A Soulful Journey

 Rabbi Yohanan prayed this when he finished the book of Job: The end of man is death. The end of the beasts is slaughter. Everything that exists must die. Happy is the one who grew in Torah and was weaned on Torah, who was gives the spirit of joy to his Master. And who matured with a good name. And who left this world with a good name. As Solomon the wise said, "A good name is better than the best oil and the day of one's death is better than the day of his birth."   -berachot 13a

  "As is his name, so is he."  -I Samuel 25:25 We live up, or down, to our names.  Choose well.

There is a story told of a husband and wife who had their first child and could not agree on the name, so they went to their rabbi and he asked, “What’s the problem?”    The mother said, “As the mother, I should have the first right to choose … I want the baby named after my father, Reuven.”    The husband said, “No, I am the man of the house … I want the baby named after my father, whose name was Reuven.”    The rabbi immediately perks up and says, “So then, what’s the problem?”    The mother cries out, “His father was a horse thief.”    He cries out, “Her father was a wife beater.”    The rabbi, in his great wisdom, proclaimed: “I have the solution: you are to name the baby Reuven.    If he grows to be a horse thief, then he is named after the husband’s father and if he grows to be a wife beater, he is named after the wife’s father.”    -Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg