Feature Tidbit
for Parshat Chayei Sara

What's not in a Name?

The Torah repeatedly teaches us the significance of a  name. Avram became Avraham, becoming the "father of nations". Sarai became Sara. G-d instructed Avraham and Sara to call their son Yitzchak because of its meaning. An angel told Hagar that her son shall be called Yishma'el, because of its meaning. So too with Amon andMo'av, Yaakov and Eisav, Yisrael and Edom, Yaakov's sons, etc. etc. etc.

But occasionally, we run into a notable absence of name. That this week's sedra as an example. Avraham's name is mentioned 37 times in Chayei Sara. Sara's name appears 9 times. Efron, who sells the burial place to Avraham is also mentioned nine times. Yitzchak's name appears 13 times and Rivka's is found 12 times.

B'tuel and Lavan are named 4 and 3 times respectively.
The main character (maybe) of the sedra, the one who appears in all "scenes" of the parsha, is Eliezer. Take a guess (before you read further) how many times his name appears in Chayei Sara. Unless you already know the answer, and if you are the suspicious type who expects "catch" questions, you'd probably guess "once", and you'd be close. Eliezer's name does not appear at all in Parshat Chayei Sara. The star of the show. He's in the second portion, when Avraham sends him to his families hometown to find a wife for Yitzchak. He's at the well, he meets Rivka, he goes to the house of Lavan and Betuel, he retells his story,he takes Rivka back to Yitzchak. No one else is in more of the sedra than Eliezer. Not once is he named.

He does have two descriptive terms with which he is referred to - Ha'Eved or a variation thereof (the servant, 12 times) and Ha'Ish (the man, 7 times). When Eliezer is referred to in relation to Avraham or Yitzchak, he is The servant. Vis-a-vis Lavan or Betuel, he is The man. To Rivka he is also The man, until she fully agrees to the match - then Eliezer becomes The servant to her as well.

Each of us has a name (or two) which has a meaning  semantically, possibly Biblically, and family antecedent-wise as well. But we also have identities of a more generic nature. And those are us (we), as well. We are The child, The sibling, The parent, The friend, The person, The Jew. Each of those "handles" is sometimes as important, or more, as our name.

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