Rabbi Daniel Siegel

Guten Nomen

There is a maxim in our Jewish tradition- כשמו כן הוא/“As his name, so is he”.

Does this mean one’s name is determinative or reflective of who one is?

In this week’s parashah, twin boys are born, whose names are telling.

The first to emerge from the womb is described as entirely אדמוני/Admoni. אדמוני/Admoni means red, from the word דם/dam, meaning blood.

We are told he is entirely red as a hairy mantle-אדרת שער/ aderet se’ar. So he is called Eisav, which scholars associate with the Arab cognate, Isaw, meaning hairy.

Moreover, the Hebrew שער/se’ar is a wordplay on שעיר/Se’ir, the land of אדום/ Edom (meaning red), both of which are later associated with Eisav: “This is the land of Eisav, the ancestor of Edom (the Edomites), in the hill country of Se’ir”.

Does the name he receives determine his future, or does his past determine the name he receives.

And, then we are presented with yet another etiology for the name of this firstborn.

When Eisav sells his birthright for red lentil stew, he says: “Give me some of that red stuff (האדום /האדום HaAdom, Ha’adom)”. The text continues “That is why he was called by the name אדום/Edom”.

“You are what you eat”?

The second son emerges on the heels of the first, and we are told he is given the name יעקב/Ya’akov as he was holding on to the /עקבekev/heel of his older brother, suggesting that he was trying to usurp him as the first born, which he succeeds in doing upon having his older brother sell him the birthright.

Yet, when his older brother finds out יעקב/Ya’akov steals his father’s blessing, belonging to the eldest son, he cries out: “Is that why he was called יעקב/ Ya’akov?-that he supplanted me (יעקבני/Ya’akveni) twice, first he took my  birthright (bekhorati) and now he has taken my blessing (birkhati)”.

Does Eisav truly believe Ya’akov’s name predetermined his actions, or is he/the narrator suggesting that he earned this name.

Ya’akov, the trickster, who deceives his father to gain the blessing of the birthright has his actions visited upon him multifold as his uncle, his wife and his sons all trick him, in turn.

Our biblical tradition seems to suggest that more than our name determining our personal narrative it is our character and actions that determine how we become known and named. Perhaps, this is why the parashah is called toldot, which means “genealogy” but also “consequences”.

As our Rabbis say:

“The human is called by three names: That which his parents call him, that which his peers call him and that which he acquires for himself. Best of all, that which he acquires for himself”.