So now, go! I will

be with your mouth,

and I will

instruct you what you shall speak.

(Shemot 4:12)

The midrash states (Yalkut 183):

If it says I will be with your mouth,

why does it also say, and I will instruct; and if it says and I will

instruct, why does it say I will be with your mouth? Rather, I

will be with your mouth refers to the ability to speak, while and I will

instruct refers to hidden wisdom revealed to him by the Holy One, blessed

be He, all the hidden treasures of wisdom and Torah and science, and the hidden

treasures of life. He showed him what would be in the future in the World to

Come, and when he saw the retinue of the Holy One, blessed be He, with many

groups of scribes and Sanhedrin sitting in the Hewn Chamber [Lishkat Hagazit],

expounding upon the Torah with forty-nine aspects tending towards declaring

things clean and forty-nine aspects tending towards declaring them unclean, and

He showed him Rabbi Akiva expounding upon the crowns of the letters, he said:

"I have no business being the messenger of the Omnipresent," for it

is said, But he said, "I beseech You, O Lord,

send now [Your message] with whom You would send." What did the

Holy One blessed be He do? He sent him to the Prince of Wisdom who took hold of

Moses and brought him to a certain place and showed him the retinue of the Holy

One blessed be He, with tens and tens of thousands of Sanhedrins sitting and

expounding, and saying "It is a halakha received by Moses on Sinai." Moses

was immediately placated.

According to this midrash, and I will instruct you what you shall

speak is interpreted as meaning "I will show you all that will be

innovated, uttered, learned, and taught in the future – all in your name."

That is the meaning of what you shall speak, and all of this took place

so that he [Moses] would not deprecate himself so much.

(Siftei Kohen Shemot

4:11)

and I will instruct you [vehoreitikha] – Vehoreitikha

does not derive from yoreh, but rather from harah – to absorb a

living germ within oneself (as holikh derives from halakh). Horeh,

to lay an organic living germ in someone else. It is the noblest expression for

teaching, that which is taught is to be laid, as an intellectual or spiritual

germ, in the mind of the pupil, taken up by the latter and nursed to grow into

an intellectual living organism, even as the germ grows in the mother's womb.

(Rabbi S.R.

Hirsch Shemot 4:11, based on Levi translation)

Moshe Rabbenu: The Making of a

Leader

Yehonatan Chipman

The Torah does not tell us much about the

personal lives of its heroes. This is particularly true of Moshe Rabbenu, "the

father of the prophets," a monumental figure, understood by Hazal as

standing between heaven and earth. The little that we do know about Moses'

private life appears in the present week's Torah portion, Parashat Shemot, in

which we learn about his birth, his coming to maturity, and his early life

before he became "Moses our Teacher," "the man of God," the

vehicle through which the Torah was given to Israel ("The Torah commanded

us by Moses is a heritage of the community of Jacob"). However, it seems

to me that these chapters, particularly Exodus 2–4, may be read under the

heading of "the making of a leader." Through a careful reading of

these passages, one may see how Moses developed and was prepared for

leadership, through a series of formative events.

We begin with his birth, with the cruel decree of Pharaoh

that "every son born shall be cast into the Nile," and his being

saved and adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh (albeit, his true mother,

Yocheved, arranged to be near him in infancy in the role of wet nurse). The

fact of his growing up in the royal palace afforded him a certain degree of

leisure: an opportunity to learn, to think, to look at the world around him,

without the oppressive burden of slavery that was the lot of his brethren. Indeed,

it is interesting to note that many of the revolutionary leaders in world

history, even those who lead movements of the most miserable and downtrodden

people, grew up in the middle class, in relatively comfortable circumstances,

which gave them greater opportunities for intellectual development and breadth

of perspective.

The first act by which Moses broke the conventions of the

social framework within which he had been raised was the murder of the

Egyptian. Here he expressed his anger and moral passion, his understanding of

the injustice involved in his own social milieu. But he did so in an impulsive

manner, without much thought or consideration of the long-term results – very

much in the manner of young people who first discover the injustice in the

world and feel the need to act.

In the next verse Moses intervenes in a dispute between "two

Hebrew people who were quarreling," saying to "the wicked one"

(that is, the aggressor), "Why do you hit your fellow?" He does not

use violence in order to turn the aggressor from his actions; rather, he tries

to address his feelings of brotherhood, of belonging to the same community. Here

too he acts in an intuitive manner, but without understanding how to persuade

the other. The latter derides him in a mocking, scornful manner, causing Moses

to realize that "Indeed, the matter [i.e., of the murder of the Egyptian]

has become known," and that he must flee Egypt. He goes into exile, to the

wilderness of Midian, where once again, his natural sense of justice moves him

to action – this time, to save a group of maidens, seven sisters, who have come

to draw water from the well, from the shepherds who are harassing them. Their father

invites him to his home and, in due course, he marries one of the daughters,

Zipporah, and becomes a member of the household.

