This week's Torah portion really speaks to me. See, it inspired our son's name.
Twelve
years ago (ahem, an election year) our son Avromi was born. His bris
coincided with Parshas Lech Lecha - the portion where Abraham is
commanded to circumcise his son. It was the first time my husband was
able to perform a bris on one of his son's, and we felt overwhelmed with
gratitude for being able to do this mitzvah in its ideal form (father
to son).
So we named our son after Abraham, to commemorate the mitzvah and the occasion.
In
chatting with some women at a class recently, the topic of names came
up. Seems everyone loves to talk about naming their kids, almost as
much as labor stories. I mentioned that if you want to name a child
after a beloved family member, there is spiritual merit to that (both
for the child and for the deceased) only if the actual Hebrew name is
used. The first initial thing is a nice commemoration, but is not
actually spiritually potent. There was a lot of suprise around this and
regret at not having had this information in advance.
One
of our families recently changed the Hebrew name of their 12-year-old
son. They had done some Jewish learning and come to the awareness that
the name they had chosen long ago no longer expressed the Jewish hopes
and dreams for their child, nor he for himself. It was a meaningful
moment, in anticipation of his future bar mitzvah, but not an isolated
one. A number of our JFX kids, and their parents, have received new
Jewish names, or sometimes, their first Hebrew names, after learning
just how spiritually potent it can be.
For
us, our prayer is that our son absorb some of the original Abrahams'
beautiful qualities: faith despite opposition; love and kindness for
humankind; hospitality; and being a wonderful example.
Do
your kids know their Hebrew names? Consider having a schmooze with
them: what those names are, why you chose them, what they mean to you.
What a gift for their Jewish future!
