From the time
that Moshe Rabbenu is first mentioned in Torah at the beginning of Shemos,
there is only one sedra, I believe, Tetzaveh, where he is not mentioned by
name. In fact, in most sedras he is mentioned 10 or even 20 times. He
personifies the Torah. So much so, that the Novi tells us zichru Toras Moshe
avdi, remember the Torah of Moshe, My servant.
Let us try to
understand the special stature of Moshe Rabbenu.
Right near the
beginning of שמות, the Torah tells us
(second chapter verse 1, and verse 2)
וילך איש
מבית לוי ויקח את בת לוי ותהר האשה ותלד בן ותרא אתו כי טוב הוא ותצפנהו שלשה
ירחים
A man from the
house of Levi went and took the daughter of Levi. The woman conceived and bore
a son, she saw that he was good and hid him for three months.
We all know
that, in fact, it was Amram a grandson of Levi who got married to his aunt
Yocheved and the child being referred to here was our famous Moishe Rabbenu.
It is
extraordinary that no names are mentioned, a man, a woman and a child but no
trace of any actual name.
There is a
Gemora, סוטה יב. which states that
Yocheved was 130 when she bore Moishe. She had passed the menopause and similar
to the story of Soroh returned to her youthful state by miracle and then bore
Moishe.
What is
extraordinary in this particular case is that Aharon was only three years older
and Miriam possibly five years older than Moishe and yet they, apparently, were
born in a normal fashion. It is only after that, that Yocheved ceased to be
able to have a child in the normal way.
Indeed, a very
strange chain of circumstances all round, I think!!
What can be
gleaned from the whole story is that Moishe Rabbenu was born on a different
plane than normal human beings. The Hebrew expression is למעלה
מן הטבע, super natural.
What follows
from that will explain, in my opinion, numerous facts that we are told in Torah
about Moishe Rabbenu.
At the end of
Parshas בהעלתך, there is the story of Miriam and Aharon
speaking what amounted to loshen hora about Moishe and the Torah tells us (in
Bamidbar chapter 12, verse 6, 7, & 8)
ויאמר
שמעו נא דברי אם יהיה נביאכם ה' במראה אליו אתודע בחלום אדבר בו לא כן עבדי משה
בכל ביתי נאמן הוא
And Hashem said
to Aharon and Miriam, “Please listen to what I say, if you are prophets, Hashem
shows himself to you in a vision, in a dream that speaks to you. Not so, My
servant Moishe he is faithful in all My house.”
פה אל פה
אדבר בד ומראה ולא בחידת ותמנת ה' יביט
Mouth to mouth I
speak to him, and he sees clearly, not in riddles and can look at the image of
Hashem.
Indeed
staggering statements. The Gemora says that Moishe Rabbenu saw with such a
clear vision that it is called אספקלריה המאירה,
whereas all other prophets did not have that clarity of vision.
With what I
mentioned earlier on, one can understand that as Moishe Rabbenu was born on
this much higher plane, his relationship with Hashem was also on a different
level and plane to other human beings. The statements of Moishe’s greatness
are, therefore, not staggering.
In the same
vein, the Chazal tell us that Moishe Rabbenu and all other prophets used the
expression כה אמר ה', so Hashem said, but
Moishe Rabbenu himself used the expression זה הדבר אשר צוה
ה'. This is the command that Hashem gave. He could see precisely
and enunciated precisely what Hashem had said.
If we go back to
the first vision that we are told about, that Moishe Rabbenu had, at the
burning bush, also in Parshas שמות. Hashem saw that he
had noticed the bush which was not burning out. It says that Hashem called him
from that bush and He said משה משהMoishe Moishe, The Zohar
Hakodesh comments that two other people were called twice by their name. The
first was Avrohom, where is says אברהם|אברהם (this was when he was
told not to sacrifice Yitzchok at the Akeidah). The other one was יעקב|יעקב.
The Zohar states that whereas in the case of Avrohom and Yaakov, they started
at a lower level and worked themselves up to an extremely high level, Moishe
was born at the same level as he continued for his whole life. This is inferred
by the use of משה משה without a line
between the two words.
We find at the
beginning of the last Sedra in Torah that Moishe is called איש האלקים and our Chazal tell us “part man” part
“higher being”. According to the previous comment of Chazal, quoted just above,
I would suggest that he was born like that.
In fact,
regarding the words I started off with ותרא אותו כי טוב
הוא and Yocheved saw that this child
was good, Rashi quotes a medrash נתמלא הבית אורה,
the house became filled with light, and we are told that that means that the
Shechina, Hashem’s presence, came down with the birth of Moishe.
