Born Sunday, February 20, 2005: Asher Miles Josephson



From the Bris speech:

Asher is mentioned twice in Tanach, both places lifecycle events. First, his own birth, and second, the blessing bestowed upon him by his father Jacob preceeding the patriarch’s death. At first glance, it’s an odd little blessing:

“From Asher will come rich food, and he will yield regal delicacies.”

Now, that in it of itself is appropriate, given the Kaufman family’s love of great feasts. But Rashi elaborates, quoting a story in Gemorrah to illustrate that Asher – or a man from the tribe of Asher - not only has great wealth (in this case, of food, olives), but he tempers that wealth with great modesty in his life. And with this wealth, this abundant sustenance he is also very generous, very giving – to Jew and to Gentile alike. Modesty, generosity and acceptance of other cultures are traits we all aspire to and traits that we hope our son Asher will carry with him.

As for Asher’s middle name – Miles, or Moshe, we have three things we’d like to say:

First and foremost, Asher Moshe is named for Sarah’s Zaidie [Grandfather] – Moshe or Morris - whom she loved very much. I never had the privilege of meeting Zaidie, but Sarah often speaks of how full of vigor, love and generosity he was – especially when it came to his grandchildren. Zaidie and his wife Bella, Sarah’s Bobbie [Grandmother] played a very important role in her childhood, and now we would like to honor him with the most important role in our child’s life – his name.

Second, Asher’s English middle name is Miles, for the jazz great Miles Davis whose music was forever innovative and emotionally evocative. Like Miles Davis, we hope that Asher Miles will be able to connect with people at both the intellectual and the gut level.

And finally, with the name Asher Moshe Josephson, there will always be a little MoJo tucked away for him to work.