What was Yitro's role in Moses' development? The Torah

tells us very little about him; however, I would like to suggest that he served

as a kind of father figure in Moses' life. He did not at all know his natural

father, Amram, as his parents were forced to place him in the basket in the

bulrushes while he was still an infant, simply to save his life. It also seems

reasonable to assume that Pharaoh, the cruel tyrant in whose home he grew up,

was not exactly a positive educational model (to rather understate the case). Thus,

Yitro may well have served as a significant educator and moral guide. (This is

possibly expressed in the great honor shown him by Moses when the latter came

to visit him in the wilderness; see Exodus 18).

Moses' lengthy stay in Midian also served as a period of

preparation for the central task of his life which he was to fulfill in the

future. Again, in the biographies of great leaders we often read of a period of

exile – whether in prison, in remote places such as Siberia, or simple periods

of "gestation," spent studying, reading, thinking about the world – before

they emerged onto the stage of public life. Thus, the Midrash relates that

Moses' work as a shepherd served as a kind of preparation, or testing, for his

future function as a leader:

"And Moses was a shepherd" (Exodus 3:1). The blessed Holy One does not

give greatness to a man until he tests him in a small thing, and thereafter

raises him up to greatness. Thus, two great figures were examined by the

blessed Holy One in a small matter and found trustworthy, and were then raised

to greatness. David was examined in shepherding the flock… as was Moses.

Our Rabbis said: When Moses our Teacher, of

blessed memory, was shepherding the flock of Yitro in the wilderness, a kid ran

away, and he ran after him until he arrived at a bulbous plant (allium). When

he came to the plant he saw a pool of water where the kid was standing and

drinking. Moses came up to him and said, "I did not know that you were

running because you were thirsty. You must be tired." So he placed him on

his shoulder and carried him back. The blessed Holy One said to him: You have

shown compassion to shepherd the flock of flesh and blood; by your life, you

shall shepherd my flock Israel. This is: "And Moses was a shepherd" (Exodus Rabbah 2.3; 2.2)

However, the decisive turning point in Moses' life was his

direct encounter with God at Mount Horeb, at the bush that "burned but was

not consumed." I would like to read this entire chapter as a kind of "lesson"

which God gave Moses on the meaning of being a leader.

What is symbolized by God calling to him from within the

bush? Was this a mere "curiosity," something contrary to the laws of

nature, or something deeper? I find it reminiscent of the fire in the Temple,

which burned constantly upon the altar without being extinguished. According to

Hasidic teaching, this symbolizes the inner fire with which the heart of the

true servant of God is constantly aflame; all the more so that the heart of a

leader must burn like that bush with a constant passion and desire to fulfill

his historical task of leading the people towards its destiny.

A leader has two basic functions: on the one hand, to

represent the people before external factors (such as Pharaoh), to serve as a

kind of "foreign minister," as a spokesman to the one who controls

their lives; and, on the other hand, to lead the people, to educate them, to

explain to them what they need to do, to encourage them, and comfort them in

times of distress and trouble so that they not lose hope.

Thus, Moses' encounter with God began with a call for him

to go to Pharaoh and to "take out My people, the children of Israel, from

Egypt" – in the most literal sense. Thereafter Moses asks: "When the

people ask me, ‘What is the name of this God' [who commands me to confront

Pharaoh, the strong, frightening, omnipotent ruler of Egypt; to placed both myself

and the people in a situation of new danger], what shall I tell them?" A

leader must know how to speak to the people, how to overcome their doubts and

hesitations and fears, and how to give them an answer (and it may well be that

these same questions and misgivings reside in his own heart). God answers him

with a rather laconic statement – possibly an answer, possibly a kind of vague promise:

Ehyeh asher Ehyeh – "I will be that which I shall be." But

immediately thereafter, He adds: "The Lord God of your fathers, God of

Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob has sent me to you; this is my name for

ever, and this is my remembrance for every generation."

In the third stage, Moses asks what signs and proof he may

bring the people in order to prove the truth of his words. At this stage he is

given a series of signs and miracles to display to the people: the staff which

turns into a serpent and back again; Moses' hand, which he places in his breast

and becomes leprous, white as snow, and then returns to be living flesh; and

the transformation of the water into blood – that is, an anticipation of the

series of ten plagues. The idea here is that a true leader must know how to

speak to the people on a level that they understand, even if on what seems the

low, corporeal level of concretization, of miracles – and not only through

abstract ideas about a transcendent God, understood by only a few.

Finally, in the fourth stage, God forces Moses to confront

his own lack of self-confidence. Moses already expressed this at the beginning

("Who am I that I shall go to Pharaoh"), but at the end he returns to

the same feeling: "for I am a man heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue."

It is important that a leader believe in his own power to lead others; without

that, he is lost from the outset. This is both the power and the danger

involved in charisma: a charismatic person can generally convince others to follow

him, whether he is an upright, ethical person who speaks words of truth and

holiness, or whether he is a charlatan, a liar and an evil man (and we have

experienced too many sad examples of the latter) – and the opposite is also the

case. An honest and holy person, but lacking in this power, will influence, if

at all, only a small, select group of people. This, unfortunately, is human

nature.

