The second chapter of this week’s parasha, Shemot, mentions the birth of a nameless child to nameless parents. The child is quite significant, of course, as he is soon thereafter to be known as Moses and still later to be recognized as the agent of Gd’s redemption for the Israelite people. Chapter 6 in the book of Exodus identifies the biological parents of Moses explicitly as Amram and Yocheved of the tribe of Levi. If the Torah eventually tells us the names of Moses’ parents, why does Chapter 2 keep their identities a mystery as follows: “A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son…?” An early Chassidic master teaches that the anonymity of these ‘players’ is intentional in order to communicate that each and every one of us has the capacity for greatness. It was not Moses’ ancestry that made him a person of recognition; it was his courage to act and to lead. Similarly, it will not be our parents or our pedigree that determines our stature in society but our personal decisions, actions, and contributions.
