Shabbat Parashat Lech Lecha - 5785

Rabbi Hal Miller

And God said to Avraham, "As for Sarai your wife, do not call her name Sarai, for

Sarah is her name." [Bereishit 17:15]

There are a number of namings in our portion, Yishmael, Avraham, Sarah, Yitzchak.

What do they teach us?

In 16:11, the angel tells Hagar, "you shall call his name Yishmael for God has heard

your prayer", using the first person female form of "you shall call" as Rashi notes. He

says that it is a command, not a prophecy of the future. Ramban takes it a step further,

that Hagar was told to call him Yishmael but she was afraid, so she told Avram, who in

16:15 actually named the boy. Breaking down the name, shma means to listen, el

means God, and in context yishma means heard, as the end of 16:11 specifies.

Avram is renamed Avraham in verse 17:5. Avram is explained as "father of Aram", and

Avraham as "father of a multitude of nations" according to Onkelos, Rashi and Berachot

[13a]. Rav Hirsch differs on how to understand this idea, saying that it cannot be taken

literally since the name would then be Avhen without the reish. He says that the meaning

is that Avraham will raise the spiritual level of the whole world. Sforno notes that this

verse says that Avram will no longer be his name, rather Avraham, and explains that this

differs from the situation with Yaakov, when Israel was added as a second name instead

of replacing Yaakov. Avraham denotes a change in who he is, Israel adds to who Yaakov is.

Then in our verse, 17:15, it is Sarah's turn. Her name at birth was Yiskah. According to

Rashi on Bereishit 11:29, this is a reference to her "extraordinary beauty". But Avram called

her Sarai, meaning "my princess". Our verse seems to be God correcting Avraham that he

had her nickname wrong. The wording of our verse indicates that unlike Avraham, Yaakov

and Yishmael, who each got a new name, Sarah's name here is merely a correction. She

was not Avraham's princess, rather princess to the entire world.

Then in 17:19, God tells Avraham that Sarah will bear him a son, and He commands him

to call the son Yitzchak as a reminder of Sarah's laughing over the prospect. This also

serves to remind us that God can do anything, even make an old woman pregnant.

Names describe something about the person to whom they are applied, at least when it

is God who gives them. These names had the ability to set or to change the direction of

the lives of the people involved. According to Or HaChayim, Avram once complained to

God that the stars told him he would never father children. God told him, Avram will not

but Avraham will, Sarai will not but Sarah will.

Hal Miller