As we just heard, the topic is what's in a name, what is the idea of a name. When we talk about names, in truth there are two kinds of names that we're able to talk about. We could talk about names concerning a general species, a general kind, like for instance, a human being is called an adam. That's a name. An ox is called a shor, in Hebrew it's an ox. A horse is called a sus. So these are names, but names of a general kind. And then we have names of an individual person. This person is called Moshe, this person is called Aharon, etc., etc. And we find in sefarim the explanation of what is behind the name that is concerning a general kind, and we find in sefarim what behind a name concerning an individual person. And we are able to learn one from another because whatever is written concerning the general name also applies to individual name, and also whatever is concerning the individual name applies to the general kind, but obviously we have to apply it in the proper way. We'll start first with a name concerning the general kind, concerning a certain category. And that we find starting from the Chumash. In Chumash it says, that's why I opened the Chumash, ויצר ה' אלקים מן האדמה, this is a pasuk in Parashat Bereishit, ויצר ה' אלקים מן האדמה כל חית השדה ואת כל עוף השמים, Hashem created from the earth all the animals of the field, all the birds of the sky, ויבא אל האדם לראות מה יקרא לו, and He brought them to Adam, to Adam Harishon, to the first human being, to see what he will call them, וכל אשר יקרא לו האדם, whatever name the Adam, the man, אדם הראשון gave him, נפש חיה הוא שמו, the life of this living thing, that's his name. On this pasuk the Midrash says that first Hashem came to the malachim, to the angels, and He asked them if they are able to name the different kinds of things that we have. And it says they weren't able. They weren't able to name the different species, the different kinds of animals, the different kinds of birds. Then finally Hashem brought all the animals and all the birds to the human being, to Adam Harishon, and the pasuk says that he called them the names. And Hashem said to Adam Harishon, I mean to the malachim, \"Look, חכמתו גדולה מחכמתכם! His chachmah, his wisdom, is greater than your wisdom, he's smarter than you! He was able to give them names while you weren't able.\" And here the mefarshim ask, what's so hard about giving a name? Why is it such a great chachmah of Adam Harishon to give him a name? And why couldn't the malachim do it? The malachim could have decided anything! Bring over an ox and call him Kotz, that'll be his name! Bring over a horse and call him Begem, and it'll be his name! You could make up anything! What's so hard about making up a name? Why did Hashem, why first couldn't they do it and why did Hashem say, \"Look, chachmato, his chachmah is greater than your chachmah!\" There must be some special chachmah in giving a name. So the mefarshim explain, the Ramban on Chumash explains and the Shelah, the Shelah Hakadosh goes into this at length, and he says that the concept of a name is not just a decision that these and these words will be the name of this and this thing, it doesn't work that way. A real name means that this is the source of life for this thing that has this name. In other words, we know that every living thing, bichlal everything in this world, has a source, a shoresh, a source in the higher world, in shamayim, in heaven. And the chayut, the life that is given to everything in this world comes from its source in heaven. The name is the tz inor, is so to speak the pipe, is the wire through which the chayut, the life comes down. And that's what the pasuk says: וכל אשר יקרא לו האדם נפש חיה הוא שמו, that whatever the אדם הראשון called, whatever animal it was, the name was נפש חיה, that was its life. In other words, the name represents the source of life of every object that has a certain name. And that is in one of the few things: it's or in the meaning of the word, that the word that is the name of the object or of the animal has a certain meaning which fits to the life that is going to be given to this animal, or it is in the letters of the word of this name, that these letters specifically, the meaning of the letters, fit to this animal or to this object, or it is sometimes even the shape of the letters have a connection to the life force that is given to this thing. For instance, שור. We call an ox a שור. The word שור has a specific connection to an ox. The letters ש ו ר in Hebrew have a special connection to an ox. The shape of the letters ש ו ר have a special connection to an ox. That not necessarily do we know how. Certain things we could figure out, certain things we can't. But definitely these letters of this name, they are the ones that represent the source of this object, of this animal, and the life force that is given to this animal goes through the צינור, the pipe of this name.

Let's use an example. Adam. Adam is the name that is given to the human being. So the word Adam actually describes what a human being is. And that we find in Chumash. In Chumash it says, in Bereishit, why did Hashem call him Adam? So the pasuk explains: כי מן האדמה לוקחה זאת, because he was taken from the ground. How was a human being made? Hashem made a form of a human being in the ground, and then it says ויפח באפיו נשמת חיים, he blew a life, a neshamah of life into this person, and then it made him alive. So the person started from the ground, that's why he's called Adam. In different place, actually in the Shelah it says, why is a person called Adam for a different reason, which is an opposite reason. It comes from the word אדמה לעליון. Adam comes from the word אדמה. אדמה לעליון means I will compare myself to the above. This is an expression that Nevuchadnetzar said. He said to Hashem, \"I am compared to Hashem.\" And an Adam is called Adam from the word אדמה לעליון. And here we have two opposite meanings in the word Adam. On one hand Adam is מן האדמה לוקחה זאת, he came from the ground, and here we have אדם, אדמה לעליון, it's connected to the top, to above. And the emet is, the truth is, that because of these both meanings, that's why a person is called Adam. Because we know that a human being is made up of the highest levels and the lowest levels. He is made up, it says, מעליונים ותחתונים. He is the lowest of all creatures, that is the truth. The way the human being was created, he was created as the lowest of all creatures. All other animals were created alive. A behemah, an animal, was created to begin with a live animal. A human being was first a piece of mud, which other animals were not. So he was created in the lowest form. On the other hand, the nefesh, the life force that a human being has is much greater, comes from the highest levels. We're not even talking about a neshamah, a נפש אלוקית, the godly soul that a Yid has, which is a חלק אלוק ממעל ממש, which is part of Hashem. But even of a regular human being, a non-Jew, also has a nefesh, a life force, which is greater, higher than the nefesh of any other living thing that exists. So he has עליונים and he has תחתונים, he has the highest and the lowest. And that's why he's called אדם. So the word אדם expresses what the human being is. It also says that the word אדם is made up of three letters: א ד מ, and these three letters describe actually what a human being is. Because the way a human being is able to express himself different than other creatures is that he has מחשבה דיבור ומעשה: thought, speech, and action. The three letters א ד מ actually express these three. The ד is an abbreviation of the word דיבור, speech. The מ is an abbreviation of the word מעשה, action. And the א, it says in sefarim, is מחשבה, is thought. Since in the thought, in the מחשבה of the person, there we have the first level of words. Where is the first level in the person where words start forming? Not in the דיבור, not in the speech, it's in the מחשבה, in the thought, even though in the מחשבה of a person we do not feel the words. When we think about something, we feel the thought, but not the words. Actually, the expression in Chassidut is: the idea shines rather than the words. When we speak, we actually feel words. But nevertheless, there are words already in מחשבה. And that's why א, which is the first letter of the אלף בית, represents the beginning of where words form, which is מחשבה. So א ד מ represents מחשבה דיבור ומעשה, and that's why a person is called אדם. And many, many explanations why a person is called אדם, but the The same is concerning a שור, why an ox is called a שור, and a horse is called a סוס, etc., etc. The word, the name, the words of the name, they show what the object is. They show on what the source is, and they show on the way the chayut comes, the life comes from above into this object. And this is concerning a general species. The same applies concerning every individual person, the individual name that a person has. It says, like it says, נפש חיה הוא שמו. The name of a person represents the chayut, the life the person gets from above, from Hashem. It has a connection to the person's שורש, to the person's source.

