Shemoth: What is in a Name?

Shemoth means names.  It starts with the  names of the twelve tribes.  The names that the Jews, many generations later, will use for their children.  To identify them with their people . So that the children can imagine  that they are descended from Joseph and his brothers,. descended from the ancestors that brought us to slavery in Egytpt. 

The Name that is most unusual is the Name of Hashem (the name, G-d).  Moshe, in the tradition of asking Gdly and angelic beings their names ( Jacob asks the angel, later Manoch asks his angel)  - and getting either no answer or an unintelligible answer - asks Gd to express an identity.  First Gd says " the future".  What is that? Que sera sera? Chronos? Fate? 

Then Gd says  Y...

.Notice that Moshe never addresses Y  by name.  Moshe calls Gd Ado.... This makes for a confusing Onkelos  (5:22)

The punch line of the parsha

כג  וּמֵאָז בָּאתִי אֶל-פַּרְעֹה, לְדַבֵּר בִּשְׁמֶךָ, הֵרַע, לָעָם הַזֶּה; וְהַצֵּל לֹא-הִצַּלְתָּ, אֶת-עַמֶּךָ.

23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath dealt ill with this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all.'

It is all in the name. When Pharaoh says that he does not know this Gd, Y..., that is obviously true.  Brecause ( at this point) Y... is  no more than a name, Ultimately, Gd is the name to which we attribute actions and events  and sympathy  and a strong arm.

Ultimately all that is left is the name... and the attributions.