Everyone dreams of having their name in the spotlight. Everyone except Moshe. In this week’s parsha, Moshe’s name does not appear a single time. There’s many lessons we can learn from the lack of Moshe’s name in this week’s parsha. One of them is that we do not always need to have our name in glowing lights. Let me share with you two examples.

I was once looking into buying group tickets for a sports event. On the benefits sheet for buying group tickets is they will show the name of your organization on their big TV screens. I began thinking: who really cares if my organization’s name is on the scoreboard screen? I think the reason this is advertised is because people want to see their name in bright lights. If you tell a person their name will be on the scoreboard, it will make them want to buy the tickets.

Compare this to a story I once heard. There was a man who would send $250 to his shul every month. This is certainly a great thing to do, but he did not intend all of the money to stay at the shul. After the secretary of the shul received the check, she would then write 4 checks for $50 each ($50 was meant for the shul): one for the local yeshiva, one for the Bais Yaakov, one for the Kollel, and one for another shul. The checks were then sent to these other institutions and they had no idea who sent them the $50 every month. The check had the name of the shul and not of the individual. Only the rav and secretary of the shul knew who was sending the check. Therefore, he donated anonymously $600 to each of these institutions every year (and he did it for much longer than 1 year)!

Moshe was very modest. Moshe wanted to remain anonymous. Unfortunately, many people do not follow this way of thinking, but we should. Moshe’s name is left out of this week’s parsha to remind us that it is best to remain anonymous, if possible. We don’t need to be on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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