We actually find it also in Chumash. It says, why was she called Chava, which is her name? So the pasuk says, כי היא היתה אם כל חי, because she was the mother of all living things, which means all living human beings of all later generations. So she was called Chava. The pasuk says concerning the first thing, concerning the general kind, just like we said about אדם, it says לזאת יקרא אשה. Why is she called אשה, a woman has a name אשה? כי מאיש לוקחה זאת, because she came from the man, she came from the person's, from the man's side. But this again shows from the pasuk that the name has a connection to the, in this case, to the kind, or by individual has a connection to what the individual is. And that's what it says in sefarim, that the name of a person is connected to the source, the shoresh of the chayus of the person. It brings down the life to the person. It also indicates of all, it indicates all the future things that will happen to this person, and the name also shows the characteristics of the person. It says in a Midrash that our generations are not like the earlier generations. The Midrash says that. Well, the Midrash was written about 2,000 years ago, so the Midrash already 2,000 years ago complained that our generations in that time are not like the early, earlier generations. The earlier generations, it says, when a person would name a child, he would name the child because he would see what the child is. He would name the child based on the future things that will happen to the child. That's how great the people were, they were able to see. Now, it says, people are not that great, so you name a child after a grandfather, a grandmother, a קרוב, a relative, after somebody. But nevertheless, the Arizal writes that when you name a child, it's a נבואה קטנה, it's a small, a miniature prophecy, because Hashem puts into the head of the parents to decide which name to give based on their shoresh, the root, the source of the life of this person, of this child, based on the qualities of the child, and based on the things that will happen to the child. It's a נבואה. They say a story that once a chasid came, I think it was to R'' Shalom Belzer, I'm not sure, I think it was to R'' Shalom Belzer. He said, \"I had a child, and I want to name him, and since I ask the Rebbe before I do anything, I want to ask the Rebbe, tell me, what name shall I give my child?\" So the Rebbe says to him, \"I don't understand you. What you're doing now is a very foolish thing.\" He says, \"You know, a Rebbe has ruach hakodesh, has the holy spirit, has prophecy always. A chasid hardly ever has a chance to have ruach hakodesh. Here, a few times in a lifetime, you have a chance to have ruach hakodesh. You're going to name your child, that will be ruach hakodesh, and you want to give it away to me too? Keep it for yourself!\" And he wouldn't tell him. By the Rebbe, we know many times when people would ask the Rebbe what name to give a child, he wouldn't tell. Decide yourself. And the decision usually is based on a grandfather, grandmother, somebody a tzadik, a relative, but it doesn't mean that there is no indication of what the child is. So it says that the child's name shows is the source of chayus that brings the chayus down, that is the צינור, and it also showed on the qualities of the child. And we find this in Chumash many, many times. And I marked down here some of the places, the sources in Chumash. For instance, by Yaakov, it says why was Yaakov called Yaakov? Because when he was born, וידו אוחזת בעקב עשו. His hand was holding onto the heel of Esav. עקב means a heel. So he was named because of what happened then. But what it really means is that when he was holding on to the heel of Esav, Rashi says why did he hold on? Because he wanted to come out first. Why did he come out first, want to come out first? Because he claimed that he really was the first, which according to what it says in sefarim, in shoresh he was higher, so he should have been first. So the name Yaakov represents that he was in שורש higher. And later on, when he took away the brachos from Yitzchak, from Esav, that Yitzchak gave him the brachos, and Esav complained, what did Esav say? \"Is the reason you called him יעקב ויעקבני זה פעמים, because he cheated me twice?\" The word Yaakov comes from the word עקב, which means cheating. And he says, \"First he cheated me out of the בכורה, my firstborn right when he got me to sell it to him, and now Now he cheated me out of the brachos. So he right away knew, Esav understood that he was given a name because it showed on something that's going to happen later. And it takeh says in ספרים that the avodah of Yaakov shows on a certain avodah of cheating the yetzer hara. That's what Yaakov's avodah was. He cheated Lavan, he cheated the yetzer hara. He was the real epitome of truth. Pasuk says, תתן אמת ליעקב. Yaakov has the middah of emet. But he did it in a way of cheating the yetzer hara and cheating Esav and cheating Lavan, that's an important way of getting kedushah away from the kelipah, from the yetzer hara. So that's why he was called Yaakov. So here we see that the name that was given to him was because of something that later on happened to him. We find in Tanach, in Shmuel, the story of David Hamelech, that when David was running away from Shaul and he stopped in a place and he wanted food, so he sent his officers to go to a person called Naval to get food. And he wouldn't give him. And later the person's wife came, Avigail, and she brought food. And when David spoke to her, he said about Naval, he said, כי שמו כן הוא. He is like his name. נבל שמו ונבלה עמו. He is Nabal. Nabal means disgusting. The word Nabal means disgusting. His name is disgusting, and he is disgusting. So again here we see that this shows. Sometimes we even find more, that a name not only is given because it expresses what the person is, sometimes it says a name causes a certain characteristic in a person. And I will quote what it says in Tanchuma, in a Midrash Tanchuma, it says, לעולם יבדוק אדם בשמות לקרא לבנו. A person should always be careful the name he gives to his child. כי לפעמים השם גורם טוב או גורם רע, because sometimes a name can cause good, and sometimes a name could cause bad. If you give a name after a rasha, it could cause bad, chas veshalom, it could bring out a bad characteristic in a person. If you give a name after a tzaddik, it could bring out a good characteristic in a person, a good middah in the person. We find a story in Yoma, in Gemara Yoma, the Gemara says about a person who was called Doeg, Doeg ben Yosef. Now, Doeg was a name of a rasha, and this child was called Doeg. And his father seems like passed away when he was young, and his mother would weigh him every day, and whenever he gained any weight he gained, that amount she would give to the Beit Hamikdash. Now, a tzaddeket of a woman, imagine! But when it came to the חורבן בית המקדש, guess what she did? She slaughtered him and ate him. That was the situation. And the Gemara quotes a pasuk where it says that even נשים רחמניות, pitiful mothers, will come a time when they will eat the children. And the Gemara says, why did that happen? Because his name was Doeg. Now, it doesn't mean that it was a punishment for giving that name, because if it would be a punishment, the punishment should have been given not to the child, but to the parent. It brought about this was brought I don't want to use the word mazal, but this brought to the child a mazal which was not good, so it came because of the name. And that's what the Midrash says that you should be careful which name you give. The Beit Yosef writes in a Sefer Maggid Meisharim this is a interesting sefer, the sefer was written by the Beit Yosef, things that he learned with a malach. The Beit Yosef, the one that wrote the Shulchan Aruch, the author of the Shulchan Aruch, he had a teacher, a malach, actually a malach from heaven came and learned with him, and what the malach taught him, he wrote down in a sefer and he called it Maggid Meisharim. The malach was called a maggid. And in the Sefer Maggid Meisharim, the Beit Yosef writes that all people who are called Avraham have a נטיה, have a certain inclination of doing chesed like Avraham Avinu. All those people who are called Yosef, he says, has this have the