Sunday, November 21, 2010

a change of name

While on the topic of names, my wife Ariella has a post (link) on Eisav's wife Basmas being called Machalas in the parsha. Rashi explains that one's sins are forgiven on the occassion of marriage. Apparently this credit extended to Eisav as well, and hence his wife was called Machalas, from the term mechila, forgiveness.

Rashi is based on a gemara in Yevamos 62b: “Rav Chama bar Chanina said, once a man marries a woman, his sins depart, for it says, ‘One who has found a wife has found good and will draw ratzon [appeal] from G-d.’” Maharal explains that the idea of cheit = chisaron, incompleteness. Man is spiritually incomplete without a wife. Marriage removes the cheit, this state of incompleteness. The individual, thus transformed, has a new identity -- gone is the old self and its sins and imperfections.

I would suggest that it's not just the name Machalas, but the name change itself which underscores this point. As we discussed, the Ishbitzer identifies shem=ratzon (in gematriya). "Matzah isha matzah tov v'yafek ratzon m'Hashem" -- the finding of a wife releases an added measure of ratzon from Hashem. The recipient of that ratzon is imbued with a different identity, hence a different name.

5 comments:

  1. Isn't Rashi's answer too powerful? Eisav remained called Eisav or for that matter -- Yitzchaq, Levi, Moshe, etc, etc, etc... We went from needing to explain one name change to needing to explain the lack of thousands others!

    -micha

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  2. Two answers to that Micha: 1. we don't have such name changes appear for those wives (though there are other women in TaNaCh identified by more than one name, like Miriam / Efrat), so the principle is learned from here, based on the Midrash.
    2. The lesson may be more effective in connection with Esav than with others you mentioned. Those were all tzadikim, so they had no sins that needed forgiving. Esav, on the other hand, had a lot on his slate. The Midrash indicates that even for a rasha of such a caliber the clean slate that begins with marriage applies. If your slate is clean to begin with, there is nothing to wipe off!

    My question was whether there is an advantage for a man to marry multiple times in order to effect the forgiveness anew.

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  3. One part of my question was why Esav's own name didn't change. Or Yishma'el's. They got married, had instant kapparah, why did they get new names as a baal teshuvah would?

    The name change explanation would fit Basmas's wedding-day kapparah. Not Esav's. And in fact I assumed it was her kapparah you were referring to, which is why I included his name on my list.

    -micha

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  4. The wording of the Aggadah clearly assigns the forgiveness of sins to the husband. In my post I quoted what Rashi quotes, which the Maharal refers to in his explication of the Gemara. The discussion is of the effects for the man who takes a wife, not for the woman, though we do say the wedding day functions as a Yom Kippur for both.

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  5. Anonymous9:13 PM

    read the Lubavitcher rebbes sicha on this topic its found in volume 30 under the week of Vayishlach number 3...

    it explains the difference between the rashi and the gemora's different wording of which 3 people sins are removed.........

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