This week’s Parsha, Chayei Sarah, describes in great detail the saga of Eliezer, the servant of Avrahum, as he went to find a wife for Yitzchok. There are two instances where the Torah describes Eliezer’s gratitude to HaShem for guiding him in his quest. I would therefore like to dedicate this week’s Parsha thought to the idea of giving thanks.
When people name their child after a close relative it is understood as a hope that the child lives up to that name. When you build a company the name you choose will reflect the purpose of the company. When a school is built the founders name the school to reflect the type of students they hope to develop. So let us examine why our name is Jew. What is the origin of that name? What does the name mean?
Jew in English or Juden (pronounced yuden) in German comes from the name Judah or Yehuda which is the name of one of the children of Yaakov. The original Yehuda fathered the tribe of Judah from which came King David and eventually Moshiach. Historically speaking, our people were split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom which was ruled by the tribe of Efraim and the southern kingdom ruled by Yehuda. The northern kingdom was exiled 600 years after we entered the Land of Israel. Since then we have not heard from them. All the surviving members of our people were from the southern kingdom which was ruled by the tribe of Yehuda. We could perhaps satisfy original question on the historical basis, namely, we are called Jews after the name of the ruling tribe, Yehuda.
This answer does not satisfy me because there must be some defining quality in our name if it has stuck for a thousand years.
Leah, the mother of the original Yehuda, named her son Yehuda as an expression of her gratitude that she felt to HaShem for giving her a fourth son. Yehuda comes from the word hodoah(pronounced ho-da- ah) which means gratitude. She understood that Yaakov would father 12 sons from whom the nation of Israel would come. She also knew that Yaakov would bear these 12 sons from four women. This means that if all the mothers would get an equal share she would bear three sons and no more. When her fourth child was a boy she realized that she received a gift, an extra child, one more than she deserved.
The word hodoah shares the same root as modeh which means to admit or to concede. These two words are closely related because genuine gratitude is experienced only when you recognize that the benevolence shown to you was truly undeserved. If you feel that you deserve the kindness shown to you, your gratitude is diminished. Compare the following two individuals. The first fellow is an entrepreneur who sells his startup company to Google for 3 billion dollars. The second individual is a child who was abandoned by his parents in a basket and was picked up and adopted by a couple who loved him and raised him to become a highly successful person.
Although the first fellow is truly grateful to Google he does not feel that he received something undeservedly. He knows that Google bought him out for their own benefit and they stand to gain considerably more than $3b. Even if he is grateful to Google, his gratitude does not compare to our second fellow. The second person’s gratitude, in contrast, knows no bounds because he knows that he did not deserve any benevolence whatsoever. Everything he has from his adopted parents was not coming to him.
The reason hodoah shares the same root with modeh is because true gratitude is only achieved when the person is willing to concede that they do not deserve the gift. Although Leah was filled with gratitude when her first three children were born she did not name them Yehuda because she felt that she deserved those three children. Only with the birth of the fourth did she recognize how HaShem gave her more than her just share. Hence she named him Yehudah. She conceded that she did not deserve this child.
The purpose of each Jew, as well as, the purpose of the Jewish people is to recognize that our very existence is an undeserved gift that HaShem granted us. The prophet Yechezkel (Ezekiel 16:4) speaks in HaShem’s name to His people “And as for your birth; On the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to smooth your skin, nor were were you swaddled, no eye pitied you to do any of these things for you, to show you compassion, you were cast out upon the open field because of the loathsomeness of your being…Then I passed you and saw you and I said to you you shall live… I made you as numerous as the plants of the field, you increased and grew…”
How proud we ought to be as America celebrates Thanksgiving. We should know that it was the Jewish people who taught the world the meaning of giving thanks, and our name still bears testimony to that.
Have a wonderful Shabbos.
Paysach Diskind