middah, the ability of fighting to the yetzer hara when it comes to עריות, when it comes to aveirot of adultery, just like Yosef fought his yetzer hara against the wife of Potifar. Or he says those people who are called Yosef have the ability of feeding other people, because Yosef was the one that fed the whole world. So he writes clearly that if a person has the name Avraham, there is some characteristic of Avraham in this person. Actually, the Nefesh HaChaim, Rabbi Chaim Volozhiner, write something similar to what the Beis Yosef writes in the Maggid Meisharim. Then there is a Gemara in Berachos, where the Gemara says, מנלן דשמא גרים? Where do we know that a name could have an effect? And the Gemara quotes the פסוק, לכו חזו מפעלות השם אשר שם שמות בארץ, אל תקרי שמות אלא שמות, that because of a name, this could have an effect. Then there is a Gemara in Sota. The Gemara says that the מרגלים, the spies, and we look in the Chumash the names of the spies, that all their names represent the evil deed that they did. And the Gemara says we don't really know how, Two of them the Gemara says, for instance just to use one example, one of them is Satur ben Michael was the name of one of the spies. So the Gemara says סתור means destroying, לסתור, to destroy. Michael comes from the words מוך קל, he made Hashem weak. They did went against Hashem. So this all shows that the names that were given when they were born showed on things that they were going to do later on and it's possible it just caused them to do it. It says in Chumash that when Yaakov had the fight with the malach, the malach asked him, \"What's your name?\" So the Maavar Yabok writes, why did he ask him, \"What's your name?\" Because through the name he would be able to see what is with, with Yaakov Avinu. Because of that some people write, which is not accepted really, that you should never change the name of a person. We know that when a person is, God forbid, sick, we change his name because the name changes the מזל. Some write not to do it, because you're tampering with different higher worlds, because the name has something special, some special meaning. Elimelech and Naomi, we know the story of Ruth. Elimelech and Naomi were called, it says in the Midrash, Elimelech is אלי מלך, that to me will come the king, and we see takeh later from Ruth, who was a relative, came David HaMelech. Naomi was called Naomi because it comes from the word geshmak. נעם, נעם means geshmak. And that's why when she came and they said this is הזאת נעמי, she said, \"Don't call me Naomi anymore, because my life is bitter.\" But the name Naomi was because she was that way. Betzalel, the one that made the Mishkan, why was he called Betzalel? So it says that when Moshe Rabbeinu came down, Moshe Rabbeinu spoke to him, and he told him that Hashem said he should make the Mishkan. So first he told him make the Aron, the ark, and make the table and make the Mizbeach, and then he told him to make the Mishkan. So he says to Moshe, \"I don't understand. Is that the order of things? First you make the furniture, then you make the house? You make the furniture, you won't have where to put it. First you have to make a house, and then you make the furniture.\" So he said, \"Are you sure that's what Hashem said? Didn't, maybe Hashem said first make the Mishkan and then make the kelim?\" And Moshe said to him, \"You're right, that's actually what Hashem said. בצל קל היית, you were in the shadow of Hashem as if you were standing there when Hashem spoke to me.\" So his name was Betzalel because of בצל קל היית. So from all this we see from, and there are many, many other sources in Gemara. Concerning Mordechai, the Gemara says why was he called Mordechai? Why was his father called Mordechai ben Shimi ben Kish? All the different names. But the Gemara constantly in Midrashim, drashens, explains their names according to things that happened to a person, or according to the type of person that these people were. Ruth for instance, it says why was she called Ruth? Because she had a grandson שריוה that had woven שירים, praises to Hashem, so she was called Rut because of that. So here we see not only is it important for the person himself or herself, but it even means sometimes something that will happen to the grandchildren. That's how important the name is. So basically what we're saying here is that a name that is given to a person is very important. It, as it says concerning the name Adam or anything else, concerning even the animals, the general name of, of a kind, and the same is concerning an individual name, that it has a connection to the שורש הנשמה, to the root of the neshamah, the source of the neshamah, and the chayut comes down in this world through the name. Also it has to do with things that might happen to the person, and to the quality, the characteristics of the person. Sometimes what the person has, and sometimes it makes the person have.

Now, one of the ways we see that a name is connected to the essence of the person, is by the fact that sometimes when a person faints, and you can't revive him, the only way to revive the person is by calling him by his name. That's what it says in sefarim, and I believe it, beduk u'menusah, has been tried out. Sometimes they try, they push him, they try to revive him, nothing helps. But if you whisper the name into his ear, he'll wake up. Now, it doesn't mean because you woke him up because you spoke loud. You could scream, you could put on the music, it won't help. But if you whisper his name into his ear, he'll wake up. What is the reason for that? Because the name is able to reach into the essence of the neshamah. And let me explain it. What's the idea of fainting? How do we look at the concept of fainting? And I'm not saying it from a medical point of view, because I don't know, but I'm just saying it from what the Torah says, what sefarim say. The idea of fainting is like this: A person has a nefesh, has a life. Again, we're not talking here about the נפש אלוקית, a godly soul, a nefesh, every human being has a source of life. Now, that source of life contains all kinds of powers and abilities. For instance, in the source of life so you have the ability of seeing. What happens is that power of sight comes out from the source of life and enters into the eye. The ability of hearing enters into the ear, the ability of understanding enters into the brain, of feeling enters into the heart. So every part of the body takes out a certain koach, a certain power, from From that source of life. When a person faints, what happens? His source of life, his power of life is still there. The proof is he's still alive, he didn't die. So he's alive. But what's there, we call it the חיות כללי, the general life is there. What's missing is the specific powers that have to come and enter into every individual part of the body, that doesn't happen. For some reason it doesn't function, it didn't come. What happened? For some reason, the kochos that came into the different individual part of the body went back to its source, and they're now back in the עצם הנפש, in the essence of your life. If you want to revive the person, what you have to actually do is you have to bring back all these kochos from the source of life, life the way it's in that נקודת החיות, in that חיות כללי, that general life, and you have to draw it from there and bring it back, it should start working in we call the כוחות הגלויים, in the revealed part of the person. So he'll be able to see, he'll be able to hear, he'll be able to understand, etc., etc. So when we want to revive the person, we have to do something to reach to that source of life. Because if we're going to reach anything further than that, we won't accomplish anything. Because in the level of the כוחות הגלויים, in the level where the chayut, the life comes into individual parts, that part is missing. So we can't accomplish. What we have to do is go back to the source and take it back. So if we say that by calling a person by the name we are able to revive the person, that means that by calling the person by the name we reach, we touch that level of the עצם הנפש, and therefore we are able to bring out the kochos, these different powers, back into its place, and that revives the person. Now he's able to see, now he's able to hear, he's able to understand. So that shows that when you call a person by his name you touch the עצם הנפש, you touch the essence of the person. We see something else. When you call a person by his name, he will turn around. Not part of him will turn around, the whole person will turn around. That means that this is called the עצם, the essence, the person himself is turns around and answers, relates to your to the name that he's called. Sometimes you have a person preoccupied, he's thinking about all kinds of things, and you could push him and you and he won't won't listen. But when you call him by his name, he'll turn around. Because when you call him by his name, it affects his essence. It's similar to a story told by the Alter Rebbe that once the Tzemach Tzedek when he was a little boy, his grandson, was sitting on his lap. And he was saying, \"zeide, zeide.