Parshat Vayakhel: The Name We Earn

In Parshat Vayakhel, Moses gathers the people and announces something unusual before any building begins: “See, the Lord has called by name Bezalel son of Uri…” (Exodus 35:30). The Torah could have simply said that Bezalel was appointed to lead the construction of the Mishkan. Instead, it emphasizes something more personal: God called him by name.

The Midrash Tanchuma focuses in on this detail and then unfolds the meaning slowly. It begins with an unexpected detour into the laws of shatnez, i.e. avoiding fabrics that mix wool and linen, and then turns to a broader principle: our actions have momentum. One mitzvah leads to another; one wrongdoing can lead to another. Rabbi Meir imagines it this way: each good deed assigns a kind of angel to accompany a person. Do one good deed, one angel joins you. Do many good deeds, many angels walk beside you. And with every good deed, something else grows as well — your good name.

And so the midrash arrives a famous teaching (that our community studied in our Elul Circle this past fall!): every person is known by three names. The first is the name given by one’s parents. The second is the name other people call you. But the third is the name you acquire for yourself. And, the rabbis say, the greatest name of all is the one a person earns.

Seen this way, Bezalel’s story makes perfect sense. He is not called by name simply because he is talented. He is called by name because of the life that has led him there — the quiet accumulation of actions, choices, and character that make him the kind of person capable of building something holy and significant. A name, in the deepest sense, is not just what people call us. It is the story our actions write over time. And the most important name we carry is the one we are still, day by day, in the process of making.

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Artwork by Hillel Smith.