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RSRH gives brilliant insight as to why the narrative dealing with Moshe's
mission to Pharaoh is interrupted by pesukim 7:14 - 30. Part of
what he wrote is below. The entire commentary on these pesukim is at
<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/shemos_6_14_30.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/shemos_6_14_30.pdf</a><br><br>
YL<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Let us now consider this
genealogical register. It is not limited to<br>
the lineage of Moshe and Aharon; rather, it briefly outlines the two<br>
preceding tribes. So, too, in the tribe of Moshe and Aharon, the
register<br>
shows not only their direct lineage, but also the side branches:
uncles<br>
and cousins, great uncles and second cousins. Thus, we are shown the<br>
relationship of their tribe with the preceding ones, and the
relationship<br>
of their family and house with the families and houses of relatives,
in<br>
previous generations and among contemporaries. We are also told the<br>
advanced age reached by their father and their grandfather, which
shows<br>
us that not much time separated their demise from the rise of Moshe<br>
and Aharon. Then, pointing to these two in the midst of this wide
circle<br>
of family and friends, Scripture repeatedly says: “these were the
same<br>
Moshe and Aharon” — on the day that God spoke to them! (see vv.<br>
26–28).<br><br>
If we further consider the point at which we are given this list of<br>
their lineage and family relations, we can perhaps come to
understand<br>
the significance and purpose of all this information.<br><br>
Until now, the efforts of Moshe and Aharon have been completely<br>
frustrated. Were it not for later events, there would be no need for
such<br>
an exact list of their lineage and family relations.
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Now, however, begins<br>
their triumphal mission,
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>the likes of which no
mortal had ever accomplished <br>
before them or will ever accomplish after them.
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Now
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>it is of<br>
critical importance to present an exact list of their lineage and
relations,<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>so as to attest thereby
for all time to come that their origin was ordinary<br>
and human, and that the nature of their being was ordinary and
human</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>.<br>
Right from the earliest times it has happened that men who were<br>
outstanding benefactors to their people were, after their death,
divested<br>
of their human image and, because of their “godlike” feats, were
invested<br>
with a “Divine” origin. We all know of a certain Jew, in later
times,<br>
whose genealogical record was
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>not
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>available, and
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>because
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>it was not<br>
available, and because he brought people a few sparks of light
borrowed<br>
from the </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>man
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Moshe, he came to be
considered by the nations as begotten<br>
of God; to doubt his divinity became a capital crime.<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Our
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>Moshe was human, remained
human, and will never be anything<br>
but human. When his countenance had already become radiant<br>
from what he was allowed to see of God; when he had already brought<br>
down the Torah from Heaven, and had already miraculously led the<br>
people through the wilderness and won for them victories of God, God<br>
here commanded him to present his genealogical record and thereby<br>
affirm the fact that </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>b'yom
diber Hashem el Moshe b'eretz Mitzraim</i>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>(v. 28), on the day that<br>
God first spoke to Moshe in the land of Egypt, everyone knew his<br>
parents and grandparents, his uncles and aunts and all his cousins.
They<br>
knew his whole lineage and all his relatives. For eighty years they
had<br>
known him as a man of flesh and blood, subject to all the failings
and<br>
weaknesses, worries and needs, of human nature, a man like all the<br>
other men among whom he had been born and raised.
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>— they were flesh and blood
like all<br>
other men, and God chose them to be His instruments in the
performance<br>
of His great work; they were flesh and blood like all other men,<br>
and they carried out </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>His
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>great work.<br><br>
This “certificate of origin” is meant to negate in advance and
forevermore<br>
any erroneous deification, any illusion of an incarnation of<br>
Deity in human form. It is meant to uphold this truth: Moshe, the<br>
greatest man of all time, was just a man, and the position he
attained<br>
before God was not beyond the reach of mortal human beings.<br>
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