\" So the Alter Rebbe says, \"וואו איז דער זיידע? Where is the zeide?\" So he points to the Alter Rebbe's nose. The Alter Rebbe says, \"No, that's the zeide's nose.\" So he points to his ear, \"No, that's the zeide's ear. Where is the zeide?\" So he jumps off, goes out the door, and opens the door and screams, \"zeide!\" The Alter Rebbe turned around. He says, \"Oh, this is the zeide!\" Because he turned around with the whole the whole person turned around, the whole being. And the same thing is when you talk when you call a person by his name that makes the whole person turn around. So this all shows that the the name is connected to the עצם of the person. Now, on the other hand, we have to know that a name is really not essentially part of the person. The best proof is a person could live without a name. Before you give the child a name, he's still is also alive. And it's possible for a person to live all alone and he wouldn't even need a name. The only reason a person needs a name is in order for other people to call him, for other people to refer to him, but the person on his own could live without a name. So that, on the other hand, shows that a name is not a real important part of the person's essential life. But the truth is like this: it is not the essence of the person. What it is, it is that thing that connects the essence with the גילוי. That is that part that connects the shoresh, the root above, the source of the person, to the kochos, to the person, to the person's working in the person's nefesh in his guf. The person has two Every person has the nefesh itself, his life, and then you have the way that nefesh is important to live a normal life. So the kesher, the chibur, the connection that's there between the source and the way a person is able to exist and live, that's what the name is. As we see from what I quoted before in the Midrash, when the Midrash said that Adam Harishon was able to call them by name, why? Because he saw their shoresh. The malachim couldn't do it. The question is, why not? The malachim are closer to the shoresh than Adam. Adam is down here, the malachim are up there. And the shoresh, the root, the source of everything, is in higher worlds, so they're closer. Why didn't they see? The pshat is not that they didn't see. What you need to see in order to give the right name is you have to see the connection that's there between the way it's in the shoresh And the way it's down here in order to function. That's the idea of a name. A name has both ends: on one hand, it's connected to the essence of the person, as we said before; on the other hand, it's not the essence for itself, but it's the essence in order to function. You could exist and live without a name, but you can't function normally without a name. So the name is that that connects the etzem, the etzem in the neshamah, the etzem in the shoresh, in the source, to the way a person will function outwardly in the way a person has to live. And that's what the malachim couldn't do. See, the malachim, being that they're in higher worlds, they saw the shoresh. For instance, it says the shoresh, the root of the shor is the shor of the merkavah. In the merkavah, in the chariot of Hashem, you have a שור, פני שור. The malachim saw it faster than Adam Harishon. But they couldn't relate how the shoresh could come down here, that's what they couldn't do. Adam Harishon, since, as we said before, he's made up from עליונים ותחתונים, from the highest and the lowest, he's able to see that combination. So Adam Harishon was able to give the name. So, in other words, the name has all the things we said before. But at which point? It is the point of bringing all the inyanim, the things the way they are, into the body, into the person's normal life and normal way of functioning and existing. And that's what the Midrash says, that the earlier generations, people who gave a name their children would see all this, they would see the shoresh, and they would see what to do, what names to give, to connect that shoresh to the person. And that would also express the things that will happen to the person, express the different characteristics of the person, and that would also sometimes cause the person to have certain characteristics. But they would see it. But later generations, people can't see it, but we know it's there. Rav Meir, it says in the Gemara, was able to see it. It says רב מאיר מדייק בשמא, רב מאיר would make, would be careful in a name. Gemara tells a story, Rav Meir came to, with other Chachamim, once he had to stay over at night in a hotel. So before he took the room, he asked the owner, \"What's your name?\" And the owner said, \"My name is כידור.\" So he tells the Chachamim, \"I'm not staying here.\" So he left. The other Chachamim didn't care, they stayed. That night, he robbed them all. And Rav Meir said, \"You see? I told you.\" So they asked him, \"How did you know?\" Says, \"Well, his name was כידור. There's a pasuk in Chumash that says כי דור תהפוכות המה, that they are a turned-over generation. This is part of the curses, or part of the negative things that Hashem says about the Yidden that will happen later. So the word כידור,\" he says, \"is a name that represents negativity. And therefore,\" he says, \"I was afraid.\" Now, it doesn't mean that if a person has a name which shows a certain trait, it forces the person to be that way, because Rav Meir himself said, \"I'm not saying that he has to be that way, but at least there is some kind of a feeling that a person has to a certain thing, and that could be or because of the name, or the name showed what he really has.\" Now, we don't know exactly what Rav Meir saw, but it was Rav Meir who was able to see, and it's only Rav Meir. Says that Rav Meir was special. Rav Meir could see things which other Chachamim couldn't see. His name actually is, and we're talking about names, Rav Meir's name was Meir. Meir means it shines. And the Gemara also says that his real name was not even Meir, his real name was Nehorai, which in Aramaic means to shine, לשון נהורא, אור. So he was able to see, by him things shine. It says in the Gemara that in the Sefer Torah of Rav Meir, on a pasuk in Chumash Bereishit, Parashat Bereishit, where Torah says that Hashem made כותנות עור, He made a a belt of skin, of leather, for Adam and Chava. So עור is spelled עין ו ר, that means leather. In the Sefer Torah of Rav Meir it says אור with an Aleph. Whatever that's to mean, because it's a question how was the ספר תורה כשר if it had a wrong word, Mefarshim talk about it. But the idea is that it was אור with an Aleph. עור with an עין means skin, leather, which blocked the light. By him, everything shined. The Gemara says in Berachos that, in truth, Rabbi Meir's way of learning and understanding was deeper than all the other chachamim, but the halachah is not like him. The chachamim didn't agree to him in many halachos, and the reason is because לא ירדו חכמים לסוף דעתו של רב מאיר, they couldn't understand him, that's how deep he was. So Rabbi Meir, who was so deep, he was able to see in the names, really, what the name represents. Other chachamim, even the chachamim couldn't see it. But the fact is that it's there, that in the name we have all the different things that I mentioned before, and they're all brought out in the name, and that's why it says you have to be very careful what kind of name you give a child, because the name could mean a lot.

