About Moses

[Chai]

If the sages state one of the reasons we merited redemption from Egypt was because we kept our Hebrew names then what about Moshe? That was a Egyptian name esp when he had other names that were Hebrew.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

Pharoes daughter named him that, she took care of him and cared for him. It was his primary name and out of respect for her he had it. It is still a Jewish name today.
 I remember reading Rambam on what it meant that Jews kept their names (besides literal perhaps), I have the Haggadah maybe later i'll check it out and post it in summary.

[Chai]

He still had a Jewish name. He choose to go and stay with a non-Jewish name. The Torah called him by it too.

[Tag-MehirTzedek]

He still had a Jewish name. He choose to go and stay with a non-Jewish name. The Torah called him by it too.

 I beleive he was called by 10 (different) names. Anyway what is your point?

[Zelhar]

First of all the Torah specifically gives a Hebrew meaning to the name Moshe, even though it was given to him by his adopted mother the Egyptian princess Bityah. Bityah herself according to our traditional midrashim was a convert to Judaism and even married Kalev ben Yefuneh. I think just by reading the plain text of the Torah it is clear that she was sympathetic to the Hebrews unlike her evil father the pharaoh.

[muman613]

Here are some answers:


http://ohr.edu/2010

Whats Your Name?

"but with My Name Hashem I did not make Myself known to them" (6:3)

Moshe had ten names: Moshe, Yered, Chaver, Yekutiel, Avigdor, Avi Socho, Avi Zanuach, Tuvia, Shemaya and Halevi. Of all these names, the only one that Hashem used was Moshe, the name he was given by Pharaohs daughter, Batya.

Why, of all Moshes names, did Hashem use the one name given to Moshe by an Egyptian princess? What was so special about this name?

The name Moshe comes from the word meaning to be drawn, for Moshe was drawn from the water by Batya. When Batya took Moshe out of the river she was flouting her fathers will. Pharaohs order was to kill all the Jewish male babies to stifle their savior. By rescuing Moshe, Batya was putting her life in grave danger. Because Batya risked her life to save Moshe, that quality was embedded in Moshes personality and in his soul. It was this quality of self-sacrifice that typified Moshe more than all his other qualities, and for this reason Moshe was the only name that Hashem would call him.

This is what made Moshe the quintessential leader of the Jewish People, for more than any other trait, a leader of the Jewish People needs self-sacrifice to care and worry over each one of his flock.

Another question but with the same answer:

Of all the places that Moshes mother, Yocheved, could have chosen to hide Moshe, why did she choose the river? Why not in a tunnel? Why not hide him in a barn or any of the other numerous possible hiding places? Why did Yocheved choose to hide Moshe in the river?

Yocheved hoped that by putting Moshe into the river the astrological signs would show that the savior of the Jews had been cast into the Nile and Pharaoh would abandon the massacre of the baby boys. Yocheved was right. The Egyptian astrologers told Pharaoh the Jewish savior had been dispatched into the Nile and Pharaoh ordered the killing to cease.

It was not an easy thing for Yocheved to put her son into a wicker basket and abandon him to the eddies of the Nile. Before she placed Moshe into the water, Yocheved made a little canopy over the basket and said in sadness "Who knows if I will ever see my sons chupa (marriage canopy)?" Certainly there were safer places for a baby than a makeshift basket adrift in a river. However, Yocheved chose a hiding place that may have not been the safest because it meant that she could save the lives of other Jewish children.

From two sides of the same event the quality of self-sacrifice was instilled into Moshe by his real mother when she put him into the river and by his adopted mother when she drew him out from the river, for if any quality epitomizes the essence of leadership, it is the ability to forget oneself and give up everything for the good of the people.

Sources:

Based on the Midrash Shemot Rabba 1:24, 1:29
Rabbi Chaim Shmuelevitz
Rabbi C. Z. Senter

[Chai]

I beleive he was called by 10 (different) names. Anyway what is your point?

Yea, I'm just wondering why the torah puts emphasis his name given by his Egyptian caretaker and not the one given by his mother yocheved?

[muman613]

Another interesting thing is that Batya, her name, has the mystical meaning of 'Daughter of G-d', Bat Yah {Daughter of Hashem}...

http://torah.org/learning/rabbiwein/5772/shemos.html

And out of this strange and unlikely sequence of events, the great Moshe emerges to eventually lead the Jewish slaves out of Egyptian bondage and to bring them to Torah and eternity at the revelation at Mount Sinai. And though it is certainly God that oversees the unfolding of all human scenarios, it is through human beings making choices and decisions and behaving according to those choices that the story of humankind continues to unfold.

Nothing compelled the Pharaoh’s daughter to be compassionate towards a defenseless Jewish child in danger. It was her choice and out of that choice the fate of all humanity is allowed to take a positive turn.

The tradition of the Jews is that this daughter of the Pharaoh was named Batya – the daughter of God Himself, so to speak. She is remembered in that her name has been given to myriad Jewish women over the thousands of years of Jewish existence. The continuing custom of naming Jewish women after her expresses the gratitude of the Jews for her life saving act and her human compassion.

The Talmud teaches us that the crib floating in the river was seemingly out of her reach and yet she stretched forth her hand to attempt to bring it to her. When human beings do all that they can for a noble cause or kind deed then many times Heaven takes over. Her hand somehow became elongated sufficiently to bring the crib into her reach and the baby’s salvation.

Again, it is this almost mystical combination of human choice and Heaven’s guidance that accomplishes this forward thrust in the story of humankind. And the Torah emphasizes that it was not sufficient for Batya to temporarily save the infant from death but that she pursued the matter of the child’s welfare to the utmost, finally raising him as her son in the royal palace of the Pharaoh.

[Chai]

Here are some answers:


http://ohr.edu/2010

Very interesting!

I guess his caretaker went to ulpan.

[muman613]

Yea, I'm just wondering why the torah puts emphasis his name given by his Egyptian caretaker and not the one given by his mother yocheved?

Because Batyah raised Moshe and Yocheved did not. This is a reason that a step-mother or adoptive mother, when she raises the child properly, is even more honored than the birth mother..

[Chai]

Another interesting thing is that Batya, her name, has the mystical meaning of 'Daughter of G-d', Bat Yah {Daughter of Hashem}...

That is pretty cool actually!
I was hoping for something like this.