When Moshe Became Rabbeinu

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January 05 2018
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I wrote in 2006 (Parshas Ki Sisa) that Moshe’s arguments at the Burning Bush to avoid leadership are paralleled when he battles HASHEM to save his flock after the sin of the Golden Calf. The text allows us to view Moshe’s reluctant acceptance to his full embrace of leader.


 


Moshe offers a series of reasons why he should not be tapped to lead the nation out of slavery. His first reason: “Who am I? How can I possibly do this?” (Shmos 3:11). He can’t even understand how this could be possible? He cannot fathom the possibility that he could even accomplish this massive mission. Hashem responds by pledging to “Be with him” (Ibid. verse 12). Rashi explains that the bush that will not be consumed by fire represents the success of Moshe’s mission. He will be able to walk into the fire and remain unscathed.


 


Learning quickly to speak truth to Power, Moshe rebounds (Ibid. verse 13) and asks what will he tell the enslaved nation when he arrives to “redeem them?” How will they know Hashem is with them? How will he identify the Deity that stands behind him? Hashem invoked the famous name “I will Be that which I will Be”. Hashem then told Moshe to invoke the patriarchs and the code words (see Rashi Shmos 3:18 “pakod pakad’ti eschem” (Ibid. verse 16), “I have surely visited you.” Hashem then foretold Pharaoh’s resistance and the plagues God would bring upon Egypt.


 


Moshe then responded, with a dash of chutzpah, “They won’t believe me.”


 


God then shows Moshe the stick-to-snake trick and the turn-hand-white illusion. He promises that if the Israelites do not believe him after the first trick, or even after the second, take some water from the Nile and it will transform to blood.


 


Moshe’s next response comes from an area of true self-consciousness.


 


“I am not a man of words” (Ibid. 4:10).


 


Hashem responds, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? Is it not I the Lord?” (Ibid verse 11).


 


Moshe ends the discussion, “send whomever you select to send” (Ibid. verse 13).


 


At this point the text informs us that Hashem becomes angry, and tells Moshe that his brother Aaron is coming to serve as his voice and he is happy.


 


Why does Moshe’s response elicit such a response?


 


Is it because Moshe refused to embrace the mission ideally? He accepted it out of resignation.


 


Pirkei D’Rebbe Eliezer (chapter 40) suggests that when Moshe states this, he is not just accepting the mission with resignation, but rather, he is asking the Almighty to bring Redemption already. “Send he whom you have chosen, i.e. Eliyahu Hanavi, the herald of the ultimate redemption. What Moshe suggests is let’s fast forward through this salvation and go straight to the ultimate one.


 


Rabbi Eliezer does not need my support or endorsement for his position. But I did find an interesting textual connection between Moshe’s statement “send whomever You choose” and the notion of redemption.


 


In the early chapters of the exodus there is only one place where a double verb is used: in our verse (Shmos 4:13). In Hebrew Moshe uses the verb send (sh.l.ch) twice. (The Torah does use the root ch.m.r twice in one verse – 2:3 - when describing the basket Moshe’s mother placed him into and the material she used to keep the water out.Here it is once used as a verb and another as a verb). That parallels the magic formula of pakod yifkod, the password passed down for generations to alert that redemption was near.


 


When Moshe has run out of excuses, he does not just say as we would in the vernacular, “fine, do whatever you want.” According to Pirkei d’Rebbe Eliezer, he makes another very powerful argument. If Moshe had agreed begrudgingly to the mission, why does Hashem get angry and continue justifying the mission and its protagonist.


 


Perhaps the key are Hashem’s last words:


 


 


"ויחר אף ה' במשה ויאמר הלא אהרן אחיך הלוי ידעתי כי בדר ידבר הוא, ולם הנה הוא וצא לקראתך וראך ושמח בלבו" (שמות ד:י"ד)


“And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moshe, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he comes forth to meet you; and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart” (Shmos 4:14).


Many of the commentators explain that Aaron’s happiness describes his piety that he is not resentful that his younger brother, who has not witnessed first-hand the painful subjugation of the Hebrews, was selected over him. RAshi claims that this act of humility earned Aaron the title of High Priest.


 


Maybe, according to Rabbi Eliezer, Aaron’s happiness serves as a proof that bringing a temporary redemption, not the permanent one, is a good idea. Moshe certainly looked up to his older brother and respected his views, considering he was in the trenches with the Jews who were enslaved (recall the Tribe of Levi was never conscripted for the back-breaking labor).


 


Moshe’s intense compassion wanted to avoid the future Crusades, Inquisitions, Pogroms, Blood Libels, persecutions and Holocausts. He tried to avoid involving himself in the issue. When he finally succumbed to God’s mission, he then asked for an end to all suffering. He wanted to fast-forward to the final and ultimate redemption. Here is where Hashem’s patience became worn. He got angry (whatever that means anthropomorphically). It’s one thing that Moshe did not want the mission. But it is another to second-guess the Almighty.


 


We pray and sometimes God’s answer to us is “no.” Sometimes the “no” is resounding and acutely painful. When Moshe uttered his final words to God at the Burning Bush, he didn’t accept a charge with resignation. He pushed back. He then became the leader. AT that precise moment, Moshe became the great advocate and leader of the Jewish people.


 


At that moment, Moshe the shepherd, Moshe the prince, became Moshe Rabbeinu.

Parsha:
Shemot 

Description

Pirkei d'Rebbe Eliezer interprets MOshe's final words at the Burning Bush very differently from pshat. Does Hashem's response to those words make sense according to Pirkei d'Rebbe Eliezer? How does this change our understanding of the end of the espisode?

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