It says that a name even has a special connection between the parent and the child. Being that a name is so essential, and the connection between the parent and the child is essential, Therefore we find an interesting thing. There are sometimes when a parent starts feeling, gets an arousal of love to a child, the way to express it is by mentioning the child's name. Start thinking, you say, ah, Moshele Moshele. And that, it says in sefarim, is deeper than other ways of showing affection. If you give a present, well, the present is limited. It depends how much money you have, it depends how old the child is, it's limited to different things. So if it's limited, it shows it's not really essential. Even when you give a child a kiss, the child has to be awake. There's a certain type of kiss while a child is sleeping, but that's a different, must be awake to feel it, generally. But to call it, to mention the child's name as a form of an expression of love to the child, the child could be overseas, and you could be here, and you just start mentioning the child's name. It's similar to what Rashi says in Chumash that how come Hashem mentioned the name of the shevatim many times? Mitoch chibasan, because he loves them, he mentions their names. Because mentioning a name shows love, and by a parent to a child, that's more than by anybody else. Why? Because the name shows the etzem, but not the etzem in itself like we said before, but the etzem the way you take from the etzem and bring out into the kochos hageluyim we call, into the revealed parts of the person, and into the connection to others, but it's taking the etzem. And the child and a parent has the connection to the etzem. That's why the Gemara says יפה כח הבן מכח האב. That sometimes you find a child has more than a parent. In the physical, even in physical things: you could have a father who's God forbid or a mother who can't see, and a child could see. And the question is, how's that possible? If we know that you can't have an effect that should have more than the cause, if the parents are the cause of the child, how could the child have something the parents don't have? The answer is very simple. Like I said before, in the nefesh every person has every ability. Every person has the ability of sight, has the ability of hearing. The only thing is, sometimes for some reason it doesn't come out into the keli, into the vessel which is the eyes. A person can't see, the eyes do not receive that koach, but the koach, the power is there in the nefesh. The child takes from a parent, not the kochos hageluyim, not the revealed part, but the etzem, and therefore the child could see, because the child, the keli, the vessel of the eye is okay, and therefore it could take the sight, because it took from the father, or from the mother it took the etzem hanefesh. That's why it says in sefarim, when it says יפה כח הבן מכח האב, that the koach, the power of a child could be more than the father, so the expression is יפה כח הבן, one peshat is יפה כח הבן מכח האב, that the child could be stronger than the koach of the father. But there's a deeper peshat: יפה כח הבן מכח האב, where does the ben, the child get that koach? That itself comes from the koach ha'av, from the כח of the father. So the connection in a child and a parent is very essential, and therefore it expresses itself through a name, because a name is something that's very essential. So what we get of all this is the importance of a name. Now in truth, many of the things I said before could apply not davka to a Yiddishe name, to a Hebrew name, could be to any name. And the truth is there is something in any name. To give a child a name even not a Yiddishe name, there is something there, and this does show on certain things, and has a connection to the person's traits. It definitely is not like a lashon kodesh, a Hebrew name, a Yiddishe name, because the תורה, לשון קודש and the Torah, that is holy, so there everything is much stronger. But there is something in English name too, and that's why we all know that when people, many cases, come baalei teshuvah and they don't have a Hebrew name, and they ask to be given a Hebrew name, usually what we would do, this is what the Rebbe used to do always, ask: what's your English name? And based on the English name, we would give you a Hebrew name, or if it would sound the same, or it would have the same meaning. Why? Because the English name, it's something. That doesn't mean we could be satisfied with the English name. We have to have Hebrew names because that is a very important thing, because that has much stronger of all the inyanim we spoke about before. That's why it says when the Yidden were in Mitzrayim, it says they kept apart of the Egyptians. What did they do? So there are three things: they didn't change their clothes, they didn't change their language, and they didn't change their names. We see in Chumash that Yosef's name was Yosef, and Paro gave him a new name. He never again is called by that name that Paro gave him, he kept his Hebrew name. And the Yidden in Mitzrayim kept their Hebrew names throughout the whole galut, which must have been very hard. And the reason is because they saw what's there in a Hebrew name. And that's why people are very careful that when you give a name to a child, should give a name after a tzaddik, because it brings chayut from a higher level, it could cause the person, the child to have the characteristics istics of that tzaddik to a certain degree, and also will show on the different middot that the tzaddik had. Now, whatever name a person chooses, that's מן השמים like I said before, but we have to do our part to choose a name which has more potential of being a name that will show great things. All this actually is taken from the names of Hashem. We know that anything that happens to people, anything that goes down down here, is all taken from the way it's in Hashem. By Hashem, we also find a similar thing. We have Hashem and we have his names. Hashem has a name, not a name, has many names. He has seven main names, שבע שבעה שמות שאינן נמחקין, there are seven holy names which you're not allowed to erase. Then there are tens of other names Hashem has: הקדוש ברוך הוא, רבונו של עולם, המקום, all kinds of names. But then we have the main names: י-ק-ו-ק, הוי׳, אלקים, וקל, and and אדנ-י, different names. The main two names is י-ק-ו-ק, הוי׳, and אלקים. That's why we when we make a berachah we always say ברוך אתה השם אלקינו, so we use the שם השם and אלקים. Now, these names are also things, names that express the connection that Hashem has to us. השם on his own, completely on his own, doesn't need a name. That's why we find an expression when we talk about השם himself. When השם gave us the Torah, the first word was אנכי השם אלקיך, I am Hashem your God. So the Zohar says that the word אנכי, I, means I who is beyond any name. Because a name is a description. A name is a trait, a characteristic, it shows something. I am beyond that. So then Hashem essentially on his own is אנכי. Then, when he started having a connection to the world, to the people, it's already Havayah, the word Havayah already has a meaning. The meaning is to create. היה means to be, to create, but it's a level beyond creation, but the beginning of creation. That's why it's three words in one: היה הוה ויהיה כאחד, past, present, and future together. Elokim already means the way Hashem is the boss over the world. But before that is אנכי. Just like when we make a berachah, we use the same three terms. We say ברוך, then we say אתה, השם אלקינו. Then we even continue מלך העולם. So it means blessed are you. Who is you? Hashem himself. Then we say Havayah and then אלקינו. So we have Hashem and we have his names. So we have Hashem essentially and then the chiyut, the life that comes from Hashem into the world goes through his names. That's why it says in Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer, עד שלא נברא העולם, until the world was created, היה הוא ושמו בלבד. There was only Hashem and his name. That's the first level of creation before the creation started, already started with his name, was he, and before any connection to creation there was only he, and then there's a level of he and his name, and then from there came