ששינו שמם

ר"ה ט"ז ע"ב

וא"ר  יצחק ד' דברים מקרעין גזר דינו של אדם - *שינוי השם דכתיב- לא תקרא את שמה שרי כי שרה שמה. 

  

All the names in this story, except for the Godol Hador, which played out in the last couple of month, have been omitted to preserve privacy.

The story starts with a lovely, frum, single girl from the tri-state area who was 34 years old. She dated a fine young man but it didn’t work out. So she shadchened this young man to a European friend of hers from seminary, also not married. The girl came to the US, stayed at her friend’s and got engaged to this young man. The Chasuna was set for Eretz Yisroel and as the Shadchen the local girl decided to go to the wedding. Her mother also had a wedding in Eretz Yisroel at the same time so they travelled together.

As Shidduchim were not clicking, her mother and her decided to visit the Raved, Hagaon Harav Moshe Sternbuch, with whom they had a relationship. The father had previously mentioned to the Raved the difficulty of this girl getting engaged and had received Brochus. This time, however, the Raved asked the girl what her name was and she informed him. After pondering for a few seconds, he pronounced that this was the wrong name for her. As one of her names was a Yiddish name and one of biblical origins, she assumed the Raved was referring to the Yiddish name. So she told him that she a biblical name as well. The Raved replied that both names were not appropriate and gave her three choices for a new name. She thought about it for a moment and chose one which she felt had a connection with her current name.

This was Friday morning in Israel, and as soon as they left the Raved, the girl phoned her father (in the middle of the night in North America) to inform him of this extraordinary turn of events asking him to change the name immediately on Shabbos. As the Emunas Chachomim in this family is very strong, he instantly agreed but first called the Raved for confirmation, which was given. He set about finding out how to implement this change. They also checked with an elderly relative, who still knew the ancestor after whom the girl was named, whether she felt the deceased forbearer would have a Hakpodo. The relative replied in the negative.
                                                                                                                                        
He phoned a local Rov, who did the requisite Halachic investigation and the following Monday, at Kriyas Hatorah, the name change was formalized with the Rov in attendance.
An hour after the father came home from Shul the phone rang with a Shidduch. About 6 weeks later, the happy young couple celebrated their engagement.

After the engagement, they also visited the grave of the ancestor after whom the young lady was initially named to ask for Mechila.

*עיין בריטב"א -פ' שינוי השם שמשנה שמו שאינו האיש בעל העבירות, כדי שלא יזכירוהו לרעה