[Avodah] RSRH Digest - Bo

[Yitzchok Levine]

[RYL posted two RSRH posts this week. -mi]


Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:54:25 -0500
Subject: The Genealogy of Moshe and Aaron

In Parshas Va"ra Shemos 6 the Torah interrupts the telling of the story
of how Hashem took the Jews out of Mitzrayim to detail in 6: 14 - 30 the
genealogy of Moshe and Aaron. The obvious question is "Why?" Rav Shamshon
Raphael Hirsch gives a most interesting answer to this question that
provides insight into the nature of prophecy as well as the prohibition
of deifying a man. (This piece is long, but, in my opinion, well worth
the read since it gives a number of fundamentals in Yahadus.) YL

In his commentary Shemos 6:14-30 he writes:

    1430 Immediately conspicuous is the interruption of the narrative
    by a genealogical register interposing in its midst and concluding
    with the words: hu Aaron u'Moshe (v. 26), haim hamedarbrim, hu Moshe
    v'Aaron (v. 27) as though these people were complete strangers to us,
    with whom we were becoming acquainted here for the first time. Only
    in verse 29 does Scripture return to the beginning of the narrative,
    repeat it, and continue it! Let us now consider this genealogical
    register. It is not limited to the lineage of Moshe and Aharon;
    rather, it briefly outlines the two preceding tribes. So, too, in
    the tribe of Moshe and Aharon, the register shows not only their
    direct lineage, but also the side branches: uncles and cousins,
    great uncles and second cousins. Thus, we are shown the relationship
    of their tribe with the preceding ones, and the relationship of
    their family and house with the families and houses of relatives,
    in previous generations and among contemporaries. We are also told
    the advanced age reached by their father and their grandfather,
    which shows us that not much time separated their demise from the
    rise of Moshe and Aharon. Then, pointing to these two in the midst of
    this wide circle of family and friends, Scripture repeatedly says:
    these were the same Moshe and Aharon on the day that God spoke to
    them! (see vv. 2628).

    If we further consider the point at which we are given this list of
    their lineage and family relations, we can perhaps come to understand
    the significance and purpose of all this information.

    Until now, the efforts of Moshe and Aharon have been completely
    frustrated. Were it not for later events, there would be no need
    for such an exact list of their lineage and family relations. Now,
    however, begins their triumphal mission, the likes of which no
    mortal had ever accomplished before them or will ever accomplish
    after them. Now it is of critical importance to present an exact
    list of their lineage and relations, so as to attest thereby for all
    time to come that their origin was ordinary and human, and that the
    nature of their being was ordinary and human.

    Right from the earliest times it has happened that men who were
    outstanding benefactors to their people were, after their death,
    divested of their human image and, because of their godlike feats,
    were invested with a Divine origin. We all know of a certain Jew,
    in later times, whose genealogical record was not available, and
    because it was not available, and because he brought people a few
    sparks of light borrowed from the man Moshe, he came to be considered
    by the nations as begotten of God; to doubt his divinity became a
    capital crime.

    Our Moshe was human, remained human, and will never be anything but
    human. When his countenance had already become radiant from what
    he was allowed to see of God; when he had already brought down the
    Torah from Heaven, and had already miraculously led the people through
    the wilderness and won for them victories of God, God here commanded
    him to present his genealogical record and thereby affirm the fact
    that b'yom deber HaShem el Moshe b'eretz Mitzrayim (v. 28), on the
    day that God first spoke to Moshe in the land of Egypt, everyone
    knew his parents and grandparents, his uncles and aunts and all his
    cousins. They knew his whole lineage and all his relatives. For eighty
    years they had known him as a man of flesh and blood, subject to all
    the failings and weaknesses, worries and needs, of human nature, a
    man like all the other men among whom he had been born and raised. hu
    Aaron u'Moshe (v. 26), haim hamedarbrim, hu Moshe v'Aaron they were
    flesh and blood like all other men, and God chose them to be His
    instruments in the performance of His great work; they were flesh
    and blood like all other men, and they carried out His great work.

    This certificate of origin is meant to negate in advance and
    forevermore any erroneous deification, any illusion of an incarnation
    of Deity in human form. It is meant to uphold this truth: Moshe,
    the greatest man of all time, was just a man, and the position he
    attained before God was not beyond the reach of mortal human beings.