creation. Because a name is like just by a person, the name is the צינור, is that pipe, is that wire that brings down the chiyut and shows on the different things of the person, so does the name of Hashem bring down the chiyut of Hashem, the life of Hashem into the world, and it represents different things that happen to the world through Hashem. And because it's by Hashem that way, that's why by us human beings it's that way too. But the main thing that we take from here is the importance of a name and the importance of a Hebrew name, a Jewish name, a name which has kedushah in it, because then you cause a lot of kedushah. They tell a story that the Rebbe when he was in France he was, he studied in the university at that time in France, but once he had a farbrengen, and there was I think it was Simchat Torah, there was a big crowd there, and during the farbrengen the Rebbe said a lot of l'chaim and he went around the table asking everyone their name. Next year, he had another farbrengen and there were basically the same people there, and he looked at everyone and he told them your name is so-and-so, and he explained the connection between the name and the person. And he went around the table. They say that the Rebbe's father used to do that too. There is actually a חכמה that there are people like I said before, Rabbi Meir could do it, but there is a חכמה that people could through the names, I mean holy people could see through the names several different things that can happen. So the names are that important. We have to know that when we give a name, the name has to be a name that we want the child should have. That's why a person who is let's say a rasha, we don't find any people called after reshaim. Don't hear anybody called Esav. Don't What? Yishmael is an exception, but why? I believe why, because Yishmael did teshuvah. Rashi says Yishmael did teshuvah. But Esav never did teshuvah, so that's That's why we don't give a name after Esav, and after Yishmael we do, because Yishmael did teshuvah. But that, and even that is an exception. We don't find any other, I mean, I think nowadays for some reason in Eretz Yisrael they give, Israelis give all kinds of crazy names. I heard a guy that was called Nimrod. Yeah, one guy gave a name Nevuchadnetzar. A lady called me not long ago, she has a problem, what should she do? Her name that was given to her was Vashti. Yeah, she called me, what should I do? I'm sure change your name. But that's definitely not the right thing to do because we don't want our children to be like Nimrod chas v'shalom, or like Vashti, or any of these people. So we have to choose good names. So, names after a person counts. Also, the name itself has a meaning, and the name, for instance, when a person is sick and we change his name, we usually try to give him a second name Chaim, Chaim means life, or Rafael, from the word refuah, which means cure, because the name itself has a meaning. It's not only because we change the name, the reason we change the name is because just in case the mazal was that, let's say, this guy, this person's name is Mordechai, he had a bad mazal, now we'll change his name, we'll add Moshe Mordechai, it's a different mazal. It's more than that. Since we'll give him a name Chaim, that will bring chiyut, because the name Chaim has a lot of meaning, and the name Rafael. That's why we we try always these names. And bichlal, there are other names that we could understand the meaning, and we try to choose such names which are after tzaddikim, and name names that have good meanings. But the main thing is that we have to look into the the names, and when it comes to give a name, we should give a name that we feel is a holy name. The שם המפורש is the name that I said before, י-ק-ו-ק, שם הויה. שם הויה has three titles: sometimes it's called the שם המפורש, sometimes it's called the שם העצם, sometimes it's called the שם המיוחד. But this is actually the real, real name of Hashem. But again, like I said before, it's only the name of Hashem in relationship to the creation. That's why the word י-ק-ו-ק, the way it's really pronounced, which we're not allowed to pronounce it, in truth is we don't even know how to pronounce it. Even though there are nekudot, there are vowels in the siddur under the י-ק-ו-ק, but these vowels are just because we pronounce it with א-ד-נ-י, and the way we pronounce it with א-ד-נ-י, that's how the vowels are. But the real meaning of the word is from the word הוה, which means to be, to make. The שם המפורש really means to create. There is another name similar to that when Moshe Rabbeinu asked Hashem what's your name when Hashem sent him to Mitzrayim, and he said, what will happen if the people will ask me your name, what should I say? So he said, tell them my name is אהיה אשר אהיה, I will be that I will be. So the Rambam goes into a explanation, a long explanation, that that is really the essence of Hashem. אהיה means I will be, that means I am. No description, it's just the fact that I am. That itself is really not the true essence, the true essence is beyond any name, which is אנכי. But within the names itself, אהיה expresses even more than י-ק-ו-ק. But on the other hand, out of the regular names, י-ק-ו-ק is the highest name, and that is a name which is a name of creation, the first source of creation within Hashem. Is there is there a name of Hashem that has 72 letters? The question was: is there a name of Hashem that has 72 letters? But this is getting into Kabbalah. Should we get into this for a second? Yes? Okay. We find concerning the names of Hashem in Kabbalah, we find four names: מ״ה, ב״ן, ס״ג, and ע״ב. מ״ה is מ-ה, 45. Then we have ב״ן, ב-ן is 52, a name of Hashem which is 52 letters. Then we have the name of Hashem which is ס״ג, ס-ג, 63. And then we have, what you said, ע-ב, ע״ב we call it, 72. Now I'll tell you where it all comes from. It's all from the שם הויה, י-ק-ו-ק. It's שם הויה במילוי. מילוי means the filling of the letters. Every letter has a letter itself and has the filling. For instance, יו״ד. יו״ד is a יו״ד. But if you want to write out the word יו״ד, you would write יו״ד, וא״ו, דל״ת. So really the letter יו״ד could mean 10, יו״ד is 10. יו״ד could really mean 20. If you write יו״ד, וא״ו, דל״ת, you'll have a יו״ד which is 10, the וא״ו which is 6, and the דל״ת which is 4, you have 20. And the same thing with a ה״א. A ה״א could be written ה״א-אל״ף, which is, ה״א is 5, but if it's written with a מילוי, it's 6. There are different ways of writing the מילוי of different letters. י, there is only one way to write: י ו ד. ה, you could write ה א, you could write ה י, and you could write ה ה. And the same thing with ו. ו you could write ו א ו, if you want to write out the word ו, or ו י ו, or sometimes ו ו. Now, depending on the way we make the מילואים of the letters of יקוק, we will come out to four different numbers. One way it'll turn out to be 45, one way it'll turn out to be 52, you can figure it out on paper, one will be 63, and one will be 72. The interesting part of all this is that 45 equals 9, 4 and 5. 63, 6 and 3 equals 9. 72, 7 and 2 equals 9. The problem is 52. So let me tell you a little Midrash. Well, you got me involved in this. I heard this from my zayde, who heard it from the Rebbe's father. Someone asked the Rebbe's father a pshat in a מדרש פליאה. A מדרש פליאה means a Midrash that makes no sense. This is what the מדרש says, listen to this: One Tanna asked another one, one rabbi asked another one, מה שמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא? What's the name of Hashem? אמר ליה, so he answered him, רחמנא ליבא בעי, which means that Hashem wants your heart. אמר ליה, so he said to him, מפני מה כולם סדורים וזו הפוכה? Why are they all straight and this one crooked? אמר ליה, so he said to him, חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. The signature, the seal of השם is truth. And then he quoted a pasuk where it says, says, הוא אחד ואין שני, something like that, בן ואח אין לו, and a brother and a sister and a son and a sister he doesn't have, no, a son and a brother he doesn't have. So he says, this Midrash makes no sense from beginning to end. What is this talking about? So my zayde told me the Rebbe's father answered him like this: When he asked him what's the name of Hashem, what he really answered him was these four names: 45, 52, 63, and 72. If you add them up together you come out to 232. So he answered him רחמנא ליבא בעי. The abbreviation of the words רחמנא ליבא בעי is ר ל ב. רחמנא ליבא בעי is 232. That was his answer. He asked him what's the name of Hashem, so he told him Rachmana liba ba'i, which is ר ל ב. So he asked him, why are they all straight and one is crooked? Why is this one is מ ה, is 45, this one is 63, first the big number then the small one, this one is 72, and one is crooked, one is 52. So he says, you don't understand, the seal of Hashem is truth. Why is the seal of השם אמת? So it says because אמת is 9. א is 1, מ is 40, which is 4, and ת is 400, so again it's 4, so together it's 9. The reason why 9 is truth, because 9, whichever way you will look at it, will always be 9. 