Lee Diamond – Can you imagine Going thru life w/out a name?
Can you imagine
Going through life without a name?
Hey you?
Ugh yes you!
Nameless, nice dress!
I love you, whoever.
Some gave numbers
Instead of names
And dehumanized us
In the animal kingdom
Names are not used
We name our pets
But some humans go un-named
Or choose to forget.
A person un-named doesn’t exist in our world.
The question was asked regarding
the Jewish slaves
In Egypt:
“How did we survive as Jews
during these 400 years of slavery?”
And the answer:
We didn’t change our language!
We didn’t change our style of clothes!
And
We didn’t change our NAMES
NAMES MATTERED.
IN FACT NAMES KEPT US ALIVE!
We might have taken on Egyptian names :
Ramses, Nefertiti or the like
But we preferred
Puah and Shifra
and Miriam ; Joshua and Aharon
(Moses is a different story)
Maybe we could have integrated
Into Egyptian society had we
become Ramses
Maybe we could have escaped
Bondage
If we had taken on names of Egyptian gods !
But something kept us from doing so
Something kept us Shimon and Levi
That something was buried deep in our
Souls.
NAMES MATTERED
Hebrew names matter and keep us Jews
Hebrew names make us matter
To ourselves and identify us to others.
If we forget or avoid them
Or not inform our children of their rightful names
We are condemning our progeny
To be nameless and unidentified
Jews!
Every Jewish child has a Birthright
And that birthright is His/Her
Hebrew NAME
Our names are our souls
