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Today is the Yahrtzeit of RSRH who passed away in 1888.
<br><br>
RSRH's influence is not limited to Germany Jewry. He has had a profound
influence on Yahadus in America also. For more on this, please see
<font size=3>
"<a href="http://www.stevens.edu/golem/llevine/rsrh/rsrh_america.pdf">
Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch and America – an Historical View</a>"
<br><br>
</font>Below is a selection from his commentary on Shemos 6:14 -
30. These pesukim trace the genealogy of Moshe and Aharon<br><br>
Note what he says about prophecy and other religions assigning divinity
to men.<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>14–30
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Immediately
conspicuous is the interruption of the narrative by a genealogical<br>
register </i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>interposing in
its midst and concluding with the words:<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>hoo Aharon</i> <i>v'
Moshe .. </i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>(v. 26),
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>hoo Moshe v'Aharon, heim
hamedarbrim ... </i> </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>(v. 27)
— as though<br>
these people were complete strangers to us, with whom we were
becoming<br>
acquainted here for the first time.
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Only in verse 29 does
Scripture<br>
return to the beginning of the narrative, repeat it, and continue
it!<br>
</i></font><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>
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><i>Hoo</i> <i>Aharon u
Moshe</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>hoo Moshe v'Aharon, heim
hamedarbrim el Paro </i>
</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>
The list of names is also meant to negate a second illusion, the<br>
opposite of the first and no less dangerous. Thus the genealogical
register<br>
is not confined to the direct line of descent of Moshe and Aharon —<br>
viz., Ya’akov, Levi, Kehas, Amram, Moshe — but lists also the tribes<br>
that preceded Levi, with their descendants, and lists also the other<br>
branches of the tribe of Levi. For although the certificate of
origin<br>
establishes as a fact the human nature of Moshe and Aharon, it might<br>
also have fostered the belief that everyone, without exception, is fit
to<br>
become a prophet. A person who today is known as a complete idiot<br>
could tomorrow proclaim the Word of God. God’s spirit could suddenly<br>
descend upon an ignorant and uneducated person and teach him to<br>
speak in seventy languages. Indeed, this phenomenon of imagined or<br>
pretended prophecy is not uncommon in other circles. In their view,<br>
the more intellectually limited and empty-minded the prophet of
today<br>
was yesterday, the more clearly this sudden transformation attests to
a<br>
Divine call.<br><br>
This dangerous illusion, too, is negated by the family register.
True,<br>
Moshe and Aharon were men and nothing but men, but they were<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>chosen
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>men.<br><br>
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