Welcome to the short, practical Lelamed Weekly Dvar and Daily Aliyah. As always, you can Order The Daily Aliyah <https://mosaicapress.com/product/the-daily-aliyah/> and receive your hard copy of these daily practical and relevant Torah thoughts (all proceeds go to Daily Giving), or join this Whatsapp group <https://chat.whatsapp.com/GFRNDpSWoFHGhHYziqAGYv> to receive one per day. I hope you find this meaningful... _______________________________________________ Parashat Shemot documents all the Jews, by their names, that ended up in Egypt. As the name of Sefer Shemot (Book of Names) suggests, names recorded in the Torah serve the function of defining the essence of that person, place, or object. That’s why we begin not with a counting of people, but with names of people. With this introduction, it’s curious to find that the names of the midwives who helped keep the male newborns alive were recorded as Shifrah and Puah. Rashi explains that although these women’s names were actually Yocheved and Miriam, they were called Shifrah (שפרה) and Puah (פועה) because they beautified (מְשַׁפֶּרֶת) and cooed (פּוֹעָה) to the babies as they were born. Why would those actions warrant a name change when their more virtuous action was saving these babies’ lives? Rav Ruderman explains that the greatness of a person is represented not in their grand actions but in the little things they do. The women undoubtedly saved babies and were rewarded for that with the priesthood and royal family, but their true greatness was in the way they cared for the children when no one noticed. Their private actions became what truly defined them, and likewise, they are what truly define us. Shlomo Ressler _____________________________________________ Quotation of the week: "Every private moment is a brushstroke in the painting of your character."