Q:
Why do Jewish males have names of beheimos temeios, of non-kosher wild animals? I’m thinking in particular about the name Dov, the bear, and Aryeh, the lion.
A:
Why do Jews have names of animals, like the bear and the lion? The answer is that these names are really prayers. Every name is a tefilah. It’s a prayer that this Jew should have a quality of gevurah. He should be a hero.
Now, when you see a bear walking down the street at night, you’re not going to walk up and shake hands with him. If you see him even five blocks away, you’ll stop a taxi and you’ll take it in the other direction. If there’s no taxi, you’ll climb the telegraph pole.
A Jew has to be a bear. A bear means he has to be a hero. He has to be strong and he has to be willing to go into combat for the honor of Hashem. A Jew has to be a lion. He has to be strong-willed and fearless like a lion. A Jew has to be all the good things.
Binyamin ze’ev yitrof (Vayechi 49:27). Not only we give names but Hakodosh Boruch Hu, by means of His prophets, gave names like that. Binyamin ze’ev yitrof. He’s a wolf. A wolf is hungry, always hungry, and Binyamin is hungry for mitzvos. He’s hungry to serve Hashem. He doesn’t serve Hashem like somebody who has to do it; he can’t help himself so he forces himself. No; for avodas Hashem he has an appetite like a wolf. When a wolf eats up a sheep, he doesn’t do it leshem mitzvah, like somebody who ate a lot on erev Shabbos and now on Friday night he’s not able to eat any more but what can he do; he has to sit down at the seudah and eat some more. No! He’s hungry for mitzvos. That’s why you call him a wolf. And therefore all these names represent certain desirable characteristics of service of Hashem.
TAPE # 441 (January 1983)