dvar torah on parshat mishpatim by our bat mitzvah student from last shabbat Aimee

The word Mishpatim means ordinances or rules.  Mishpatim is the portion of the Torah that happens right after Moses was given the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai and it contains 53 of the 613 commandments found in the Torah.  Of course, everyone here is familiar with the very famous Ten Commandments. They even made a movie about it.  In Mishpatim, there are more than 5 times that many commandments but unfortunately NO dramatic display of thunder, lightning or fire that Hollywood portrayed in the Ten Commandments movie. 

 

Commandments are more than just laws governing people’s behaviour. They are actually “mitzvot” which is often defined as a “good deed” but really means “commandments” or rule.  These rules include a wide range of civil laws, ritual laws, financial laws, criminal laws, and family laws.  Some laws actually carried the death penalty.  Crimes like premeditated murder, kidnapping, practicing witchcraft, and offering sacrifices to idols.  Even cursing one’s father and mother was punishable by death!  Of course, I think that’s just a little extreme.  Parents should forgive and forget and then move on with their lives instead of dwelling on the past.  Seriously.

 

Mishpatim describes mitzvot for how we should observe certain Jewish festivals and holidays.  It’s why we only eat unleavened bread (matza) for 7 days during Passover and why we rest from work and light candles on Shabbat.  Other laws describe cases of personal injury or the treatment of strangers, widows and orphans.  There are also laws about loans and many laws regarding what is and is not kosher to eat.

A lot of the rules can be very hard to interpret.  For example, one rule says that we cannot boil a baby goat in its mother’s milk, but this rule has since evolved to tell us that we shouldn’t eat milk and meat together.

 

There is a lot of controversy about whether Jews should be allowed to get body piercings, and this comes directly from a rule stated in Mishpatim regarding the piercing of slaves by their master.  It says that a slave is to go free in his 7^th year of slavery.  But if a slave says that he does NOT wish to go free, if instead he wishes to stay with his wife, children and master, then his master shall take him before God and pierce his ear as a symbol of this choice.  Therefore, even today, Judaism frowns upon body piercings because we are not slaves.  On the other hand, I have my ears pierced and I am not a slave, so Jewish law needs to evolve and accept piercings, which it has.

 

Another rule in Mishpatim that I found especially fascinating is the one we all commonly know as “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.  It basically says that if someone damages your eye, you can damage their eye.  However, now a days, we are taught in school that if someone hits you, you should not hit them back because it is a sign of immaturity, and it is better to talk it out without the use of violence.  We have become much more conscientious and socially aware.  The rabbis of the Talmud decided that you should pay back the equivalent worth of the eye that you damaged, but you should not actually damage their eye.  And then we get into this whole idea of what an eye is worth.

 

Interestingly, God does not explain to the Jewish people exactly WHY we have these specific rules set in place.  God says that we are expected to observe them all.  It is simply our faith in God that guides us in the right direction and helps us follow the rules he has given us.  I find this extremely relevant in MY life!  My parents do not tell me WHY I must make my bed everyday or clean my room (even if I am just going to mess it up again later), but I know that they MUST have a REALLY good reason that COMPLETELY outweighs my uncertainties.

 

An overall theme of Mishpatim is how we should treat other people.  The Torah was written in a time when slavery was common and when men had power over women, so it is good that there were rules to help protect the vulnerable.  Today, I believe that everyone, no matter what his or her circumstances deserves a fair shot at life and an equal chance in the world.  The laws set out in Mishpatim are more than a checklist of “rules”.  The mitzvot that we are commanded to follow in Mishpatim enhances our relationship with each other and also with God.  Mishpatim helps us think about ethics and what our values are. 

For example, for me, it highlights the message that God loves everyone equally no matter what challenges they might face in their life.  In fact, one of the main beliefs in Judaism is that each one of us was created “in God’s image” and therefore we are all worthy and equal.  Everyone regardless of gender, race, or physical ability have equal value in God’s eyes.

                   Aimee R.

history and origins of ashkenazic jewish last names

One of the most amazing things we get to do as parents is name our children. What an honour and privilege.  You bring a baby into the world and then you get to give this child a name it will be called for the rest of its life.  What a powerful statement.  I get asked so many times about naming rituals for Judaism.  Who are we supposed to name after?  Who can we not name after?  How do we figure out the Hebrew name?  It’s so exciting and fun. And that is just the first name but I have always been curious about where our last names come from because for most of our history we never took last names.  Generally Jewish names generally changed with every generation. For example, if Moses son of Mendel (Moyshe ben Mendel) married Sarah daughter of Rebecca (Sora bas Rifke), had a boy and named it Samuel (Shmuel), the child would be called Shmuel ben Moyshe. If they had a girl and named her Feygele, she would be called Feygele bat Sora.

