Adapted from 10/23/23 d'var for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
In Yiddish, there’s a concept called “dos pintele Yid,” which literally means “the little point of a Jew.” The pintele Yid is the core spark of Jewishness that exists within each Jewish person. Sometimes, it’s dormant or unrecognized — and other times, it’s activated and flaming.
Now is one of those times when this core spark of Jewishness is flaming in Jews all over the world.
I feel the pintele Yid cry out with each headline about Israel and each message from my Israeli loved ones and coworkers. I feel the pintele Yid cry out against the murder this weekend of Samantha Woll, president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Synagogue in Detroit. I feel how our Jewish spark is activated right now.
While there are many ways the Jewish spark shows up in Parashat Lech Lecha this week, I couldn’t help but find it in the literal pintele yid: the tiny letter yid. This letter is pronounced “yid” in the Polish dialect of Yiddish and “yud” in the Litvak dialect. The yud in the name of Sarai is replaced by the letter hey, and Sarai becomes Sarah:
(טו) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֔ם שָׂרַ֣י אִשְׁתְּךָ֔ לֹא־תִקְרָ֥א אֶת־שְׁמָ֖הּ שָׂרָ֑י כִּ֥י שָׂרָ֖ה שְׁמָֽהּ׃
(15) And God said to Abraham, “As for your wife Sarai, you shall not call her Sarai, but her name shall be Sarah.
But what’s the rest of the yud’s story? We find out in Bereshit Rabbah:
אָמַר רַבִּי שִׁמְעוֹן בֶּן יוֹחָאי יוּ"ד שֶׁנָּטַל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא מִשָּׂרַי הָיָה טָס וּפוֹרֵחַ לִפְנֵי כִּסְאוֹ שֶׁל הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, אָמַר לְפָנָיו רִבּוֹנוֹ שֶׁל עוֹלָם בִּשְׁבִיל שֶׁאֲנִי קְטַנָּה שֶׁבָּאוֹתִיּוֹת הוֹצֵאתַנִּי מִשָּׂרָה הַצַּדֶּקֶת, אָמַר לוֹ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְשֶׁעָבַר הָיִית מִשְׁמָהּ שֶׁל נְקֵבָה וּבְסוֹפָן שֶׁל אוֹתִיּוֹת, עַכְשָׁיו אֲנִי נוֹתְנָךְ בִּשְׁמוֹ שֶׁל זָכָר וּבְרֹאשָׁן שֶׁל אוֹתִיּוֹת, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (במדבר יג, טז):
Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai said: The yud that the Holy One took from Sarai soared and flew up before the throne of the Holy One. It said, “Master of the Universe: Because I am the smallest of the letters, You have removed me from the righteous Sarah?” The Holy One said to it, “In the past, you were at the end of a female's name; now I shall place you at the beginning of a male's name, as it is stated: 'Moses called Hoshea son of Nun Yehoshua.'” (Numbers 13:16)
I’m not a big fan of the gender hierarchy here — but I love God’s care for the yud in response to its cry of pain. God is very busy in this parashah having conversations with Abraham about fathering and circumcising and lech-l’cha-ing… Yet, somehow, God takes the time to speak with the yud. And not only this: God tends to the yud’s pain, reassuring the yud that it is valued and wanted in the new name of Yehoshua. The Divine is present for even the smallest of letters in its search for connection and a sense of belonging.
And this is my prayer during this difficult chapter of the Jewish story: that the Divine is present with even the smallest spark in each of us, the pintele Yid. That we may rise up and flutter close to the Divine. And that, in our connecting with the Divine, we may find and create the loving sense of belonging we all so deeply need.