9 * 3 is 27, 2 and 7 is 9. 9 * 4 is 36, 3 and 6 is 9. 9 will always be 9, so it means it's always truth. So that's what he answered him. The reason one is crooked is because we need to add up to 9. 52 is missing 9. Now we know when we come to numbers, we have the Alef Bet are numbers, so we come like this: ת is 400. If you want to write 500, how do you do it? So the way, the common way is ת ק. ק is 100, ת is 400, so ת ק makes 500. The truth is there is another way to do it. You go back to the אותיות סופיות, the letters that have double, that have end letters. So a לאנגער כ, the end כ, is 500. A שלאס מ, the end מ, is 600, and a לאנגער נ, an end נ, is 700. So if you would write 50 נ ב, we'd have נ is 50 is 5, we'd have 5 and 2 is 7. But if you write the other way, ב נ, ב נ, ב is 2 and נ is 700, so that adds up to 9 again, because everything has to come to 9. And that's what the pasuk he quoted where it says Hashem is one, but then the pasuk says, ובן ואח אין לו. בן, the בן, the ב״ן, the name ב״ן, how come that is written ב נ? The answer is אח אין לו. א ח. אח is א ח, 1 and 8 is 9, because it doesn't have the 9, that's why you write ב״ן. בן ואח אין לו. בן, why is it בן? Because אח אין לו, it doesn't have the 9. על כל פנים, coming back, the name of Hashem, the 72 letters, is all taken from the שם הויה. There is another name of Hashem which the Gemara says is 42 letters, which Rashi says we don't know what it is, but it seems like later generations, after Kabbalah was revealed, we do know. In Ana Bekoach, if you ever noticed, אנא בכח גדולת ימינך in the siddur we have next to the letters it says abbreviations. There are 42 letters here, and these are the 42 letters of Hashem's name. This is Hashem's name. And that's how when we daven, we say this, we have to look at this to have in mind this name of Hashem, it's a special name. But that's another name which is not part of these four. There are other things in Kabbalah. Yes. When a person's parent changes? A person's father or mother is sick, oh when they change, yeah. How does that affect the child, for example if father's name gets changed, person gets called to the Torah, or if he's sick, depends on the parent's name, does the child's essence change because the parent... The essence changes, there is something more that's there. Yeah, there is something that's added which will have an effect. Exactly what, how, and when, we don't really know, but they're with both names, sure. If the father changed a name, added a name, he will be called up with that name. You are בן so and so. And therefore, and the father's name also has an effect in the child. Like I mentioned before, מרדכי, מרדכי בן יאיר בן שמעי בן קיש and the Gemara darshens Yair, Shimi, and Kish all concerning Mordechai. So there was an effect of them on the child, so there is an effect. Now exactly what, we don't know. Maybe if you look into what the name was, it'll add certain things like that, and we always try to look at the good side. So probably that'll have a good effect. Yeah. If you have prophecy and the name, whether you're aware of it or not, is a negative name, whether it's the name of a rasha, just you know, in the seichel you don't realize it's not a good name, or somebody points it out, the question is if you have an inkling from above, a prophecy, that this is supposed to be who that person is, can you change it, and if you change it, you change who the person is So unless it's mamash a name after a rasha, like a guy is called Nimrod, I would advise to change, but otherwise I wouldn't advise anybody to change the name because like you said, it's a prophecy and therefore it's there. Unless there are extreme cases where a person would be, because the truth is a person is a baal habayit, is the boss over his own name and he has the right to change it, but we don't tamper with, that's what we don't. But in a case where a person really, really, really wants to for, you know, very important reasons, we do it. I know a story of a person whose name was Avraham and he was a ger, was a convert, and he went into the Rebbe in יחידות and he told the Rebbe that every time someone calls him by the name Avraham, it gives him, you know, a stick in the heart because it reminds him that he's a ger and it really bothers him, what should he do? So the Rebbe said, \"Change your name.\" And he walked out of יחידות, he says, \"Now I'm not Avraham anymore, I'm Shneur Zalman.\" The Rebbe told him to change to Shneur Zalman. And from then on, he's known as Shneur Zalman, and it's a person a lot of people know. Yeah, he told him, he told him which name to use. Let's just give the women one chance. Oh, I believe that Shulamit Aloni's son was named Nimrod. Oh. By the way, he became a baal teshuvah. Did he change his name? I don't know if he did, but he became a baal teshuvah. Yes. You said it was a good thing to name the children after tzadikim, like everybody names them after The Rebbe. So what if, but you also, I mean what if you don't have six children, you want to pass on the names of your grandparents Yeah, I'm not saying you should name after tzadikim before the parents. There are people and chassidim and even not by chassidim, a lot of people who would name before they would name after relatives, they would name after tzadikim. Right, right, but I would say that it doesn't mean that you shouldn't name after parents. Yeah, it's true, you should name after parents, but you should also have in mind to name after tzadikim. Now some people, because of what you said they don't know if they'll have so many children, they will mix the names, but that's one thing that we know that by tzadikim, we try not to mix. The Rebbe said not to mix from the names of the Rebbeim with other people. But it doesn't mean you're not allowed to, but it's better not to. But to name after parents, relatives, is important. The name of Avigdor is from Moshe, what aspect of Moshe was Avigdor? The Gemara says גדר means a גדר, a fence. He made a fence by Yidden, he stood up to block the plague and block different things, that's why he was called Avigdor. Yes. Is there a difference between a person's Yiddish name and their Hebrew name? A Yiddish name became, I guess, I can't use it, but I'll say it anyway, became Hebrew! A Yiddish name, because it's so much used by Yidden, it became holy. It's interesting that by men, there is hardly ever that you can find a man with just a Yiddish name. Every time a man has a Yidishe name, there's always a Hebrew name with it. For instance, myself, my name is Yehuda Leib. Leib is Yiddish, and Yehuda is Hebrew. Some people are called Aryeh Leib. Some people are called just which What? Hirsch Moshe. Hirsch and with Moshe. There's very... I do know of certain cases. By women, for some reason, there are many women that have just Yidishe names. So, obviously, the Yidishe names, because they're Yidishe, because they were used so much by Yidden, they have a kedushah, and now they have just like the Yidishe language in itself. The Yidishe language has a kedushah even though it's not Hebrew. It has a kedushah, and there's something special about that language. Whichever one. Truthfully, you should use both names. A person try to use both names, but for some reason, it's not usually done that way. But what Like the same name in Hebrew, the Hebrew and in English? Yehudit? That's a Hebrew name. Do you ever use it? You use Yehudit. So then that's your name, and probably something else, if a name is forgotten and not used at all, then you lose it. It's not your name anymore. In halachah, we find like that. Where do we find the importance of a name in halachah? When it comes to writing a ketubah or, God forbid, a get, that's where a name is very important. So the halachah is that when there's a name, a שם שנשתקע, a name that was forgotten completely, you don't even write, because that's not the name of the person anymore. So if a person uses a name and no one knows the person by that by the other name, then it's not his name anymore. Yes, just yeah. Has a meaning. A goy also, but not the same as by a Yid. Everything by a Yid is stronger, everything in matters of kedushah is stronger, but there is a meaning by a goy also. That I that I never heard that that should be done. I don't know. In the English, in the English side. In the Hebrew side, usually they write the full name. Yeah. That's how they call him, that's a nickname, but If a person ever had the experience, a walk into Lubavitcher main headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway, and goes into when there's a big crowd there, farbrengen or a davenen service, and yells out, \"Mendy! Yossi!