[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[T613K at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/15/2009, Larry.Levine at stevens.edu writes:

>>This man Moshe worked
himself to  exhaustion and could not, on his own, organize such a basic
institution, or  one similar to it, so beneficial to himself, to the people,
and to the  matter at hand. This man, who needed Yisro’s counsel to
appoint judges,  could not have invented statutes and laws and given
them to the people.  This man was strictly the faithful instrument of
God; he told the people  God’s Word — and nothing more.<< [--from Commentary 
of  RSRH]

>>I find this description of the abilities of Moshe  Rabbeinu difficult to 
reconcile with my "gut" impressions of him as a "giant"  of a man.  On the other 
hand, I have wondered from time to time why Moshe  himself did not institute 
a system similar to the one suggested by Yisro  before Yisro arrived. 

I would be interested to hear what others think  about this.<<
Yitzchok Levine 
 
 
>>>>>
One of Hirsch's purposes in writing his magnificent Commentary on Chumash  
was to answer the Reformers and the Bible Critics, the promoters of the  
Documentary Hypothesis.  
 
He did not deign to actually name or quote any of those heretics --  why give 
them such credibility, and why immortalize their names in a work of  Torah 
that he hoped would prove timeless?  However, throughout his  Commentary there 
are many subtle arguments against the heretics, and this  example is typical.  
 
He is pointing out, in case anybody buys into the theory that Moshe  Rabbeinu 
himself made up the Torah, that Moshe was incapable of creating such a  
complex system himself.   He could not even think of a hierarchical system  of 
judges, how could he ever have thought up the whole system of laws in the  Torah?  
 
The Torah contains within itself clues to its Divine authorship.  The  story 
of Yisro and the advice he gave his son-in-law is one of many such clues  
scattered throughout the Written Torah -- clues that Moshe or another human  being 
couldn't have written the Torah, clues that there had to be an Oral Torah  
along with the Written Torah, and so on -- and Hirsch was brilliant at spotting  
and highlighting these clues.
 

--Toby  Katz
==========

--------------------
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
steps! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=fe
bemailfooterNO62)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20090215/4cd3a589/attachment-0001.htm>