[Avodah] ONE HAND vs. TWO HANDS

[Eliyahu Grossman]

>>>RZS: "If Moshe could add a day to the preparations for mattan torah on
his own understanding, then he could certainly add a hand to Yehoshua's
smicha, in order to do the mitzvah with "kol atzmosai"."

I could not agree more. 

Not only COULD Moshe improvise, but that it was in his nature to typically
do so. While it may be digressing from the initial thread, if one will read
carefully all of the commands the God gives to Moshe concerning the handling
of each plague in Egypt, and the confronting of Pharaoh, or the interacting
with the Hebrew elders in Egypt,  one will see that, more often than not,
Moshe WOULD expand upon the instructions of his ACTIONS, commands given to
him by God, by doing something different, by doing what he saw was right for
that moment. 

Using human terms, if you have a new servant that you are breaking in, and
you see that there is such a pattern, and if you do NOT approve, you mention
it - strongly. But Moshe was given free rein concerning his ACTIONS
concerning goals that were immediate and temporary, and it appears that the
details of his ACTIONS were permitted (by lack of correction) to be adjust
as he saw fit.

The most dramatic example it that is trying to grapple with the nature of
the sin of Moshe and Aaron. After all, what the specific sin was is not
clearly stated in the written text. While it does provides the name of the
place, it refers AROUND the action, referring to it as a sin that both Moshe
and Aaron did at that place.

So for those who prefer a simple answer, we can say to them that the sin was
because Moshe hit a rock with his stick instead of speaking to a rock, and
the listener can then leave feeling satisfied. But for those who are not
satisfied with such a very narrow answer, we refer them to other sources.

The wide range of Midrashic literature (as well as commentaries by many of
the Mepharship) struggle with this, because improvising was certainly
permitted. Even from the very beginning Moshe was chosen (as some stories
infer) BECAUSE he would deviate and do what was right as he saw it, and he
was not reluctant to argue with the Creator of the Universe if he perceived
that he knew better (so to speak - a bad phrase, I admit, but you are
welcome to you're a better one). And God let him do that time and time
again. 

One source addresses that the nature of the sin of Moshe and Aaron, where
one might THINK that it was about outburst of anger  by asking: how can
anger be the reason since Aaron was the epitome of never getting angry?
Another addresses the nature of the sin of Moshe and Aaron as having hit a
rock with a staff by indicating that Aaron did not hit. Another addresses
Aarons connection to the sin (he stood by and kept quiet concerning whatever
Moshe was doing)  by saying that if Aaron interfered with his Rebbe, would
not such a chutzpah result in the student being put to death by God?

It is all part of addressing the context that Moshe not only improvised on
his ACTIONS a lot, but that God approved of Moshe doing what was right, at
all (other) times, because he always walked in His ways.

So, concerning smeicha, was it one hand or two? 

Moshe did what he saw as being correct and true at all times. 

Let us also not forget that the plural term is written in the singular (and
visa-versa), although there are those who disagree, and therefore hold
strongly that an angel has one leg only,(because it is written in the
singular), or there was only one frog that came to invade Egypt that became
many, or that a group of rocks became one rock under Yaakov's head, and so
on.

All the best.

Eliyahu Grossman
Efrat, Israel