[Avodah] Moshe Rabeinu's stuttering

[Zev Sero]

kennethgmiller at juno.com wrote:

> First he quoted Shemos 4:10-12 ("mi SAM peh l'adam o mi YASUM eelaym 
> o cheresh o pikeach o iver...") and then he wrote:
> [...]
> Hashem answered 
> Moshe that it is an incorrect notion to think that a person who lacks 
> some of his five senses is missing a part of his wholeness. Who 
> placed a mouth in a person? The person Who created speech, Hashem. 
> Hashem *placed* speech, blindness, and deafness, meaning it was 
> Hashem's will. So too, someone who has a full mental capacity, should 
> realize it's only because of Hashem's will. Therefore, Hashem asked 
> Moshe, why are you asking me to heal you and thereby give you the 
> ability to speak easily like everyone else? I created you the way you 
> are and I want you to remain the way you are.


The source of this explanation is the Malbim.  Kedarko, he is
trying to explain the simple meaning of the words, and asks why
the pasuk changes tenses in mid-sentence.

Malbim explains that Moshe's objection was rooted in his assumption
that the default state for a person is not to have any abilities,
and Hashem gives a person only those abilities that he needs.  Since
he had not been given the power of clear speech, he assumed that his
mission in life did not require that ability.  He was therefore
surprised to be given one of the few jobs that do require it, and
protested that surely there must be some mistake.

Hashem explained to him that his assumption was incorrect.  "Mi *sam*
peh la'adam": when I made man, nearly 2500 years ago, I gave him a
mouth, and all the normal abilities.  A person, by default, can see,
hear, speak, walk, etc.  When a person has all these abilities, no
conclusion can be drawn from that fact; he's just normal.  But "mi
*yasum* ilem o cheresh...o iver" (in the continuing present tense):
when I create each person, I make him dumb or deaf, if I have some
particular reason for doing so.  In other words, the lack of one of
the normal abilities is a departure from the default state of man,
and must have a reason.  The fact that you were created without the
faculty of clear speech means that your mission in life requires you
davka not to have it; now I reveal to you that the reason was so that
when you speak clearly to Par'oh it will be seen as a miracle.

Unfortunately, Malbim doesn't explain "o pikeach", which would seem
to contradict this.

DISCLAIMER: I last saw this inside over 15 years ago, so I may be
misremembering it.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas