What is the Real Name of Mosheh?
The Bible is a book of questions, not of answers. Israel uniquely became a nation before it became a state. It had laws before it had a land. Thus, Israel can be counted as the only nation in the world that is an ethno-religious nation. Yet, we do not know her greatest leader’s Hebrew name. Exodus 2 tells us that a Levite married a woman from his tribe, and she conceived and bore a son. Later, Torah will tell us also that the man’s name was Amram, and the woman’s name was Yocheved, but it will not tell us what the name of the baby boy was. This is hinted at in the apparent lack of a name, contrary to how the Hebrew names are formed in the Tanach. Torah thus wants to impress upon the reader that there is a deeper meaning not only in this passage but in the whole story to which we now turn. We will explain the reason for this in due course.
The Supreme One did not dictate what Pharaoh should do; He directed the timing of events that led to the obvious. Because the new king of Egypt, who did not know or he did not recognize what Yoseph had done for his country, decreed that every baby boy was to be killed by drowning in the Nile, Yocheved was hiding the baby three months. And when it was impossible to hide him any longer, she took a basket of wicker, coated it with tar and pitch, and put the child in it. Then she went to the river and laid the basket in the reeds by the bank of the river. The mother set her daughter (Miriam) to watch over the baby in the basket from a distance. Just as the Eternal shut the door of the ark behind Noach and hid him in the ark, while the waters of judgment were poured down upon the world, so did He hide His servant, Mosheh.
“If you do not see God everywhere, you do not see Him anywhere”. (Kabbalah)
The waters of the Nile, however, picked up the basket and it started floating downstream on the current. Miriam followed the basket for a while but only to see that it was caught among the reeds by the royal palace. The Egyptian princess saw the basket and sent her servant to fetch it. When the princess opened the basket, she immediately recognized that the baby must have been one of the Hebrews. The young girl Miriam was brave enough to appear before the Egyptian princess and suggested a nurse for the baby. The princess agreed and the baby boy returned to his mother but with the condition that the baby should be given back to her. So did it happen. When the boy grew, he was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she adopted him as her son. She gave him the name “Mosheh”, because he was pulled out of the water.
Now, a question arises before us. Yocheved gave birth to her baby boy, and according to the Covenant with Avraham, he was circumcised and given a name on the eighth day. But according to the Torah, this boy did not receive a name until verse 10, where we are told that he was already grown when he was brought to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she became an adoptive mother of the child. So, what was the name of the baby given by his Hebrew parents? It is very unlikely that a Hebrew boy would not receive a name in the course of three month. Yet, the Torah saw fit to give us a hint. We read thus,
And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Mosheh, saying, “Because I drew him out of the water”. (Exo 2:10)
How does that help us, for this is an Egyptian name “Mosheh”? What was his Hebrew name?
The root of the word mosheh cannot be found anywhere in the Scripture, therefore it must have been of an Egyptian origin. Flavious Josephus gives in his book Against Apion, an explanation that his name was “Moüses”, because he was rescued from the water, “Moü”. According to other authorities, the word mosheh means also “son” in Egyptian, as Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him. This is a naming convention very often found in the Torah, which gives the reason for the particular names given to the Biblical characters. With that said, we are rewinding the time to verse 2 of Exodus 2, wherein we read thus,
And the woman (Yocheved) conceived and bore a son. And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. (Exo 2:2)
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. A difficulty in this verse is that the Torah is suddenly departing from the traditional naming convention, and thus most regrettably Torah has not informed us what Yocheved did after she saw that the appearance of her son was so good. But it was Mosheh himself who stopped short of telling us his name. Most certainly, he knew the name given to him by his parents; His siblings, Miriam and Aharon, must have told him his Hebrew name, but kept it hidden. Since verse 2 states that the child was goodly, and a reader expects to find a name, an association between the Hebrew word for “goodly” and the supposed name may be established. Therefore, we should have expected to read something like this: “And when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she called his name so and so”, as the Scripture usually does in many other instances, but not in this one. Why? This question becomes even stronger when we bear in mind that this is the way of the Scripture to name the Biblical characters. This verse calls aloud for an explanation.
Most evidently, the supposed Hebrew name of the child is somehow connected with the word “goodly” or “good looking”. But what was Mosheh’s Hebrew name, and why did he receive an Egyptian name? And once he became an adult and most certainly aware of his Hebrew name, why did he not restore it?
“God is in the details”. (Jewish saying)
Ramban or Nachmanides (Rabbi Mosheh ben Nachman), a leading Torah scholar of the Middle Ages who authored commentaries on Torah and the Talmud, gives noteworthy explanation. He says that all mothers love their children, goodly or ungoodly, and therefore there was no need for Scripture to explain that the boy was goodly. Ramban goes on to say that the meaning of this goodliness is that she saw in her child some unique quality which foreshadowed that a miracle would happen to him, which indeed happened. Mosheh became the greatest statesman and prophet of Israel and through him the Israelites and the nations witnessed a lot of miracles. Therefore, Yocheved sought ways to save him. But we will add to Rabbi Nachman’s commentary that every mother would seek to save her child from a danger. Nachmanides does not explain exactly how Yocheved named her child, because the question was taken up by other Rabbis in the Talmud, the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation. There the Rabbis offer a compelling interpretation of the passage in verse 2 in Talmud, Sotah 12a. We read thus,
“The verse states with regard to the birth of Mosheh: “And the woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw him that he was a goodly [tov] child, she hid him three months”. It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Meir says: “Tov” is his, Mosheh’s, real name, as it was given to him by his parents when he was born. Rabbi Yehuda says: His name was “Toviya”.
Thus, it becomes clear to the reader that Talmud explains that Yocheved might have given her baby the name טוֹב Tov, which means “good”, or טוֹבִיָּה Toviah, which means “Goodness of Yah”. The Rabbis do not claim that they have received this from the oral tradition. However, the obvious evidence presents itself: Yocheved stated that the child was good looking (tov), hence the obvious conclusion took the evidence into account: Mosheh’s Hebrew name given by his parents could have been Toviah. We may cite several examples where this Hebrew name is in use in the Tanach in its literal meaning: Toviah is a name given to three Israelites and one Samaritan. Perhaps, the reason why the Rabbis are forced to give this conclusion, which is fairly clear, is that the name Toviah entered in use in the Hebraic culture after the example in Exodus 2:2. The similarity here is very proper, and although it does not prove everything, it is ingenious.
If so, why has the Torah not told us this? Out of respect for the adoptive mother of the great man. And why has the Torah not told us her Egyptian name? Because she received a new name, as she gave him a new name to signify how the child was saved, and prophetically, how his brethren would be saved through the waters of the sea.
Suggested reading: The Daughter of Pharaoh Called to Receive a New Name Through Adoption.
Knowledge known to only a few will die out. If you feel blessed by these teachings of Time of Reckoning Ministry, help spread the word!
May we merit seeing the coming of our Mashiach speedily in our days!
This page contains sacred literature and the Name of the Creator. Please, do not deface, discard, or use the Name in a casual manner.