"What's in a name?”

William Shakespeare was not impressed by names. "What's in a name?” he penned for Romeo and Juliet. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But the Bard lived in an era when a name was not only something others called you, but was something that told others about you.

Names have had great significance in our Jewish tradition. In this weeks’s Torah portion, Vayishlach (Genesis 32:4- 36:43), Jacob gets a name-makeover. Jacob received his name from the way in which he was born: clinging to the heel of his twin brother. Yaakov, the Hebrew for Jacob, literally means “heel”. And that was the kind of person Jacob was through much of his young life – a heel clinging to his mother; a heel cheating his uncle; a heel duping his father; a heel stealing from his brother. Not the kind of person you’d want your kids hanging around.

In the story in Genesis, Jacob does some (pardon the pun) soul-searching and finds himself engaged in a mysterious encounter with an unnamed individual. Emerging victoriously from the battle, he receives a new name: Israel. Israel, according to the text, means: he struggles with God. And indeed, Jacob’s struggle with seems to have transformed him into a more righteous character.

What’s in a name? Apparently a whole lot more than a cursory glance might indicate.

I invite you to discover the origins of your name. Perhaps you, too, will emerge with a new-found identity. Oh, and about the word rose? Check this out! http://www.answers.com/topic/rose