The Names of the Stars
Sefer Bereisheit is the story of how the Avot imprinted in us as a people the spiritual strength we needed to succeed. Sefer Shemot is the story of geulah, of how those strengths come to expression. And although Sefer Shemot is definitely the story of national geulah, Rav Schorr shows us how it is the story of personal geulah as well.
It all begins with names. Specifically, Shemot begins with what appears to be an unnecessary repetition of the names of Yaacov’s children. Rashi famously gives the reason for this, “to make known His love for them, as they are likened to the stars which He takes out and brings in by name.” Rav Schorr points out that when Chazal said, “to make known his love for them” this was not just a random declaration. The intent was to make it known to us, each and every one of us. What Hashem is making known is that He loves us, and that we, too, are like the stars with a light that shines eternally.
Our individual light is expressed through our Hebrew name. Hebrew, lashon hakodesh, is different than other languages. A Hebrew name is not just something we use to get someone’s attention. It is a description of essence and internal strength. When Hashem names something, he defines its spiritual purpose in this world. Everything that was created was created for a specific purpose. Each of us has a unique aspect of kavod shamayim which we are meant to express in the world, and unique spiritual strengths which we are given in order to accomplish our task. Speech is the vehicle by which we give expression to internal things. This is why naming things was an intrinsic part of the creation process. Having a name means that we have spiritual strengths, and the ability to actualize those strengths in the world.
When we call a child by a name, we are giving the child’s inner kochot expression in the world. After we name a baby boy at his brit, there is a bracha which is given by the community to the child: “Just as he has entered into the Covenant, so may he enter into Torah, into marriage, and into good deeds.” What we mean is, just as you entered into this brit with Hashem with these specific kochot and spiritual lights, we bless you to be able to continue to express your spiritual light, and to use it to enter into Torah, marriage and good deeds. We are blessing the child that he will have the ability to bring his kochot into expression in a way that is fitting with his name.
If the highest part of ourselves, our soul, is unable to express itself, it becomes imprisoned in our body. We become disconnected from our own light, and we fall into personal galut. We experience our own personal version of the slavery in Mitzrayim. The Ishbitzer Rebbe gives an interesting insight into the nature of this slavery, which is applicable on a personal level as well. Commenting on the midrash (Rashi, Shemot 18:9) that no slave was ever able to escape from Mitzrayim, the Ishbitzer says this doesn’t mean that there was a wall, or some other kind of barrier which held them in. Slaves stayed in Mitzrayim because they thought it was “like the Garden of Hashem” (see Bereisheit 13:10). They couldn’t imagine that there was anywhere else they wanted to go to.
The Chiddushei HaRim makes a similar comment on Shemot 6:6, where Hashem says, “I took them out of the sufferings of Mitzrayim.” He says that the suffering of Mitzrayim was that we suffered Mitzrayim, we tolerated it. We did not understand that we wanted to go, and for this reason, Hashem had to make life in Egypt unpleasant, so that we would want to go. The first step of geulah, personal or national, is the knowledge that there is more, and the yearning for something better.
Chazal tell us that in Mitzrayim speech was in exile. This means that the aspect of ourselves that allowed us to express and actualize who we are, was not fully operational. The thing that saved us was that we kept our Hebrew names. This is not just on the surface level, but on a deeper level as well. We remained connected to the essence of who we are.
Staying connected to who we are is our key to freedom. And we daven for it every day. At the very end of the Amidah we daven to “Hashem, our Rock and our Redeemer.” This is a request for personal redemption. We connect this request to our name, by saying a pasuk that shares the first and last letters of our name. The idea is that each day, every day, we remind ourselves as we daven to Hashem, that we have the ability to express our unique spiritual strength in the world. We do it while we use our power of speech. And we create, with Hashem’s help, our own personal geulah every day.