[Avodah] The Stature of Moshe Rabbeinu

[Micha Berger]

On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 03:24:41PM -0500, Yitzchok Levine wrote:
: I have always pictured Moshe Rabbeinu as a 
: "giant" of a man with tremendous abilities. After 
: all, he had the clearest revelation of HaShem of 
: any of the Neviim...

Isn't that the point of the medrash about MRAH being 10 amos tall?

: 24 Nothing could be more instructive than this information regarding the
: first State institution of the Jewish people, coming just before the chapter
: on the Lawgiving. Moshe's stature as a lawmaker was so small, and his
: talent for organizing was so inadequate, that he had to learn the basics
: of state organization from his father-in-law...

MRAH couldn't serve as the leader who brought us into EY. This was
demonstrated when he hit the stone, but it was inherent in who Moshe
Rabbeinu was. "Haazinu hashamyim ... vesishma ha'aretz", as Rashi
explains, was because Moshe was at home with shamayim, and distanced
from aretz. He was a good leader for a generation protected by ananei
hakavod and fed by mon, but when that ended, Yehoshua took over.

RSRH's image could be taken to be of someone too otherwordly to think
about the pragmatics of running a gov't and applying halakhah to
real people and real problems.

:                            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.

This isn't smallness, it's being too big to relate.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             When memories exceed dreams,
micha at aishdas.org        The end is near.
http://www.aishdas.org                   - Rav Moshe Sherer
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