There are
numerous other examples of how great Moishe was and how different to other
human beings. Let us just quote one further example. After the Torah was given Moishe
Rabbenu went up to Heaven, obtained all the details from Hashem and stayed
there for 40 days and 40 nights. He, himself, stated לחם
לא אכלתי ומים לא שתיתי, I did not eat or drink at all.
With my opening
thoughts, one can now understand that because he was on a different plane, it
follows that he was not bound by normal human needs and could go 40 days and
nights without eating or drinking, and I assume, also without sleeping.
With all this,
one can understand another midrash that tells us that when he found the
Egyptian beating a Jewish person, he killed him and the midrash tells us that
it was by uttering a special name of Hashem שם המפורש.
Where did he learn this name? Surely not in Pharaoh’s palace where he was
brought up. However, according to what I have suggested, he knew it because he
was born on such a high level that automatically this was part of what he had
been born with and imbibed.
Turning to the
request by Hashem that he should undertake the task of leading the Bnei Yisroel
out of Egypt, and his refusing, as we told for seven days. We find that Moishe
Rabbenu’s reason was כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי,
because I am a stammerer and heavy of speech.
What I think
Moishe Rabbenu was saying is that he knew himself that he was on a different
level to other human beings and that the only way in which he was like them was
that he had a body which was human. If his speech was impaired and impeded, he felt
that he was the wrong person to try to take the Yidden out of Egypt in the
circumstances. The main thing that he was supposed to do was to speak to
Pharaoh as well as the Yidden and he could not relate to either properly. To
which Hashem retorted מי שם פה לאדם, who gave man a
mouth. I would ask you carefully note that it says לאדם
I think this refers to Odom Harishon and Hashem was saying to Moishe, in the
same way that I created Odom Harishon and gave him all his faculties and senses,
I can repair your defect of speech.
There is a midrash
which says that this was caused by Moishe Rabbenu having burnt his mouth on
glowing coals. The midrash comments that at some time as he was growing up,
Moishe decided to try on Pharaoh’s crown and Pharaoh got very agitated and
wanted to have him killed, but one of his advisers, Yisro, who later became
Moishe’s father-in-law, suggested that the child should be tested with a golden
dish on one hand and glowing coals on the other to see which one he took. As he
was only a child, by taking the coals it would show that he was too young to
understand what a crown represented. Nevertheless, Moishe made for the golden
dish and the angel Gabriel came and pushed him until he picked up the coals and
burnt his tongue.
There is a מאמר חז''ל that the original inhabitants of the world
understood why they gave particular names to their children. This was either to
do with their characteristics or events that took place during the children’s
lives. What I suggest is that Moishe did not have a name at birth because he
was above such things, super natural and even his father and mother were not
mentioned as the whole episode was above and beyond the norm. He was born to a
father and mother, Amram and Yocheved, but had this special supernatural
aspect.
We do, however,
find one other incident where a child was born in similar circumstances, I am,
of course, talking about Yitzchok who was born to his mother when she was
already old as the Torah tells us clearly.
However, I think
the case there was different because Hashem told Avrohom immediately after
informing him that Soroh was going to have a child, that he should name him יצחק. Rashi comments that each letter signifies
a particular important point. The י is in commemoration
of the ten tests that Avrohom was put through, the צ
was the 90 years that Soroh was old when she bore Yitzchok, the ח was the eighth day of the bris mila and the ק was the 100 years that Avrohom was old when Yitzchok was born.
In each case,
this is what is known as צימצום and so Yitzchok was
born with a specific name tailored to the circumstances and, therefore, not
above the normal human way of life in contrast to Moishe Rabbenu, the
supernatural child איש האלקים.
לעילוי
נשמת אמי מורתי גיטל בת אברהם אבא ע''ה נפטרה ד' אדר תשס''ו לפ''ק
In memory of my
mother, yarzheit 4th Adar
As we are all
aware, we are, at the moment, in the middle of the Sefira days, just coming up
to Lag B’Omer. The reason why the sefira is a time of mourning is because the
24,000 talmidim of Rabbi Akiva died during that period. There is a Gemora in
Menochos כ''ט which says that Moshe Rabbenu went up to
receive the rest of the Torah after hearing the Aseres Hadibbros with all the
other Yidden, he noticed that on top of the letters there were kessarim, crowns.
Moshe Rabbenu was curious and asked Hashem what are these for, is there not
enough written in the Torah itself. Hashem retorted, after many generations
there is going to be somebody called Akiva Ben Yosef and he will darshan,
explain every single one with numerous halachos. Moshe Rabbenu was extremely
curious and said, “Can I please see this gentleman?” Hashem told him to sit
down in the eighth row and listen to a shuir Rabbi Akiva was giving, Moshe
Rabbenu could not understand what was going on, which, of course, upset him.
