When Facing One's Mortality, What's in a Name? Ask Maimonides.
The period between the start of Rosh Hashanah and the end of Yom Kippur is known by many Jews as the Ten Days of Repentance. Repentance, however, can be a relatively amorphous process to carry out. In the Mishneh Torah, a code of Jewish law and ethics, Rabbi Moses Maimonides, an esteemed physician, philosopher, and astronomer of his era, offers several suggestions for making the repentance process more concrete. His list includes giving charity, distancing oneself from sin, straightening out one’s ways, and changing one’s name. Maimonides explains: “When I change my name, I am no longer the same individual who committed previous actions.”
I never really understood Maimonides’s interpretive reasoning behind the name-change suggestion—that is, until I began to practice oncology, treating tumors at a hospital in Israel. As they undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatments, nearly 15% of my patients either add a new name or change a name entirely.
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