[Avodah] The Offer Is No Longer On The Table

[Jay F. Shachter]

> 
> Another one not discussed in the classics, as far as I know, is one
> we've been learning just these weeks -- Moshe's continuing pretense
> to Par'oh that all he wanted was a three-day expedition into the
> desert, with the clear implication (though never explicitly stated)
> that then we'd return to work.
> 
> I recently saw someone comment on the time (after `arov) when Par'oh
> proposed that we perform our korbanot in Egypt, and Moshe replied
> that we couldn't do that because the Egyptians would stone us.  This
> person asked why Moshe was afraid of that, when surely they'd been
> cowed by the four makot they'd already got, and if necessary a fifth
> or sixth would take care of it.  He quoted a Chassam Sofer, which he
> had completely misunderstood, in order to make a mussar point; but
> he missed the major flaw in his whole question: the whole thing was
> a ruse!  The real reason Moshe could never agree to such a thing is
> that it would not achieve his real purpose, which was to leave Egypt
> and never return!  His answer to Par'oh had to be consistent with
> his ruse, but it was not true!  The Chassam Sofer merely makes a
> suggestion for why his answer worked for *Par'oh*, but does not
> assert that this was his true thinking.
>
> So this is another example of Midevar Sheker Tirchak taking second
> place to some other value.
>

Don't be so quick to call Moshe a liar.  Moshe made Par`o an offer,
which Par`o either refused, or which he accepted, but he then went
back on his word.  This happened six times.  After it happened even
once, it is perfectly reasonable to say that the original offer was no
longer on the table: "We offered to leave for three days.  You
rejected the offer -- repeatedly -- either in word, or in deed by
promising to let us leave and then breaking your promise.  The offer
does not remain valid forever.  It is withdrawn.  We now insist on
leaving permanently."

What would Moshe have done if Par`o had accepted the initial offer and
not gone back on his word?  I'll tell you what I would have done: I
would have brought the people back to Egypt after three days.  My
obligation is to keep my word.  If keeping my word interferes with
God's plan, that's not my business.  God doesn't need me to lie for
Him, in order to realize His plan.  God will do what God does, and I
will do what I am obliged to do.  (To say otherwise is like saying
that Yosef tortured his brothers, because he had to bring about the
realization of his dreams.  Yosef had no obligation to bring about
the realization of his dreams.)

There are two things that I hope you will not say (you probably will
not say the first thing, because you alluded to it, but other people
might be thinking of it).  Please do not say that Moshe never said
that the people would return after leaving on their three-day
festival.  That is rubbish.  When Moshe said, "let them leave for
three days" he was saying that they would leave for only three days,
and then return.

Please do not say that Moshe made offers that he had no intention of
honoring because he knew that Par`o would reject the offers anyway,
and that the source of his knowledge was the most reliable source
there is, prophecy.  That is also rubbish.  Prophets never know what
their prophecies mean, and moreover, they know that they don't know.
Avraham thought that God had told him to sacrifice his son, but it
turned out that Avraham had misunderstood the prophecy, and he had
only been told to offer him up as a sacrifice but not to kill him, and
Avraham accepted his misunderstanding as completely plausible, because
he needed God to tell him to kill his son, but he only needed an angel
to tell him not to.  In Genesis 32:11 Ya`aqov is afraid that `Esav is
going to kill him and his entire family, despite the complete
incompatibility of that fear with numerous prophecies that Ya`aqov had
received.  Yonah told everyone in Ninveh, in the name of God, that in
40 days Ninveh would be overturned, but it turned out that the
prophesied overturning of Ninveh was reinterpreted to be metaphoric
and not literal, and to refer to a turning away from sin.  And again
Yonah accepted this reinterpretation as completely plausible, he said,
"I knew you were going to do this".  Alternately, you can say in the
case of Yonah that prophesies of Divine punishment are always
conditional on a failure to repent, like the prophecy in 2 Kings 20:1
(to which someone on this mailing list recently referred).  This is
less plausible, because the prophecies in 2 Samuel 12:11 and 12:14
were not conditional on a failure to repent; but if it is plausible,
then it certainly applies to any prophesies that Moshe had received
regarding the intransigence of Par`o, and its consequences.


               Jay F. ("Yaakov") Shachter
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               When Martin Buber was a schoolboy, it must have been
               no fun at all playing tag with him during recess.