From: JoshHoff@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 6:51 PM
To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort: parshas Vaeira, 5769- resending
A Burning Issue
By Rabbi Joshua ( incoherently
known as The Hoffer) Hoffman
After Moshe complains to God that the conditon of the Hebrew slaves has
worsened since he spoke to Pharaoh, raather then improved, and God answers him
and agin sends him back on his mission, Moshe again argues that he is deficient
in his speech. God tells him that he shoud go to Pharaoh, and Aharon will be
his spokesman ( Shemos, 6:30, 7:1 ). . One may ask, why did Moshe repeat this
argument to God ,after having expressed it the first tme he was told to
lead the nation out of slavery, and God answered him at that time ( Shemos,
4:10-12) ? Ramban explains that the first time, Moshe thought that he would
only have to speak directly to the Jewish people, but not to Pharaoh. Perhaps
the elders who were to accompany him, he thought, woukld be the ones to speak
to Paharaoh. His first argument, then was that he would not be able to
communicate effectively with the people. The second time, hiowever, when he
realized that he would have to speak to Oharaoh directly, he argued that,even
though God had assured him that Pharaoh would understand him, the people did
not know that he would recieve this divine assistance, and they might think
that someone with a speech decficiency was not a worthy candidate to speak to
the king. Therefore, God told Moshe that Aharon would accompany him when
he went to see Pharaoh, and that Haron would communicate his message. This
arangement, says the Ramban, was a great honor to Moshe, because it resembled a
situation in which God gives a message to a prophet, and the rprophet then
gives that message to its intended recipient.
What, in fact, was the nature of Moshe's deficienecy in speech? Rashbam says
that it was merely an unfamiliarity with the Egyptian language , which
Moshe had mostly forgotten during his long absence form the country. Ramban,
hoiwever, writes that Moshe had a physical speech impediment, as explained in a
midrash regarding Moshe's infancy. When Moshe was a baby in the royal
palace, he used to grab Pharaoh's crown and place it on his own head. some of
Pharaoh's advisers urged him to kill Moshe, beause he posed a future threat to
Pharaoh's rule. Others in the palace suggested that perhaps Moshe was
simply attracted by the bright light of the golden crown, and thus did not pose
any threat. They proposed a test, in which they would place a bowl full
of goldon one side of the baby, and a bowl full of burrning coals on the
other side. If Moshe would grab the gold, he would be put to death, and if he
grabbed the coals, he would remain alive. The two boals were placed before the
baby, and he initially reached for the gold, but the angel Gavriel came and
pushed his hand in thr other direction, so that Moshe grabbed the
coals and burned his hand. To ease the pain, he put his hand in his mouth
and burned his tongue, and, as a result, developed a speech impediment.
Although the authenticity of this midrash was challenged by by both Ibn Ezra
and Rashbam, Ramban did accept it. Why however, didn't God simply cure this
impediment in response to Moshe's argument that he was not a good speaker?
Ramban writes, in parshas Shemos, that since Moshe had never prayed for
it to be healed, God did not heal it now, either. However, we need to
understand what the purpose of the persistence of this deficiency was. Why
didn't God simply cure it, instead of having Aharon speak for Moshe?
Ramban, as we have seen, writes that the arrangement of Moshe and
Aharon coming before Pharaoh andf Aharon serving as a spokesman for Moshe was a
great honor accorded to Moshe, resembling a scenario of God communicating
with a prophet. Moshe merited this honor, says the Ramban, because of his humility
in saying that he was not able to speak well. Perhaps, then, according to
Ramban, Moshe retained his speech impediment as a means of remaining humble
while he grew in his leadership position over the nation. The Talmud in
Yoma, 22b, teaches that God does not appoint a leader over the
community unless he has a 'box of sheratzim (reptiles),' meaning
some some impediment, in his background. The Talmud there uses this principle
to answer the question why Shaul failed as a king , while Dovid succeeded, and
explains that Shaul did not have any questionable element in his lineage, while
Dovid, who came from the relationship between tamar and Yehudah, and from Rus
the Moabiter, did. Ths 'skeleton in the closet, 'the Talmud goes on to
say, is necessary to prevent the leader from become arrogant. If he
begins to act haughty towards the people, says the gemara, they can simply tell
him to look behind himself, at his background. Actually, the Chizkuni, in
parshas Shemos. says that this is the reason for Moshe being born from the
union between Amram and his aunt, Yocheved, a union that would later be
forbiden by Torah law. Rabbi Yaakov Sicili, a student of the great medieval
Talmudic commentator and halachic authority, Shlomo ben Idret, or Rashba,
also mentions this Talmudic passage in his commentary, Torah HaMincha,to
parshas Vaeira, but expands its meaning beyond the context of questiionable
lineage. He writes that one of the reasons that God did not cure
Moshe's speech impediment was beause He wanted Moshe to develop a sense of
humilty as he became the leder of the nation, in accordance with the
priniple stated in the passage in Yoma. Rabbi Sicili explains that
any deficiency which a person has, including a physical deficiency,
inculactes within him a sense of humility, and that is why Moshe retained
his speech impediment even as he neded to communicate his message of
redemption.
Rabbi Baruch Epstein, author of the Torah Temimah, notes, in his other Torah
commentary Tosefes Beracha, to oarshas Devarim that although Moshe
argued that he was unable lack of ability to communuicate
effectively, he delivered many beautiful, inspirational orations in the
book of Devarim. Perhaps the solution to that apparent discrepancy
is that according to the rabbis, anyone who had a physical defect was cured of
it at Mt. Sinai. Moshe, however, retained his humility even after his speech
impediment was removed. In parfshas Beha'aloscha, the Torah tells us that Moshe
was the most humble person on earth. The sifrei, commenting on this passage,
says that Moshe was humble, not 'migufo,' - from his body- but 'miatzmo'- from
his own essence. Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenberg, in his Torah commentary HaKesav
Ve Hakabbalah, explains that Moshe's humiklity was nt a result of any physical
impediment , but of his own pristine personality. While , according to Rabbi
Sicili, and perhaps according to the Ramban, as well, Moshe needed the
element of a physical impediment to help develop a sense of humilty when he
first became a leader of the nation, as he develped and became the greatest
prophet in the nation's history, this was no longer necessary, and, in
fact , the greater he became, the more humble he was.
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