At this stage, when Moses is on the verge of refusing God's

mission, saying "Send with whom you shall send," God gives him an

interesting answer: that he, God, has chosen him to be His messenger, and that

even if there is a certain arbitrary element in this choice, He will be with

him. (See on this Rambam's Hilkhot Yesodei ha-Torah 7.5; after

Maimonides explains the preparations a person must undergo in preparing himself

to be a prophet, he concludes that "it is possible that the Shekhinah may

rest upon him, and it is possible that it will not do so"). Any person

with certain talents can become a messenger of God; at a certain stage, God

will give him the needed power. These things are particularly true if he is

motivated by a sense of justice and of inner conviction of the rightness of the

goal. The classic example of this is Gideon who, despite being from "the

poorest clan in Manasseh, and the youngest in my father's house" was so

deeply pained and upset by the suffering of the people under the yoke of the

Midianites, that the angel said to him, "Go with this power of yours"

– that is, his anger in itself transformed him into a potential leader.

But, in the final analysis, what strikes me here, in light

of our contemporary experience, is what is not found here: there is no talking

here of the leader's desire to himself be an "important person," to

receive personal benefit from his position, to be wealthy or a "celebrity."

Moses did not have a fancy office, nor a personal driver, nor a high salary; he

did not enjoy first-class plane tickets or luxury suites in hotels. "Do

not make them a spade with which to dig." A true leader thinks

exclusively, his entire life, only of the benefit of the people and its needs,

and not of the greatness which he can derive from being a leader. Once there

were such leaders in Israel, who lived modest lives and moved among the people

– and I refer here, not to the distant past, to biblical antiquity, but to

leaders within the memory of people living today. Would that we might again

merit to have such leaders.

Rabbi Jonathan Chipman is a translator by profession,

and a scholar in Jewish studies. He writes a weekly sheet (in English) on the

portion of the week and the Haftara, titled "Hitsei Yehonatan".

(Anyone interested in ordering a sample of subscription can write via email to:

yonarand@internet-zahav.net.

Even

While on the Run, Moses Does not Desist from Fighting for Justice

But Moses fled from

watered their flock (Shemot 2: 15-17).

Moses came and sat by the well but the shepherds came and drove them off.

Moses rose to their defense, and he watered their flock. Moses came and sat

in judgment upon them, he told them: "Usually, men draw the water and

women water the flocks, here women draw the water while the men water the

flocks; there is a perversion of justice here."

(Avot DeRabbi Natan 20:1)

"Come and note

Moses' humility; even though he was fleeing like a commoner, and he saw the

daughters of Yitro in distress, and he was not too proud to stand up and draw

for them, but his soul was that of a son of the daughter of the king".

This is to say that the awareness of his coming from the palace of the great

Pharaoh did not prevent Moses our Teacher from standing by those unfortunate

women who were robbed by the shepherds of Midian and acting on their behalf in

their distress. From his first steps in approaching his brothers, upon seeing

an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he decided that the proper course of action is to

intervene, to attack the attacker and to kill him. These events are testimony

to his sensitivity to the suffering of people and to the quality of his

leadership; from here we learn that he is qualified to be the faithful shepherd

of his people.

(Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot

al Pashiyot haShavua,

pp. 195-196)

The Place On

Which You Stand – It Is Holy Ground! – What is Place?

Originally the Hebrew term makom (place) applied both to a

particular spot and to space in general subsequently it received a wider

signification and denoted "position," or "degree," as

regards the perfection of man in certain things. We say, e.g., this man

occupies a certain place in such and such a subject. In this sense this term,

as is well known, is frequently used by authors, e.g., "He fills his

ancestors' place (makom) in point of wisdom and piety"; "the

dispute still remains in its place" (makom), i.e., in status quo

(mekomo) (Ezekiel 3:12), makom

has this figurative meaning, and the verse may be paraphrased "Blessed be

the Lord according to the exalted nature of His existence," and wherever makom

is applied to God, it expresses the same idea, namely, the distinguished

position of His existence, to which nothing is equal or comparable, as will be

shown below.

(RaMBaM: Guide for the

Perplexed 31:8, Friedländer translation)

The word HaMakkom – "The

place" is be understood figuratively, its application being that Moses' value

was very high, as is written, Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord,

and who will rise in His holy place? One of clean hands and pure heart.

(Ha'amek Davar, Shemot 3:5)

And Abraham returned

to his place – to his humanness; he did not continue to seclude

himself and pray, even though it is possible to be alone and pray even without

revelation of the Divine Presence; he nonetheless discontinued his

contemplation of the Divinity once he understood the will of God, and returned

to his place.

(Ha'amek Davar, Bereishit 18:33)

And I will go to my place

and to my land – to my value, that I will not be a servant to

others, and thus is its interpretation in Bereishit Rabbah on the verse And

Laban returned to his place – to his bad habits.

(Ha'amek Davar Bereishit 30:25)

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