Then Jethro, Moses’
father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife ... and her two sons, of whom the
name of one was Gershom, for he had said: I have been a stranger in a strange land,
and the name of the other, Eliezer: for the God of my father is my help
and delivered me
from the sword
of Pharaoh.
Exodus 18:2-4
The question has been raised: why did
Moses name his second son Eliezer? Seemingly, it would have been
appropriate for Moses to give this symbolic name, expressing gratitude for his
salvation, to his first-born.
My father suggested two answers. On
the level of p’shat (the simple meaning), at the time of Gershom’s
birth, Moses was not yet sure that he had been saved. Pharaoh may still have
been seeking his execution. As the Netziv of Volozhin notes, it is only with
the birth of Moses’ second son that God informed him “all the men who sought
your life are dead.” [Exodus 4:19]
The second answer conveys the
greatness of Moses. In choosing to name his first-born Gershom (“I
have been a stranger in a strange land”), Moses expressed his affinity with the
suffering of his brethren in Egypt. Moses’
feelings for his fellow Israelites were more important to him than the fact
that he, personally had been saved from Pharaoh’s sword. Meshech Ḥochmah
comments that this is truly an expression of Moses’ greatness, in light of the
fact that, growing up as a prince in Pharaoh’s palace, Moses did not personally
experience the suffering inflicted on the Israelites by the Egyptians. Yet
Moses felt complete empathy with his brethren.
Ultimately,
the order of the names Moses gave to his sons expresses the ideal of a true
leader, whose personal issues are secondary to his primary concern, the welfare
of his congregation.
No comments:
Post a Comment