I was reading an article recently about the origins of Jewish names by Bennett Muraskin a contributing writer to Jewish Currents magazine and the author of The Association of Jewish Libraries Guide to Yiddish Short Stories and Let Justice Well Up Like Water: Progressive Jews from Hillel to Helen Suzman, among other books.

I wanted to share some of his research into this fascinating part of our history. 

According to Muraskin, Ashkenazic Jews were among the last Europeans to take family names. Some German-speaking Jews took last names as early as the 17^th century, but the overwhelming majority of Jews lived in Eastern Europe and did not take last names until compelled to do so. The process began in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1787 and ended in Czarist Russia in 1844.

In attempting to build modern nation-states, the authorities insisted that Jews take last names so that they could be taxed, drafted and educated (in that order of importance). For centuries, Jewish communal leaders were responsible for collecting taxes from the Jewish population on behalf of the government, and in some cases were responsible for filling draft quotas. Education was traditionally an internal Jewish affair.

Jews distrusted the authorities and resisted the new requirement. Although they were forced to take last names, at first they were used only for official purposes. Among themselves, they kept their traditional names. Over time, Jews accepted the new last names, which were essential as Jews sought to advance within the broader society and as the shtetles were transformed or Jews left them for big cities.  As we go through the sources for names, perhaps you will hear your name and its origins or friends of yours.

The easiest way for Jews to assume an official last name was to adapt the name they already had, making it permanent. This explains the use of “patronymics” and “matronymics.”

PATRONYMICS (son of…..)

In Yiddish or German, it would be “son” or “sohn”  or “er.” In most Slavic languages like Polish or Russian, it would be “wich” or “witz.”

For example: The son of Mendel took the last name Mendelsohn; the son of Abraham became Abramson or Avromovitch; the son of Menashe became Manishewitz; the son of Itzhak became Itskowitz; the son of Berl took the name Berliner; the son of Kesl took the name Kessler, etc.

MATRONYMICS (daughter of…)

Reflecting the prominence of Jewish women in business, some families made last names out of women’s first names: Chaiken — son of Chaikeh; Edelman — husband of Edel; Gittelman — husband of Gitl; Glick or Gluck — may derive from Glickl, a popular woman’s name as in the famous “Glickl of Hameln,” whose memoirs, written around 1690, are an early example of Yiddish literature

Gold/Goldman/Gulden may derived from Golda; Malkov from Malke; Perlman — husband of Perl; Rivken — may derive from Rivke; Soronsohn—son of Sarah.

PLACE NAMES

The next most common source of Jewish last names is probably places. Jews used the town or region where they lived, or where their families came from, as their last name. As a result, the Germanic origins of most East European Jews is reflected in their names. For example, Asch is an acronym for the towns of Aisenshtadt or Altshul or Amshterdam. Other place-based Jewish names include: Auerbach/Orbach; Bacharach; Berger (generic for townsman); Berg (man), meaning, from a hilly place; Bayer — from Bavaria; Bamberger; Berliner, Berlinsky — from Berlin; Bloch (foreigner); Brandeis; Breslau; Brodsky; Brody; Danziger Deutch/Deutscher — German; Dorf(man), meaning villager; Eisenberg; Epstein; Florsheim; Frankel — from the Franconia region of Germany; Frankfurter; Ginsberg; Gordon — from Grodno, Lithuania or from the Russian word gorodin, for townsman; Greenberg; Halperin—from Helbronn, Germany; Hammerstein; Heller — from Halle, Germany; Hollander — not from Holland, but from town in Lithuania settled by Dutch; Horowitz, Hurwich, Gurevitch — from Horovice in Bohemia; Koenigsberg; Krakauer — from Cracow, Poland; Landau; Lipsky — from Leipzig, Germany; Litwak — from Lithuania; Minsky — from Minsk, Belarus; Mintz—from Mainz, Germany; Oppenheimer; Ostreicher — from Austria; Pinsky — from Pinsk, Belarus; Posner — from Posen, Germany; Prager — from Prague; Rappoport — from Porto, Italy; Rothenberg — from then town of the red fortress in Germany; Shapiro — from Speyer, Germany; Schlesinger — from Silesia, Germany; Steinberg; Unger — from Hungary; Vilner — from Vilna, Poland/Lithuania; Wallach—from Bloch, derived from the Polish word for foreigner; Warshauer/Warshavsky—from Warsaw; Wiener — from Vienna; Weinberg.

