SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 2S Watch For The New Sir, Name? Why you won't find last names in the Torah. ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sponsored by the Sisterhood of Temple Beth El (810)851-1100 Kitchens Bathrooms Wall Units Tables Accessories Maple a Birc h Hickory Exotic Hardwoods Laminate Stephen Daniels, Inc. 810+616-9300 lotHirg tot GARY RMILLER PHOTOGRAPHY (13 X CD) 511:1." 1.5.5 0 Neighborhood Project Lender GROUP ONE MORTGAGE Stuart Daniels 810 -617-3836 Take the Mystery out of Mortgages : • •••••••'• •••'' • •:*.e'' " • • • : • • : • : : • • • • MCs - DJs - Dancers - Light Shows - Karaoke - Giveaways - and More!. (Fonner President and Owner of Living Energy) (810) 661-4021 r'N, ELTIE I kerdkiidre NO OVER-TIME CHARGE • Bar/Bat Mitzvah • School Dances • All Occasions FREE GIVE-AWAYS Brad Kallen (810) 851-4554 The Entertainment Authority! (810) 485-0335 Mack Pitt AND HIS ORCHESTRA 358-3642 Combo • Big Band 0: Did the biblical patriarchs have Q: Could you tell me the most last names? popular Jewish names, among the From reader IF. in West Bloom- general population, for boys and field girls? A: No. Surnames, or family A: According to Cleveland names, as we know them are of Kent Evans of the American relatively late origin, certainly Name Society, the most popu- among Jews. lar Jewish girls name in recent No person in the Tanach is years is Sarah, ranked No. 4 mentioned as having a sur- (No. 1 is the ubiquitous "Ash- name. Occasionally, some per- ley"). Also in the top 50: Kayla, sons are shown as having had Rachel, Rebecca, Hannah. For two names, such as Damesek boys, it's Michael, which is the Eliezer (Genesis 15:2). The most popular boys name in the names, however, were not country. Other favorite Jewish hereditary. The practice of be- names for boys are Joshua, stowing a hereditary surname David, Joseph, Jonathan, simply did not exist in ancient Daniel, Zachary, Jacob, Aaron, Jewish history. Benjamin, Jeremy, Samuel, Jews did, however, use Nathan and Jesse. patronymics — that is, an addi- tional name at- tached to the given name designating the father, mother or other ancestor. This practice still survives, used pri- marily for ritual purposes, most commonly when someone is called to the Torah. In "Chayim ben Moshe," for exam- ple, "Chayim" is the first name, "Moshe" is the fa- ther's name and "ben" is "son of." The develop- Jacob (no last name) wrestles with the mysterious angel. ment of surnames generally took place in Europe Q: My wife and I love soap op- in the late Middle Ages with the eras. Each evening, at the end of rise of cities and commerce, and a long, hard day — we work to- then only among the wealthy. European Jewish communities gether, selling pet insurance — were small, ghettoized or oth- we come home to videos of our fa- erwise isolated. Jews were eas- vorite shows. The drama is so stir- ily identifiable to each other and to the gentiles and thus had no ring, the acting so stunning, the need for surnames. The few message of the program so very Jews who gained wealth and in- profound. teracted with gentiles and ac- Often, I have noticed the pro- quired surnames did not pass grams making use of the "flash- the surname down through the back," in which characters return generations. It was only in the late 18th to a moment in history. How I love century that Jews began using these sentimental journeys, when surnames as we know them to- I walk hand-in-hand down memo- day. Austria was the first coun- try to compel Jews to adopt last ry lane with Erica or Sheila or names, in 1787. Later, Tony. Napoleon issued a similar de- Correct me if I'm wrong, but it cree, and down through the seems I once heard that a Jewish 1800s most other European gov- film was the first to make use of ernments did the same. Proba- bly the last was Switzerland, the technique. Is that really the which required its Jewish res- case? A: Gosh, a guy who sells pet idents to register last names be- insurance and loves soap op- ginning in 1863. eras. It's fellows like you that make life worth living! Your comment is right on target. In fact, the first flash- back seen on the silver screen was in the 1908 film, A Yid- disher Boy. Produced in the United States, the movie had a flashback showing the pro- tagonist 25 years earlier, in a street-fight scene. Q: Recently, when I took my daughter in to get her immuniza- tions, I was asked to sign a consent form. At the bottom was a separate space to sign if I ob- jected to the immunizations on re- ligious grounds. I've heard there are some groups (though none Jewish), whose ob- jection to immu- nizations is based on the Bible. I won- der, whose Bible and where does it mention immuniza- tions? A: Since in most states the law requires chil- dren to be immu- nized before they start school, groups that object to the vaccines do so mainly out of opposition to what they see as government in- trusiveness in their private lives. Others feel that medical intervention of any sort is wrong and that illness can be prevented or cured by prayer; moreover, they see death as a Divine punishment in the face of which medicine is ineffective. Objectors to vaccines usual- ly cite one passage from the Torah to justify their stand: Leviticus 19:28, "Do not make gashes in your skin for the dead. Do not make any tattoo marks on your skin ..." They also note two passages from the New Testament, I Corinthians 6:15 ("Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?") and I Thessalonians 5:23, ("...may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless.") Send questions to "Tell Me Why" c/o The Jewish News, 27676 Franklin Rd., Southfield, MI 48034 or send fax to 354-6069.