This Week’s Torah Portion: B’midbar – בְּמִדבַּר (Numbers 1:1−4:20)

Do you know your Hebrew name? 
Is there a story to your name?

Torah Portions and Books of the Torah are named in Hebrew by their first significant word. Genesis is called in Hebrew B’reisheet, because the first word of the Bible is B’reisheet which means “In the beginning.” Exodus is called Shemot, “names,” because the first words of the book read, “these are the names,” and nobody wants to read a book called “These.”

Originally, the Hebrew name of this weeks Torah Portion was called Vayidaber, which means “And God said,” which tells us nothing because practically every Torah Portion begins Vayidaber, “And God said.” So the name of the Torah portion was changed to B’midbar “In the wilderness” which tells us not much more because Leviticus and Deuteronomy take place in this same wilderness.

In English we call this book Numbers, the English names of the books of the Bible were chosen to tell us what each book is about, however, if that was the plan, then this book should be called “Names,” because it begins and is filled with names. But, we already used that name for Exodus, Shemot. Most people skip over the names that begin the book of B’midbar, but names are important, names have meaning. 

What’s in a name? Meaning. Take this name for instance, Nachshon. There is a story to this name. Nachshon is a name that appears on the listing of names of the Children of Israel who represented the tribe of Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab. But, Nachshon is more than a name.

There is a story about Nachshon, a midrash from thousands of years ago. When the Children of Israel stood at the shores of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army was charging towards them to take them back into slavery, Moses called to God and God called to Moses, to do something to save them. Someone needed to take the first step toward freedom. Nachshon placed his foot in the sea. Nachshon was the leader who decided we were not going to be slaves again, and the Children of Israel followed after him. And when God saw, the Red Sea split. That is how we found our way to freedom. Someone had to take the first step. His name was Nachshon.

Do you know your Hebrew name? 
Is there a story to your name?
There will be. You are writing it right now.