OCCUPATIONAL NAMES

Craftsmen/Workers

Ackerman — plowman; Baker/Boker — baker; Blecher — tinsmith; Fleisher/Fleishman/Katzoff/Metger — butcher; Cooperman — coppersmith; Drucker — printer; Einstein — mason; Farber — painter/dyer; Feinstein — jeweler; Fisher — fisherman; Forman — driver/teamster; Garber/Gerber—tanner; Glazer/Glass/Sklar — glazier; Goldstein — goldsmith; Graber — engraver; Kastner — cabinet maker; Kunstler — artist; Kramer — store keeper; Miller — miller; Nagler — nail maker; Plotnick — carpenter; Sandler/Shuster — shoemaker; Schmidt/Kovalsky — blacksmith; Shnitzer — carver; Silverstein — jeweler; Spielman — player (musician?); Stein/Steiner/Stone — jeweler; Wasserman — water carrier

Merchants

Garfinkel/Garfunkel — diamond dealer; Holzman/Holtz/Waldman — timber dealer; Kaufman — merchant; Rokeach — spice merchant; Salzman — salt merchant; Seid/Seidman—silk merchant; Tabachnik — snuff seller; Tuchman — cloth merchant; Wachsman — wax dealer; Wechsler/Halphan — money changer; Wollman — wool merchant; Zucker/Zuckerman — sugar merchant

Related to tailoring

Kravitz/Portnoy/Schneider/Snyder — tailor; Nadelman/Nudelman — also tailor from “needle’; Sher/Sherman — also tailor from “scissors” or “shears”; Presser/Pressman — clothing presser; Futterman/Kirshner/Kushner/Peltz — furrier; Weber — weaver

Medical

Aptheker — druggist; Feldsher — surgeon; Bader/Teller — barber

Related to liquor trade

Bronfman/Brand/Brandler/Brenner — distiller; Braverman/Meltzer — brewer; Kabakoff/Krieger/Vigoda — tavern keeper; Geffen — wine merchant; Wine/Weinglass — wine merchant; Weiner — wine maker

Religious/Communal

Altshul/Althshuler — associated with the old synagogue in Prague; Cantor/Kazan/Singer/Spivack — cantor or song leader in shul; Feder/Federman/Schreiber — scribe; Haver — from haver (court official); Klausner — rabbi for small congregation; Klopman — calls people to morning prayers by knocking on their window shutters; Lehrer/Malamud/Malmud — teacher; Rabin — rabbi (Rabinowitz—son of rabbi); London — scholar, from the Hebrew lamden (misunderstood by immigration inspectors); Reznick — ritual slaughterer; Richter — judge; Sandek — godfather; Schechter/Schachter/Shuchter etc. — ritual slaughterer from Hebrew schochet; Shofer/Sofer/Schaeffer — scribe; Shulman/Skolnick — sexton; Spector — inspector or supervisor of schools

 

PERSONAL TRAITS

Alter/Alterman — old; Dreyfus—three legged, perhaps referring to someone who walked with a cane; Erlich — honest; Frum — devout ; Gottleib — God lover, perhaps referring to someone very devout; Geller/Gelber — yellow, perhaps referring to someone with blond hair; Gross/Grossman — big; Gruber — coarse or vulgar; Feifer/Pfeifer — whistler; Fried/Friedman—happy; Hoch/Hochman/Langer/Langerman — tall; Klein/Kleinman — small; Koenig — king, perhaps someone who was chosen as a “Purim King,” in reality a poor wretch; Krauss — curly, as in curly hair; Kurtz/Kurtzman — short; Reich/Reichman — rich; Reisser — giant; Roth/Rothman — red head; Roth/Rothbard — red beard; Shein/Schoen/Schoenman — pretty, handsome; Schwartz/Shwartzman/Charney — black hair or dark complexion; Scharf/Scharfman — sharp, i.e  intelligent; Stark — strong, from the Yiddish shtark ; Springer — lively person, from the Yiddish springen for jump

INSULTING NAMES

These were sometimes foisted on Jews who discarded them as soon as possible, but a few may remain:

Billig — cheap; Gans — goose; Indyk — goose; Grob — rough/crude; Kalb — cow

ANIMAL NAMES

It is common among all peoples to take last names from the animal kingdom. Baer/Berman/Beerman/Berkowitz/Beronson — bear; Adler — eagle (may derive from reference to an eagle in Psalm 103:5); Einhorn — unicorn; Falk/Sokol/Sokolovksy — falcon; Fink — finch; Fuchs/Liss — fox; Gelfand/Helfand — camel (technically means elephant but was used for camel too); Hecht—pike; Hirschhorn — deer antlers; Karp — carp; Loeb — lion; Ochs— ox; Strauss — ostrich (or bouquet of flowers); Wachtel — quail.

