Changed Names: Why Avram's Marriage Is Not Told

8aLet us explain why the Torah tells of the marriage of Yitzchak and Rivkah. All the deeds of the Avos are recorded in the Torah, and they leave an imprint for the children.¹ Why, then, does the Torah not tell of Avraham's marriage to Sarah, as it does of Yitzchak's to Rivkah? Because when they married, his name was Avram and hers was Sarai, and a name is the root of the soul. They did not remain with those names: later they were renamed Avraham and Sarah, and their souls changed too. Since they were changed for the better, the union of Avram and Sarai did not endure and bore no children, and so the Torah does not tell of it. Only the union of Avraham and Sarah endured: it brought forth a child and bore fruit.

8bAnd why were the names of Avraham and Sarah changed, but not the name of Yitzchak? Avraham's attribute, kindness, signifies the spreading out of the light of the Creator, blessed be He. When that light spreads out into the world, it must contract itself: with every descent from one world to the next it grows less, so that it can be received. That is why Avraham's name was changed from Avram to Avraham. Before his light spread out into this world, he was called Avram, Av ram, a father in the world above, for the world above is called ram, “high,” and his light was great. Once his light spread out into this world, it was contracted and lessened, so he was called by another name, Avraham, av hamon goyim, “a father of a multitude of nations,”² a name that reaches down to this world. That is why he could not bring forth offspring until his light had spread out into this world and he was called Avraham. But Yitzchak, who signifies contraction, did not change from one world to the next [for he is contraction already], so his name stayed as it was. Yaakov stands between the two attributes, Chessed and Gevurah, kindness and strength, which signify spreading out and contraction. From the side of his attribute of kindness his name had to be changed, but from the side of his second attribute, contraction, it did not. That is why his first name, Yaakov, was never uprooted from him.

8cThat is why one who calls Avraham “Avram” transgresses a positive commandment:³ in this world his name was changed, and he could not have children until it was changed to Avraham, for the name Avraham signifies the spreading out of his light into this world. It is not so with one who calls Yisrael “Yaakov.” The name Yaakov was never uprooted from its place, for it comes from his second attribute, contraction, and did not need to be changed: he could have children before he was called Yisrael. So when his children, born to him as Yaakov, are called Bnei Yisrael, they stand at a lofty level. The name Yisrael hints at the chassadim, the kindnesses: they spread out as they come into this world out of the contracted light. This is the meaning of “for you have striven with God”:⁴ Yaakov prevails, as it were, in that God contracted Himself in His love [for him]. This is the point of Chazal's saying about two who love each other, that when their love was strong, they could lie together on the width of a sword blade:⁵ out of love, each one makes himself smaller. And this is “for you have striven with God … and have prevailed.” Hashem's love for Yaakov, whose image is engraved beneath the Throne of Glory,⁶ grew so strong that God contracted Himself, as it were, out of love for Israel, called children of the Omnipresent,⁷ so that Israel can be, in the verse's words, “with God.” He is like a father who narrows his understanding out of love for his son, so as to learn with him and pour his understanding into him through that learning. This is the Creator's delight: that Israel brings about this contraction, as the verse says, “Israel, in whom I take glory.”⁸ Understand this, and consider it carefully.