‫ הרב דב בערל וויין‬/ NAMES
)‫נושאים שונים (הבית היהודי‬
8675‫השיעור ניתן ב‬
NAMES
‫הרב דב בערל וויין‬
Written by the rabbi
Names play a great role in Jewish life. They are not only important to the one who bears the
name but also to the entire family and friends. There is nothing worse than saddling a child
with a name that later in life may bring ridicule and caustic remarks from peers. Yet granting
names to newborns plays an important role in Jewish life customs. In Ashkenazic circles the
custom was and is to name newborns after deceased ancestors and relatives or great Torah
scholars. Amongst many of our Sephardic brethren the custom is to name children after
living grandparents or relatives of importance. In both customs, the naming of a child thus
takes on great emotional weight. I have been witness in my rabbinic career to many a bitter
family dispute at a brit over the naming of a child for one grandfather and not for the other
one. Because of this type of occurrence - which unfortunately is not uncommon - I know of
an instance of a great Chasidic rebbe who instructed his family that no child be given his
name after his death for at least three generations in order not to generate family disputes. I
have lived to see his fourth generation where his name abounds in plentitude. But in most
instances people are very zealous to have their parents’ or grandparents’ name preserved in
the family. It lends a sense of continuity, even immortality, to family structures and emotions.
It serves as a constant reminder of Jewish survival and tenacity, of how our past lives are
always with us and how all Jewish generations are somehow bound together. So there is a
lot more to a name than would apparently meet the eye or the ear.
All of this was brought to my mind very recently when my newest great granddaughter was
named after her departed great grandmother. Even though I have had other grandchildren
and great grandchildren named after my departed parents I felt this name giving more
emotionally and deeply than those other occurrences. It was a great sense of comfort and
complete closure that swept over me. The importance of names in Jewish life became very
real and unexpectedly personal to me. I see that no one really knows one’s self until real life
situations actually arise. I always thought that I was above the name game. Not so.
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‫ הרב דב בערל וויין‬/ NAMES
)‫נושאים שונים (הבית היהודי‬
One of the facets of Israeli pioneer life was to abandon the custom of naming children after
deceased ancestors and relatives. Instead new names of Biblical origin or of pure Hebrew
names describing flowers, fruits, emotions, etc became and to a great extent still remains the
popular vogue. As a complete departure from tradition and custom, and make no mistake
about it, the original secular pioneers were determined to throw off all vestiges of Jewish
tradition, these new biblical names included names of villains, idolaters and other people
who Jewish tradition rejected as being any sort of role model for future generations. Their
ancestors would have been shocked to learn that their descendants bore such names as
Omri, Nimrod, Avuyah, Shimi, Yeravam, etc. But times change and so do names. The old
Yiddish names that were so common in Eastern European Jewish life are slowly
disappearing from common usage even in very religious circles. They are now pretty much
relegated to being middle names that are really rarely used in everyday life. This trend of
lessening the use of traditional Yiddish names is now common throughout the entire Jewish
world, not only in Israel. I imagine as Eastern European Jewry fades from time and memory,
in spite of all of the Holocaust remembrances, the Yiddish names will also wither into disuse.
So was it regarding the names of Babylonian Jewry and the great men of the Talmud Abayei, Rava, Rav Papa, etc. - that have all disappeared from current Jewish life. If such
names are no longer present in the world then the Yiddish names no matter how common
they once were will probably suffer a similar fate. The Hebrew names of the tanaaim of the
Mishna, which in the main were pure Hebrew names, have survived rather nicely till our day.
The Greek names and the Roman names that were common in Second Temple times
amongst Jews have also almost completely disappeared. English, French, Spanish and
Russian names now take their place within Jewish society. It is really possible to trace the
events of Jewish history simply by studying the names borne by Jews in certain times and
places. So names are important to Jews. They tell our story, our past and our aspirations.
beitel@yeshiva.org.il :‫דואר אלקטרוני‬
www.yeshiva.org.il ‫לשעורים נוספים באתר‬
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