HEBREW NAMES

Some Jews either held on to or adopted traditional Jews names from the Bible and Talmud. The big two are Cohen (Cohn, Kohn, Kahan, Kahn, Kaplan) and Levi (Levy, Levine, Levinsky, Levitan, Levenson, Levitt, Lewin, Lewinsky, Lewinson). Others include Aaron — Aronson, Aronoff; Asher; Benjamin; David — Davis,Davies; Ephraim — Fishl; Emanuel — Mendel; Isaac — Isaacs, Isaacson/Eisner; Jacob — Jacobs, Jacobson, Jacoby; Judah — Idelsohn,Udell,Yudelson; Mayer-Meyer;  Menachem — Mann,Mendel; Reuben — Rubin; Samuel — Samuels, Zangwill; Simon — Schimmel; Solomon — Zalman.

HEBREW ACRONYMS

Names based on Hebrew acronyms include: Baron — bar aron (son of Aaron); Beck — bene kedoshim (descendant of martyrs); Getz — gabbai tsedek (righteous synagogue official); Katz — kohen tsedek (righteous priest); Metz — from moreh tsedek (teacher of righteousness; Sachs, Saks — zera kodesh shemo (his name descends from martyrs); Segal — se gan levia (second-rank Levite)

OTHER HEBREW- and YIDDISH-DERIVED NAMES

Lieb means “lion” in Yiddish. It is the root of many Ashkenazic last names including Liebowitz, Lefkowitz, Lebush, and Leon. It is the Yiddish translation of the Hebrew work for lion — aryeh. The lion was the symbol of the tribe of Judah.

Hirsch means “deer” or “stag” in Yiddish. It is the root of many Ashkenazic last names including Hirschfeld, Hirschbein/Hershkowitz (son of Hirsch)/Hertz/Herzl, Cerf, Hart, and Hartman. It is the Yiddish translation of the Hebrew word for gazelle — tsvi.  The gazelle was the symbol of the tribe of Naphtali.

Taub means “dove” in Yiddish. It is the root of the Ashkenazic last name Tauber. The symbol of The dove is associated with the prophet Jonah.

Wolf is the root of the Ashkenazic last names Wolfson, Wouk and Volkovich. The wolf was the symbol of the tribe of Benjamin.

Eckstein — Yiddish for cornerstone, derived from Psalm 118:22

Good(man) — Yiddish translation of Hebrew work for “good”: tuviah 

Margolin — Hebrew for pearl

 

INVENTED ‘FANCY SHMANCY’ NAMES

When Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were required to assume last names, some chose the nicest ones they could think of — and may have been charged a registration fee by the authorities. According to the YIVO Encyclopedia, “the resulting names often are associated with nature and beauty.  It is very plausible that the choices were influenced by the general romantic  tendencies of German culture at that time.” These names include: Applebaum — apple tree; Birnbaum — pear tree; Buchsbaum — box tree; Kestenbaum — chestnut tree; Kirshenbaum — cherry tree; Mandelbaum — almond tree; Nussbaum — nut tree; Tannenbaum — fir tree; Teitelbaum — palm tree.

Other name , chosen or purchased, were combinations with these roots: Blumen (flower), Fein (fine), Gold, Green, Lowen (lion), Rosen (rose), Schoen/Schein (pretty) —  combined with berg (hill or mountain), thal (valley), bloom (flower), zweig (wreath), blatt (leaf), vald or wald (woods), feld (field).

Miscellaneous other names included Diamond; Glick/Gluck — luck; Hoffman — hopeful; Fried/Friedman — happiness; Lieber/Lieberman — lover. Weis (white)

 

Jewish family names from non-Jewish languages included: Sender/Saunders — from Alexander; Kagan — descended from the Khazars, a people of Turkic speaking Jews from Central Asia; Kelman/Kalman — from the Greek name Kalonymous, popular among Jews in medieval France and Italy. It is the Greek translation of the Hebrew “shem tov” (good name); Marcus/Marx — from Latin, referring to the pagan god Mars.

Finally, there were Jewish names changed or shortened by immigration inspectors or by immigrants themselves and their descendants to sound more American, which is why “Sean Ferguson” was a Jew or stephen wise was once zalman weisbrod.

In our portion this week we read about Moses, and of course with most biblical names his reflects his origins, he was drawn out from the water of the nile.  But when Moses asks God how God should be called what is gods name “eheye asher eheyeh” roughly translated as I will be what I will be.  God’s name is eternal, even our words such as elhoim, adonai, el rachamim, el shaddai, melech malechei hamlachim, all reflect our attempt to give glory and honour to god, to reflect god’s role in our life or the world.  While god might not have a name, we are all given a name, by our parents, by our home, by our ancestors, by our history.  And that makes all the difference.  Shabbat shalom.