety.

The word a person hears most, is their own name. The name Moshe or Moses served as a call to his to the task of saving, drawing out, and rescuing. Just as Pharoah’s Daughter saved Moses, so too would he go on to save others.

Our names too connect us to our ancestors, our past and our future. We name our children with the hopes they will have the best qualities of those loved ones. For whom were you named? What is the meaning of your name? Finally, what do you need to do to fulfill the meaning of your name and its legacy?

Please contact me for help researching the meaning of your name and share with me information about the person you are named after.

Our names are our legacy and our future.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Metz