Parshas Shemos 5786
- Torah Tavlin
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
ואלה שמות בני ישראל הבאים מצרימה ... (א-א)
MASHAL: In the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, the Nazis did everything they could to strip Jewish prisoners of their humanity. They took their possessions, their hair, and even their names. People were referred to only by the numbers tattooed on their arms or sewn onto their uniforms.
One morning, during the brutal “Appell” (the hours-long roll call when prisoners had to stand still in the freezing cold), the SS monster began shouting out numbers. “10425!” “55982!”
Each time a number was called, the prisoner had to snap to attention and shout “Present!” A man noticed a familiar looking boy standing near him. The boy was visibly agitated, far more than anyone else standing there. As the officer approached their row, the man whispered to the boy: “Remember ... you are not a number. You have a name. Your name is Yisrael. You are a prince!”
The boy looked at him startled, but the man pressed on. “In Parshas Shemos, the Torah lists the names of the Jewish people. Even though they were slaves, Hashem counted them by their names because names represent the soul. They can take your bread, they can take your strength, but they cannot take your name - unless you let them.”
The officer reached the boy and screamed his number. The boy, now full of confidence, stood tall and shouted “Present” - with a strength he hadn’t felt in months.
NIMSHAL: Years later, now a grown man with a family, the fellow recounted: “That morning I had decided to give up. I felt like a piece of wood, just a number in a ledger. But when I was reminded about Parshas Shemos, I felt my soul return to me. I realized that if Hashem remembered my name in the suffering in Egypt, He remembers my name here, too.”