Using Your Name

Last updated on: September 14, 2022 at 3:59 pm by Hebrew College

Using Your Name 2022-09-14T15:59:07-04:00 Hebrew College

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

By Rabbi Shani Rosenbaum

Parashat Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8)

“What’s in a name?” bemoans Shakespeare’s lovesick Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” This may be true for a rose, but for people, there is often a whole lot in a name. Ask anyone who has undergone a name change, or been called a name they don’t want: in the context of a human life, names matter. Among other things, what we call each other signifies who we are to each other. In other words, names hold relationship; they help us understand, and give expression to, the ways we are connected to one another.

Because relationships are dynamic, the names we call each other also shift and change. A clinician might be “Dr. Cohen” at the hospital, just plain “Sarah” when out for coffee with a friend, and “mom” at the dinner table. A couple might call each other by their given names in public, then switch to more private endearments when alone together.

It seems our High Holiday liturgy is particularly sensitive to this dynamic in the context of prayer. What, in this season, should we call the Divine? What shall we name the One to whom we direct our prayers, our deepest hopes, desires and regrets? How shall we express the relationship between us at this particular moment in time?
The piyyut Anu Ameicha, a refrain throughout Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, powerfully captures this yearning to find the right words to name the Divine-human relationship:

Anu ameicha v’ata Elokeinu / We are your people, and you are our God
Anu vaneicha v’ata Avinu / We are your children, and you are our Father…
Anu karmecha, v’ata Notreinu / We are your vineyard, and you are our Tender
Anu p’alecha, v’ata Yotzreinu / We are your work, and you are our Maker…

Each succinct line brings with it an avalanche of images. In some communities, this poem is chanted at a fast tempo, gaining in volume and momentum as the verses progress; almost as if we are rolling through a laundry list of metaphors, none of which feels quite right, until we finally slow and land on a final set of names: anu ma’amirecha, v’ata ma’amireinu.

Contemporary Machzorim run an astonishing range of translations for ma’amirecha and ma’amireinu: “we are Your designated, and You are our Designated” (Artscroll); “we are Thy worshipers, and Thou art our exalting One” (Birnbaum); “we are Your faithful, and You are our Source of faith” (Kol Haneshama); “we give You our word, and You give us Yours” (Koren).

The mystery around these words is not new: it goes all the way back to this week’s parashah, Ki Tavo. The root of מאמיר / ma’amir is אמר—a root we usually associate, in Hebrew, with the act of speaking. But it appears in our parashah (Deut 26:17-18) in an unusual grammatical form, deployed nowhere else for this verb in the Torah. Moses proclaims to the people:

אֶת־ה’ הֶאֱמַרְתָּ הַיּוֹם לִהְיוֹת לְךָ לֵאלֹקִים
וְלָלֶכֶת בִּדְרָכָיו וְלִשְׁמֹר חֻקָּיו וּמִצְוֹתָיו וּמִשְׁפָּטָיו וְלִשְׁמֹעַ בְּקֹלוֹ׃
וַה’ הֶאֱמִירְךָ הַיּוֹם לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר־לָךְ וְלִשְׁמֹר כָּל־מִצְוֹתָיו׃

You have [he’emarta] God today to be your God, to walk in God’s ways and to keep God’s laws and statutes and to hear God’s voice,
And God has [he’emircha] you today, to be, as promised, God’s treasured nation who shall keep all of God’s commandments.

What exactly are the people and God doing to each other in this moment? Classical commentators such as the Ibn Ezra as well as later scholars note connotations of raising up, or exalting or glorifying. Targum Onkelos, the ancient Aramaic translation of the Bible, renders חטבת / hatvat, meaning to select or betroth oneself to, related to the Arabic for fall in love.

The Talmud in Berakhot (6a) weaves these linguistic threads into an exquisite image of the relationship between Israel and the Divine. Having established that God wraps tefillin daily (!), the Gemara asks:

The tefillin of the Master of the Universe—what is written upon them? [The verse] “Who is like your people Israel, one nation on the earth?” (I Chronicles 17:21)

But is the Holy Blessed One truly elevated through the praises of Israel? Yes, as it is written: “You have exalted [he’emarta] God today.” And it is written, “And God has elevated you [he’emarta] today.” The Holy Blessed One said to Israel: You have made me the singular object of your love in the world, as it is written, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” (Deut 6:4) and I will make you the singular object of my love in the world, as it is written, “And who is like your people Israel, one nation on the earth?” (I Chronicles 17:21)

The name ma’amir—the only name that we give to God and God gives, as a mirror image, right back to us—conjures for our Sages an image of a reciprocal devotional practice, a daily declaration of love, of God and the community of Israel choosing each other. Far from formal titles that broadcast boundaries and distance, this label is equalizing, familiar, intimate. The layers of the word ma’amir—declaration, betrothal, loving, raising, exalting—bespeak what it does to us, and what we do to others, when we see and love them, when we name and celebrate what makes them precious to us: we uplift them, and they in turn raise us with them.

This week, as we draw closer to a new beginning, may we take to heart the words of our teacher Moses—et Hashem he’emarta hayom / you have raised-up-in-love the Divine today. May we remember that a committed Jewish life begins with a daily choice to accept and reflect Divine love. And in this season, may we find moments of intimate connection that we can call choosing, loving, and being loved; may we renew our commitment to lift each other up, and may we in turn be lifted.

Please contact the author if you’d like to share any feedback.

R’ Shani Rosenbaum teaches rabbinic and halakhic literature at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College.

Education and Religion

Uncategorized

70 Faces of Torah

Deuteronomy

Previous Post

September 6, 2022

The Mitzvah of Forgetting

Next Post

September 20, 2022 Taking Hold of the Shofar: Dreams of Past & Future

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2026 March 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz