"Torah Lights"
 
Video Insights on the Parsha
 
 by Rabbi Shlomo Riskin

Efrat, Israel -- This week's biblical portion opens with a poignant entreaty by Moses: "Please may I be allowed to pass through and see the good land which is beyond the Jordan…” The Midrash pictures Moses going so far as to beseech entry even as an insect, just to be able to see, touch and traverse the good and holy land which is our legacy and patrimony. But the Bible records Moses continuing: "But the Lord was angry with me because of you and would not hearken to me…” (Deuteronomy 3:26). Why does Moses blame the Israelites, saying "because of you"? Wasn't Moses barred from entering Israel because he struck the rock rather than speaking to it? (Numbers 20:12). I believe that a deeper understanding of Moses' character and personality will help us to explain precisely what he meant when he claimed it was because of the Israelites that he was prevented from entering the Land.

From the very beginning, Moses was reluctant to accept his leadership position. His argument is stated very clearly: "I beg of You, my Lord, I am not a man of words, not from yesterday, not from the day before, but from the time when You first spoke to Your servant; heavy of speech and heavy of tongue am I" (Exodus 4:10). Contrary to conventional wisdom, Moses is not saying that he stammers; after all, G-d immediately counters: "Who gives a person a mouth with which to speak... if not I, who am the Lord? Now go and I shall deal with your mouth and I will teach you how to speak" (ibid 4:11). Yet Moses, nevertheless, continues to repeat the same argument (see for example, 6:30), even after G-d promised to cure his stutter. What is Moses really saying?

The Biblical text itself states that "[the Israelites] did not listen to Moses because of impatience and hard work" (Exodus 6:9) - usually taken to mean that the impatience and backbreaking work of an enslaved and downtrodden people made it difficult if not impossible for them to believe that their situation could ever change.  But the medieval commentator Ralbag (Gershonides) has a radical interpretation of this biblical passage. He interprets it to mean that it is because of Moses' impatience with the masses and because of Moses’ hard spiritual work to elevate himself intellectually and religiously, that Moses would not be capable of convincing the people to follow G-d.

After all, Moses already had difficult experiences with the Hebrews. After he had killed the Egyptian taskmaster who was beating a Hebrew slave, he found the Hebrews squabbling among themselves and grossly ungrateful for his selfless deed: "Who made you a minister and judge over us? Do you wish to slay me just as you slew the Egyptian?” (Exodus 2:14). As a result, Moses left Egyptian society and escaped to the desert of Midian, where - in the isolation which only a shepherd in a wasteland can experience - he joined himself to a famous seeker of G-d named Jethro, preferring the eternal "fellowship" of G-d to the fickle moods of a fractious people.

Therefore when Moses called himself "heavy of speech," he wasn't referring to a speech defect; he was rather referring to his personality. He understood that transforming the Hebrews from embittered and small-minded slaves into an inspired nation committed to becoming a holy people and a kingdom of priest-teachers would require nurturing small talk; he would have to become more of a Rebbe than a Rav listening to paltry concerns and petty complaints until – step by step – his sheep would become elevated into a "G-d enthused" nation. "This is not for me," the Midianite seeker of G-d is telling the Almighty. "I am a man of heavy speech, not of small talk; I cannot be expected to be concerned with the questions and the problems of the individual Israelites.  Is it not too much to expect that the one who speaks to the G-d of the cosmos, whose intellect has been developed to such an extent that it divines G-d's active intellect to enable the Torah of Moses to be the Torah of G-d, to also at the same time deal with the self-centered resentments and rebellions of a nation-in-progress? I don't have the patience for it; I'm working too hard spiritually and climbing too high to be brought down to earth by small-minded people." G-d nevertheless insists, and Moses attempts to acquiesce.

Moses listens to the kvetching, he suffers the rebellions and revolutions, but eventually, when he realizes that he hasn't brought his people to G-d, and he hasn't elevated them to the highest values, he loses patience. He calls them "rebels" and wishes to strike this stiff-necked nation! He loses the ability to speak to them, to teach them, to nurture and guide them. As a consequence, he cannot continue to lead them and bring them into the Promised Land. "But it's not my fault," says Moses. "I explained from the beginning that one who truly speaks to G-d would not be able to speak to puny, petty and puerile people. It was "because of you," the people of Israel, your inability to learn and grow quickly enough, that I lost my patience and love for you, resulting in my having to relinquish my dream…”

Postscript

The story is told that the founder of the Hassidic movement, Reb Yisrael Ba'al Shem Tov, would always pray the additional Amida on the Sabbath morning for an inordinately long time, almost a full hour. The hungry Hassidim became impatient for Kiddush, so the gabbai (sexton) came up with a great idea: after the people had concluded their own prayer, they could quietly leave, go home, and make Kiddush, returning before their revered rebbe ended his prayer.

One Sabbath, however, as soon as the people quietly walked out of synagogue, the rebbe took three steps backward, signaling the end of his prayer as well. The bewildered congregants all ran back into the synagogue wondering why the rebbe had completed his prayer so quickly. The Ba'al Shem Tov explained: "Every Sabbath," he said, "I rise to great spiritual heights, especially during the additional Amida, I feel that I am climbing a ladder to the supernal heavens before the heavenly throne of G-d. But the rungs of the ladder are the souls of my Hassidim; without them, I cannot climb. This Sabbath morning, after 10 minutes I felt the ladder crash to the ground. I had no choice; I had to conclude my prayer…”

Shabbat Shalom