Netvort
Parshas Vaeira 5771: Stay the Process
By Rabbi Joshua (gradually known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
This week's parsha begins with God's response to Moshe's complaint about the
continuing exile of the Israelites, as recorded at the end of the previous parsha.
Moshe complained that the mission to Pharaoh that God had appointed him to
fulfill, to demand of him that he release the nation from bondage, was
backfiring. From the time he first came to Pharaoh, Moshe told God, the
nation, rather than being redeemed through God's intervention, became further
enslaved, being forced to work under worse conditions that before Moshe had
arrived on the scene. What, then, he wondered, was the point of his entire
mission at this time?
God answers Moshe, and tells him to speak to Pharaoh to release the Jews from
Egypt. Moshe pleads with God to relieve him of the task of speaking to
Pharaoh, because he could not speak well, and, further, if the nation would not
listen to him, what chance was there that Pharaoh would? We are then told that
God commanded Moshe and Aharon regarding the B'nei Yisroel and regarding
Pharaoh. We are then given the genealogy of Moshe and Aharon, and told that God
made Aharon into Moshe's spokesman before Pharaoh. Moshe would tell
Aharon what to say, and Aharon would repeat it to Pharaoh. According to the
Ramban in parshas Shemos, this particular piece of information is not
redundant, because even though, in that parsha, God told Moshe that Aharon
would speak for him, that was only in respect to the people. As far as speaking
to Pharaoh, however, Moshe would be doing that, because Moshe's honor would be
compromised if he did not speak to Pharaoh personally. Now, however, Aharon
was given the task of speaking to Pharaoh, as well, and this process would
actually enhance Moshe's honor in Pharaoh's eyes, since he would be following
the protocol of heads of state. I believe, however, that there is another
reason for reiterating Aharon's task of speaking for Moshe, even in regard to
the nation, that is connected to God's answer to Moshe's question concerning
the worsening of the enslavement in response to his initial request from
Pharaoh to release the nation in order to worship God in the wilderness.
God response to Moshe's complaint began with the statement, "I am God
(Hashem). I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak and to Yaakov as Kel
Shakkai, but through my name Hashem I did not become known to them."
(Shemos, 6, 2-3). Ramban, in his commentary, writes that the forefathers,
although they had experienced prophecy delivered through use of God's proper
name, Hashem, which corresponds to meta-natural manifestations of His power,
had never experienced the divine fulfillment of a prophecy in a meta-natural
manner. Their experience of God's providence was restricted to miraculous
events that occurred within the laws of nature, as represented by the name Kel
Shakkai. Moshe, however, in leading the nation through its redemption from
Egypt, would witness miracles that transcended the laws of nature. This was the
primary thrust of God's response to Moshe's question of why he had been sent on
his mission to Pharaoh if the redemption was not yet to take place. As we
explained in Netvort to Parshas Vaeira, 5760 (available on archives), although
Moshe himself was on a level to absorb the meta- natural wonders that would
take place in the redemption process, the people were not, and had to be
educated in this regard. That is why the redemption would not take place
immediately, but on a gradual basis, and that is why Moshe did not see
immediate, positive results from his efforts.
The Beis Yisroel, by Rav Yisroel of Gur, one of the Gerrer Rebbes, gives a
different, although related, reason for the gradual nature of the redemption
process. He says that the people needed to be united in their prayer to God
for release from the enslavement, and Moshe was on too high of a level to lead
the nation in this way, at the outset of his mission. He needed the efforts of
Aharon, who loved peace and brought people together, to prepare the people for
this step in the process. This is the meaning, says the Beis Yisroel, of
the statement of the rabbis that the Torah sometimes mentions Moshe
before Aharon, and sometimes mentions Aharon before Moshe, to teach us
that they were equal. This could not mean that they were equal in an absolute
sense, because the Torah tells us that Moshe was the greatest prophet who
ever lived. Rather, it means that their respective character traits, Aharon's
traits of peace and love, and Moshe's traits of truth and justice, were of
equal importance in the redemption process (see also The Warmth and the Light,
by Rav Aharon Soloveichik, for a similar approach to this midrash).
The Beis Yisroel further says that because the people needed to hear the
message of redemption from Aharon first, before they would be ready to be lead
by Moshe, the process was gradual. Although the Beis Yisroel does not
mention it, this is, according to the Midrash on Shir HaShirim, to the verse
there (6:10), which speaks of the dawning of a new day. The Amoraim there say
that the redemption of Israel is likened to the dawn, which appears gradually
on the horizon. All future redemptions are patterned on the redemption from
Egypt, and therefore consist of a gradual but inevitable process. Based on the
Beis Yisroel's explanation, of the need for both Aharon and Moshe to lead the
people in the redemption process, we can understand why we are again told of
Aharon's role following G-d's answer to Moshe's complaint about his failure to
gain the people's release after his initial encounter with Pharaoh, as
explained by the Ramban.
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