Until at one point, Rabbi Akiva’s pupils asked him, Rebbe, where do you know
this from, and he said ”It was halacho L’Moshe M’Sinai.” At that point Moshe
Rabbenu was relieved to hear that it was all coming back to what he had learned
from Hashem.
He then said to
Hashem, “In that case, if You have a person of such great stature as Rabbi
Akiva, why did you give the Torah through me?” and Hashem said “That is My
business, it is not yours.” Indeed a remarkable Gemora.
However, we can
see from this that Rabbi Akiva must have been an extremely great person and I
thought it would be instructive to compare the lives of Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi
Akiva. Please remember that Rabbi Akiva was the son of Gerim, we also know
about Rabbi Akiva that for the first 40 years of life he was an Am Ha’Aretz.
For the next 40 years he studied Torah under great Tannoim. For the final 40
years of his life, he was the head of the Rabbonim and the greatest Rabbi in
Israel.
At some time
during this latter period he lost 24,000 talmidim but he did not give up. He
then taught 5 new talmidim who became stars of the Tannoim including R’ Shimon
Bar Yochai who, tradition tells us, Yahrzeit is on Lag B’Omer. Remarkably,
Moshe Rabbenu had a similar background in certain respects.
True he was born
to Amram and Yocheved but as a little baby of three months he was brought up in
Paroh’s palace and only later on fled from Egypt. He ended up, eventually with
Yisro (although I do not know at what age this took place) that initial period
of his life would be comparable with the first 40 years of Rabbi Akiva.
Yisro, however,
was a different kettle of fish, he had known all the avoda zoras in the world,
rejected them and accepted that Hashem was the creator of the world. Moshe
Rabbenu was with him for many years and eventually had the vision on Har Sinai
of the burning bush. That was at the end of the next forty years. This we know because
the Torah tells us that when Moshe Rabbenu finally appeared before Paroh he was
80 years of age. For the next 40 years he was the leader of Klal Yisroel who
brought down the Torah and taught it to the Yidden with mesiras nefesh. This
was very similar to Rabbi Akiva who in his last 40 years had a similar profile.
Furthermore, in
the same way as Rabbi Akiva lost 24,000 talmidim, Moshe Rabbenu, at the time of
the story of Zimri, lost 24,000 Yidden. However, Pinchas saved the situation at
that time and no doubt he was one of the leading talmidim of Moshe Rabbenu.
Pinchas was given a special gift of Kahuna, he was not supposed to be a Kohen
and in fact he became Kohen Godol. This is very similar to R’ Shimon Bar Yochai
who had revealed to him the secrets of Torah and has become a beacon for all
generations.
One the other
hand, there are striking differences between Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva, as
I said earlier on Moshe Rabbenu was born to Amram and Yocheved, children and
grandchildren of the Ovos. Rabbi Akiva was born to parents who became Geirim. Although
both Moshe Rabbenu and Rabbi Akiva knew that they were going to die at a
particular time, there was a great difference, Moshe Rabbenu was in full
command of all his faculties and just went into a cave and disappeared. Rabbi
Akiva, because he taught Torah, was tortured by the Romans as the Gemora
describes vividly, he said Shema Yisroel, Hashem Elokeinu, Hashem Echod and as
he said the word Echod, yotzoh nishmosoi b’teharah.
I think that one
of the lessons that one can draw from this is that whether one is born into a
family that has a great Yichus or into a family which has no Yichus, whether
one learnt Torah early on or not, whether one heard Torah from the Rabbonu Shel
Olam or not, one can achieve great heights, no very great heights,
extraordinarily great heights, by perseverance.
I will only just
end with the famous story of R’ Shimon Bar Yochai quoted in the Gemora Shabbos ל''ג who was sitting one date with his
colleagues, R’ Yehudah and R’ Yose and discussing the Roman conquest and rule
in Eretz Yisroel. As we know R’ Yehudah was complimentary of the fact that the
Romans had started rebuilding the land after having caused all the destruction
and had created new road and new bridges etc. R’ Yose kept quiet R’ Shimon said
they did it all for their good and not for ours. The net result, as we know was
that R’ Shimon’s words got back to the Roman authorities and they issued an death
edict against him. He ran away, ended up for 12 years in a cave with his son
and great miracles took place there, in that a spring of water came out and a carob
tree grew. Eventually he came out alive not only physically but spiritually
immensely greater because at that time was revealed to him the great secrets of
Torah, many of which are embodied in the Zohar Hakodosh.
All the four
people I have mentioned, Moshe Rabbenu, Pinchas, Rabbi Akiva and R’ Shimon Bar
Yochai showed mesiras nefesh in keeping to Torah and the commands of Hashem.
Let us try to emulate them.
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