Child Proof

Ephraim Kishon famously taught that in Israel, mothers learn their mother tongue from their children! In this week’s portion of Yitro, in a brief departure from the drama, we learn about Moses’s life from the naming of his children in an analogous manner that we discovered aspects of Joseph’s story through the naming of his children. 

Joseph reveals the trauma he suffered, and his fortitude in a seemingly against all odds rising from imprisonment to becoming number two in Egypt, through the names he gives to his sons, Bereishit 41:51,52

וַיִּקְרָ֥א יוֹסֵ֛ף אֶת־שֵׁ֥ם הַבְּכ֖וֹר מְנַשֶּׁ֑ה כִּֽי־נַשַּׁ֤נִי אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶת־כׇּל־עֲמָלִ֔י וְאֵ֖ת כׇּל־בֵּ֥ית אָבִֽי׃

Joseph named the first-born Manasseh, meaning, “God has made me forget completely my hardship and my parental home.” 

This deep sense of abandonment is divulged in a manner unexpected and until that point, untold. 

וְאֵ֛ת שֵׁ֥ם הַשֵּׁנִ֖י קָרָ֣א אֶפְרָ֑יִם כִּֽי־הִפְרַ֥נִי אֱלֹהִ֖ים בְּאֶ֥רֶץ עׇנְיִֽי׃

And the second he named Ephraim, meaning, “God has made me fertile in the land of my affliction.”

The resemblance between this account and that of Moses’s two sons is striking

Yitro for whom the portion is called, is reuniting Moses with his family, bringing Tziporra and her (interestingly not their) two sons. 18:2-4;

וַיִּקַּ֗ח יִתְרוֹ֙ חֹתֵ֣ן מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶת־צִפֹּרָ֖ה אֵ֣שֶׁת מֹשֶׁ֑ה אַחַ֖ר שִׁלּוּחֶֽיהָ׃

So Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’s wife, after she had been sent home,

וְאֵ֖ת שְׁנֵ֣י בָנֶ֑יהָ אֲשֶׁ֨ר שֵׁ֤ם הָֽאֶחָד֙ גֵּֽרְשֹׁ֔ם כִּ֣י אָמַ֔ר גֵּ֣ר הָיִ֔יתִי בְּאֶ֖רֶץ נׇכְרִיָּֽה׃

and her two sons—of whom one was named Gershom, that is to say, “I have been a stranger in a foreign land”;

וְשֵׁ֥ם הָאֶחָ֖ד אֱלִיעֶ֑זֶר כִּֽי־אֱלֹהֵ֤י אָבִי֙ בְּעֶזְרִ֔י וַיַּצִּלֵ֖נִי מֵחֶ֥רֶב פַּרְעֹֽה׃

and the other was named Eliezer, meaning, “The God of my father’s house was my help, delivering me from the sword of Pharaoh.”

You may recall that earlier in Shemot, 2:22 we learned of the birth and naming of Moses’s first son. This is the first time we are hearing the story of their second son. The Or Hachaim, the seventeenth century scholar from Morocco, relays a fascinating explanation; ‘Although the reason Moses named this son Gershom has already been mentioned in Exodus 2,22, it had to be repeated here in order to inform us that we are talking about the same son already mentioned in chapter two, though this may have been sixty years earlier’.

The Or Hachaim also relates to a further discrepancy in the parallel accounts of the children of Joseph and those of Moses. ושם האחד אליעזר, and the name of the one was Eliezer, the reason that Eliezer, Moses’s second son is referred to as האחד, “the one,” instead of the “second one,” is that the reason for Eliezer being named as he was refers to an event which occurred even before Gershom was born. God had first saved Moses’s life from the sword of Pharaoh before he had enabled him to settle down in Midian. 

That of course raises an additional question as to why not call his first son to acknowledge this consequential event? 

The Or Hachaim expounds that the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land, a deep sense of rootlessness, preceded even the time when God saved him from the sword of Pharaoh. Moses’ whole attitude to life on earth has to be evaluated in that light… Once again we receive an alarming insight into Moses childhood and adult life, a baby ostensibly abandoned, placed perilously in the Nile to be saved not by his natural parents rather a stranger, albeit the daughter of Pharaoh. 

A profound precept is being relayed through these two leaders who truly changed the course of history. Their stories are told through their children. To paraphrase Hillel, this may be the entire Torah (we receive this week) the rest is commentary. Go learn.