I love  Stan Rogers. I love his music, the stories he tells in his songs, his tragic life story, and his association with my parents who introduced me to his music. One of my favorite songs of his is “The Mary Ellen Carter”, written and recorded in 1979. It tells the story of a heroic effort to salvage a sunken ship, the eponymous Mary Ellen Carter, by members of her crew. It is based on an interesting story. Here you can watch a video about the history of the boat upon which the song is based and a great live recording of the song:

At the end of the song Rogers sings:

And you, to whom adversity has dealt the final blow
With smiling bastards lying to you everywhere you go
Turn to, and put out all your strength of arm and heart and brain
And like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Rise again, rise again—though your heart it be broken
Or life about to end.
No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Like the Mary Ellen Carter, rise again.

Like the crew of the Mary Ellen Carter, if we believe in something and put in the work we can persevere and overcome anything. This is a powerful life lesson. As my parents always said to us, ” The harder you work the luckier you get”.

I was thinking about this when reading VeYishlach, this week’s Torah portion. Here we read about the birth of Benjamin and the tragic death of his mother Rachel. Here we read:

They set out from Bethel; but when they were still some distance short of Ephrat, Rachel was in childbirth, and she had hard labor. When her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, “Have no fear, for it is another boy for you.” But as she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Ben-yamin. Thus Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat—now Bethlehem. ( Genesis 35:16-19)

The joy of his birth could have easily been overshadowed by his mother’s death. How can we hold both extreme emotions at the same time? This tension is held within the moment of choosing his name. Clearly the mother’s wish was to call him Ben-oni- the “son of my sorrow” giving voice to her sadness that she was not going to be there for her son. But instead, Yakov names him Ben- yamin- or as we say in English Benjamin. Many think this means “son of his old days-yamim“, but then they need to deal with the shift from the mem of yamim to the nun of yamin. Rashi suggests that the name actually means “son of the south”. There he says:

I am of opinion that he was so called because he alone was born in the land of Canaan which is in the South (ימין) as one comes from Aram-Naharaim, as it is said (Numbers 33:40) “in the South, in the Land of Canaan”, and (12:9) “going on still towards the South”. בנימין therefore means בן ימין where ימין has the same meaning as in (Psalms 89:13) “The North and the South (ימין) Thou hast created them”.

This might make more sense in terms of spelling his name, but what is the deeper meaning of him being the son of the south?

While it might seem unconnected, this reminded me of the tragic deaths of 24,000 Rabbi Akiva’s disciples in the weeks between Passover and Shavuot. There we learn:

Rabbi Akiva had 12,000 pairs of disciples from Gabbata to Antipatris; and all of them died at the same time because they did not treat each other with respect. The world remained desolate until Rabbi Akiva came to our Masters in the South – Darom- and taught the Torah to them. These were Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehuda, Rabbi Yose, Rabbi Shimon and Rabbi Elazar ben Shammua; and it was they who revived the Torah at that time. A Tanna taught: “All of them died between Passover and Shavuot” (Yevamot 62b).

The state of Jewish life looked bleak with the death of 24000 of our best and brightest. Looking at the situation at the time it would have been understandable to be despondent. Judaism might have appeared sunk until Rabbi Akiva taught the “Masters of the South”. And due to the merit of Rabbi Akiva and this new batch of students from the south our people did rise again. Similarly, Benjamin’s path would be circuitous, but he would lead his family back to be reunited with Yosef in Egypt. And ultimately, Jerusalem our capital and the center of our attention for 2000 years of diaspora was in Benyamin’s territory. While he had a very sorrow-filled beginning, he sure did rise again.

Picking the name of Benjamin was a choice. Was his name going to be about the sorrow of his mother’s passing, the old age of his father, or being born in the south? Which story do Yakov want to tell?  Which story do we want to tell?

No matter what we’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend, or even a mother, we cannot give up. Like the Mary Ellen Carter and Rabbi Akiva’s students from the south, Yakov named him Benyamin, the son of the south, so like the students of Rabbi Akiva Benjamin would rise again. We should curate narratives that inspire us to persevere, work harder, and get luckier.