\" 50 to 100 people will turn around. Exactly. So my question is, there were seven Lubavitcher Rebbeim. Two of them were named Menachem Mendel. So the one question is, I got two questions. One question is, who were all these Mendys named after? Were they named after the Tzemach Tzedek, or were they named after the The Rebbe was alive until so few years ago, see? So the minhag is מנהג ישראל is that you don't name after a person who's alive. So that's one question. Okay. Second question is you said before, you described what a shem, what a name is. So the essential reason, besides being connected to the shoresh, is identification. See, you went in, and you're calling a specific person, and Yossi that you want, so 50 to 100 people turn around, so that's a confusing element, problem one. Same as with Moshe, I think. Two, all those Mendys and all those Yossis are all connected to the same shoresh? Yeah, they have a certain, like the Beis Yosef says, all Avrahams have something in common. Exactly, and all Menachem Mendels have something in common. You asked about the people who were given the name Menachem Mendel. So if they're children that were born after ג' תמוז, then they're obviously named after the Rebbe. Those that were born before and called Menachem Mendel, they were named after the Tzemach Tzedek. Now the question is why was the name Menachem Mendel chosen? Because the Rebbe said that you should name the children Yosef Yitzchak after the Frierdiker Rebbe, but if not, you can't, if there are other people in the family called Yosef Yitzchak, then you should name Menachem Mendel after the Tzemach Tzedek. And then the Rebbe told the story: The Rogatchover was not a Rebbe, the Rogatchover was a big gaon, but he wasn't a Rebbe, he didn't behave like a Rebbe. So once a lady came to him and she said, \"Rebbe, I just had a boy. What name should I give him?\" He got very angry, \"What are you coming to ask, am I a Rebbe?\" And she didn't let go. She said, \"No, tell me what name I should give him.\" So he wanted to get rid of her, so he says, \"Name him after me.\" So she says, \"רבי, איר לעבט דאך! You're alive!\" \"דו דארפסט לעבן! He should also live!\" So the Rebbe told that story. In other words, don't be afraid to give the name Menachem Mendel because because the Rebbe was there. But there must be some special connection because the Rebbe's name was Menachem Mendel, so people gave that name. But it's after the Tzemach Tzedek, yes. The Rebbe says that people giving name at the time, he was speaking about that time, which actually is a segulah for whoever's wife was having a baby. And I think people understood the sichah that way also. I don't remember that. I don't remember. What about the Sefardim, they name after people who are alive, but yet it's called a segulah for אריכות ימים. Yes. Like with the story of Avraham, why change the name completely? And other people I know have gone to rabbis or the Rebbe and asked also for mazal to change their name. When you're changing a name for health, you add to the name. Why not keep the previous name? Truth is if you have two names, it's a new it's a new name. It's not like the two names are two names. The two names are really one. You have people in the same family that have two children with one of the Each one has two names, and one of the two names are the same. I mean, I wouldn't do it, and most people don't do it, but in truth, you're allowed to do it. One would be called Yaakov Moshe, and one would be called Yaakov Baruch, and you'll have them in the same family. Because Yaakov Moshe is a name Yaakov Moshe. Same thing when you add a name, it is like a new person. The reason that that person wanted his name be changed, not to add, because he didn't want to remember Avraham. He wanted Avraham to go, because it would remind him of his being a ger. See, just from the ladies' side for a moment. So if someone has a Yaakov, and someone has a Yosef, they could they still name a child Yaakov Yosef because it's על פי דין, you're allowed to. But I wouldn't advise. For my family, I have a son called Levi Yitzchak, and I have another son called Yosef. I didn't name him Yosef Yitzchak because my other son is Levi Yitzchak. Even though in truth in truth, really, if I would want, I could. But I didn't do it. You know, when I went to the בית חנה, I want I called myself Tzipporah because I wanted to have you know, more Hebrew. And Rabbi Friedman said I must call myself by the name that my father gave me in shul. Because that's the name of your neshamah, he said. So you should call yourself by the name that was given to you by your by your parents. Right. Right. Unless it's officially changed for some reason. Since this brings up the part about having two names, why don't we use both of our names? You should. You should. It's just easier and Some people are careful, davka use both names. In your case? Yeah, people That's how it is. Do they call you both names? No. No. No. But for instance, I don't know why, but my daughter I try to call Chaya Mushka, even though everyone else calls her Chaya. I try to call her Chaya Mushka because I want to call both names. My other children, I don't. Levi, I don't call Levi Yitzchak. It's just It's real- Really, you should call them both both names. Is there an official process of changing your or adding to your Hebrew name? For what reason? For health reasons? No, just You just like I said, you just don't do it. You just don't do it, unless there is a very very important reason. But like this, you just don't change. You're tampering with something which is higher. All right. What if you want to name a child after a grandparent, and the name is also the name of a tzaddik, who you're also So you can have both in mind. No problem. You can have both in mind? You can have in mind When you name the child, you can have in mind the tzaddik and the grandparent. You know that that's very interesting. As for him, I named him after after my my zaide, my grandfather. I found out later that my grandfather was named after a famous Polish rebbe, Yaakov Yosef. Oh, you have both. That that's what's a that's a coincidence. Good. No, not a coincidence because the name he was named after that person was named after that tzaddik. Right. So it actually had a shayachut. No, but I named him after my grandfather. And grandfather was named after that tzaddik. That's correct. Oh, so so it's a direct connection. Hi. Wait for me! I can't, I can't, I got all my books. Now I want hugs and kisses. I can't, I can't, I got my books. Go to your mother. [Non-speech audio] rabotai, I would like to tell a story about the grandfather of the Ba'al HaBen Ish Chai, the great HaRav Moshe Chaim, who was the חכם באשי of Baghdad. He was a great tzaddik and mekubal. Even the Pasha, the governor of Baghdad, respected him and would consult with him on various matters. Now, there was an advisor to the Pasha who was a שונא ישראל, and he was constantly looking for ways to harm the Jews. [Non-speech audio] [Non-speech audio]