    The list of names is also meant to negate a second illusion, the
    opposite of the first and no less dangerous. Thus the genealogical
    register is not confined to the direct line of descent of Moshe
    and Aharon viz., Yaakov, Levi, Kehas, Amram, Moshe but lists
    also the tribes that preceded Levi, with their descendants, and
    lists also the other branches of the tribe of Levi. For although
    the certificate of origin establishes as a fact the human nature
    of Moshe and Aharon, it might also have fostered the belief that
    everyone, without exception, is fit to become a prophet. A person
    who today is known as a complete idiot could tomorrow proclaim the
    Word of God. Gods spirit could suddenly descend upon an ignorant and
    uneducated person and teach him to speak in seventy languages. Indeed,
    this phenomenon of imagined or pretended prophecy is not uncommon in
    other circles. In their view, the more intellectually limited and
    empty-minded the prophet of today was yesterday, the more clearly
    this sudden transformation attests to a Divine call.

    This dangerous illusion, too, is negated by the family register. True,
    Moshe and Aharon were men and nothing but men, but they were chosen
    men. Had God wished simply to pick the first comer, there were other
    tribes, besides Levi, who stood at His disposal; and within Levi,
    there were other branches besides Kehas; and within Kehas, there
    were other houses besides that of Amram; and among Amrams children,
    Aharon was the elder son and, like Moshe, was a worthy candidate.
    God, however, chooses the worthiest and most exemplary to be His
    emissaries who do His bidding. Before he receives his call, the
    human being must attain the heights of human virtue. It was not
    Avraham or Yitzchak but Yaakov who became the true founder of the
    House of Israel. It was not Reuven or Shimon but Levi who became
    the chosen tribe. It was not Aharon or Miryam but Moshe who became
    Gods emissary. (This idea is the essence of our Sages comment on the
    verse halo kasavti l'cha shalishim [Mishlei 22:20]; see Tanchuma,
    Yisro 10.) One is chosen only if he has matured on his own to the
    point that he has become worthy of being chosen.

    We have already noted (above, 2:1112) that, according to the Jewish
    conception, neither weaklings, nor simpletons, nor those who are
    dependent on others are chosen to be the bearers of Gods spirit. On
    the contrary, even before he is chosen, God's emissary must be gebor
    chochom v'asher healthy in body, mind, and social standing. Healthy
    in body: so that deluded impostors (whose ill-health affects their
    mental outlook) should not disseminate morbid hallucinations which
    will be presented and regarded as visions of God. Healthy in mind:
    because only a mind that has developed to its full human capacity
    can grasp and transmit the Word of God. Healthy in social standing:
    because only a person who is independent, who requires nothing for
    himself and seeks nothing for himself, can understand people and
    assess situations objectively, as befits an emissary of God.


Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:52:12 -0500
Subject: Omnipotence of Hashem - Cessation of Plagues

RSRH writes in his commentary on Shemos 9

    29 Moshe replied to him: As soon as I have gone out from the city
    I will spread out my hands to God; the thunderclaps will cease and
    the hail will be no more, so that you may know that the earth is God's.

    Let us note that not only the onset of the plague but also and
    primarily its cessation at Gods Will constituted the most striking
    os of Gods omnipotence. For even the most sublime revelation of His
    creative and productive power would be insufficient, even today, to
    convey to the nations the pure conception of the God of Israel. At
    most, such a revelation would present Him as the highest power of
    all powers, the most forceful of all forces, whereas, in the Jewish
    conception, God is the free Master over His work, Whose creations do
    not escape His control. It was primarily through the cessation of the
    plague at Gods command, its cancellation, and its differentiation by
    Gods order between Egypt and Goshen that God revealed Himself. No
    other power can regain control of elemental forces, once they have
    been released.

    In this spirit the Jew celebrates the last of the days of Creation,
    the Sabbath. The non-Jewish world, in thoughtless contrast, celebrates
    the first day, Sunday. The outlook that considers the universe a
    result of natural forces can perhaps explain the Sunday of Creation,
    but it cannot explain the fact of the Sabbath of Creation. For why
    has the creation of new creatures ceased? After all, the same creative
    forces of nature still exist. That is why God established the Sabbath,
    the Shabbos with which Creation ceased, and not the days of Creation,
    as a monument to the Creator.