VaEra #2

Shemot 6:2-9:35

Trust, Communication, and the Long Road to Redemption

Miriam-Simma Walfish, 5766

The story of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt is one of the longest narrative cycles in the Humash, spanning three and a half parshiyot and 15 chapters. It is a fun story to read, with plenty of suspense and beating of the bad guys, triumph of good over evil, and supernatural powers. And yet, reading it time after time, year after year, I catch myself at times wondering, what took them so long? In the lead up to this week's parasha, Moshe has finally been convinced by God to go back to Egypt and speak to Pharaoh, yet the only result of his first attempt is that the people he is trying to save are forced into even crueler conditions. At the end of Parashat Shemot, a frustrated Moshe accuses God of making the situation worse for the people by sending him (5:22-23):

The Ramban makes an interesting comment here. He asks why Moshe was so frustrated. After all, when God first convinced Moshe to perform this duty, God did tell Moshe that Pharaoh would not listen (4:21):

Ramban suggests that Moshe realised at this point "כי ארוכה היא" - that the redemption would take a long time - and that this is what frustrated him.

Avivah Zornberg, in a lecture I attended this week, argued that redemption was such a long process because Moshe and B'nei Yisrael were at a communication impasse. In last week's parasha, God spends two chapters trying to convince Moshe to take up the role of emissary - to be God's spokesperson both to the people and to Pharaoh. Moshe strongly resists, and his final attempt at getting out of the task is by saying that he is not a man of words, that his mouth and his tongue are "heavy" - "כְבַד פֶּה וּכְבַד לָשׁוֹן" (4:10). His argument is clear: How can God's spokesperson be someone who cannot speak? Commentators have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the meaning of this ambiguous phrase, "כְבַד פֶּה וּכְבַד לָשׁוֹן". It has often been understood to be a physical speech impediment, a stutter or a stammer, but Zornberg argues that it is a more psychologically based impediment that must be overcome in order to bring about redemption. We can understand Moshe's inability to speak only if we understand it in relation to the widespread problems with hearing in our story.

In order to understand Moshe's speech impediment, we have to understand the nature of dialogue, of conversation. In order for me to speak and feel myself heard, I need to be confident that you are listening to me. I need to be able to trust in your ability to hear me. It is precisely this confidence and trust that Moshe lacks regarding B'nei Yisrael. The first indication we have of this is toward the end of the same burning bush episode. God has just explained to him the sequence of the exodus. Moshe is to assemble the elders and go with them to Pharaoh and get permission to go sacrifice to God for three days in the desert and then God will smite the Egyptians, end of story. Sounds pretty simple, right? But Moshe is not satisfied. He asks (4:1), "What happens if they don't listen to me?" God replies patiently, it seems, and gives Moshe three signs that will give Moshe credibility with the people (4:2-9). However, the rabbis don't read this exchange in quite so positive a light. In the gemara on Shabbat 97a, Reish Lakish says, "החושד בכשרים לוקה בגופו" - "Whoever is suspicious of upright people ("kesheirim") gets physically punished." The gemara explains this on the basis of Moshe's statement that the people won't believe him. The reasoning is as follows: after Moshe's objection, the second sign God gave him was a leprous hand. The other named character in the Torah who gets leprosy is Miriam, who is stricken with it when she and Aharon gossip about Moshe (Bemidbar 12:1-10): "וַתְּדַבֵּר מִרְיָם וְאַהֲרֹן בְּמֹשֶׁה...וְהִנֵּה מִרְיָם מְצֹרַעַת כַּשָּׁלֶג" - "And Miriam and Aharon spoke against Moshe...and behold, Miriam was leprous like the snow". According to the rabbis, therefore, Moshe's leprosy was also brought upon him as a punishment for his ungenerous judgment of the Israelites' lack of faith.

When Moshe does encounter the Israelites, it initially seems that his suspicions are unfounded. When he first meets them, he transmits God's words, and the people listen and believe - "וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ" (Shemot 4:31). Everything seems to be going according to plan. However, as soon as Pharaoh does not respond positively and makes the people's lot more difficult, their faith is destroyed and Moshe's fears come true. The next time he returns to the people, in this week's parasha, with God's new promise, they cannot hear Moshe, "מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה", because of their "shortness of breath and hard work" (Shemot 6:9). When Moshe sees that they are not listening, he complains again to God that he will not be able to speak to Pharaoh because he has "uncircumcised lips" - "עֲרַל שְׂפָתָיִם" (6:12). What we see here is a vicious cycle in which Moshe assumes that the people will not be able to listen. This in turn affects Moshe's ability to speak, which negatively affects his capacity to speak to the people. When he sees that they have not listened, even though the narrator tells us that this is because of their hard work, Moshe must on some level believe that it is his fault. He then feels even less confident to go speak to Pharaoh, saying that if the people, who have reason to want to believe Moshe, don't believe, how will Pharaoh (ibid.)?

And so we see that Moshe's inability to speak was related in large part to his uncertainty about being heard. In order for redemption to occur, both the redeemer and the redeemed had to develop their communicative capacities. In order to do that, they had to develop trust in one another. Moshe had to trust that B'nei Yisrael had the will to believe in him and in his mission and the people had to trust that Moshe was actually summoned by God.

Shabbat shalom.