Moshe
finds himself assigned the most momentous task in Jewish history, to stand
before Pharaoh and represent G-D by demanding that he “Let My People Go!” he
meekly begs off. He demurs.
He says, I can’t.
“Please, my L-rd, I am not a man of words,
not since yesterday, nor since the day before yesterday, nor since You first
spoke to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of speech.” (Shemot 4:10)
Rashi teaches that G-D pleaded with Moshe
for seven days to accept the role of leader.
But he said, I
can’t. I am a kevad peh. I am kevad lashon.
What exactly did these
excuses mean?
In Vaeira (Shemot 6:12)
Moshe again proclaims his inadequacy in speech. “B’nai Yisrael don’t
listen to me; how then would Pharaoh listen to me, after all I am aral
sefatayim?” He is a man of “sealed lips.”
Daat Mikra understands aral
sefatayim to be an idiom which means that he could not speak
articulately; he could not “get his message across” to listeners.
Kevad peh. Kevad lashon. Aral
sefatayim. With these descriptions, the Torah seems to suggest
that Moshe’s speech impediment involved stuttering, articulation and
psychological fear. As Aryeh Kaplan teaches, “I find it difficult to
speak and find the right language” and – aral sefatayim – “I have
no self-confidence when I speak.”
Moshe, it seems, has
good reason to try and beg off the task G-D is assigning him.
We should have sympathy
for him, no?
Let us accept that Moshe
had these very real impediments. So, what? If G-D wanted
Moshe to lead the people, couldn’t He have simply healed him?
Three times a day, we
pray, “Heal us, Lord, and we shall be healed.”
We see this often with
stutterers. They need an initial push – “heal us!” – and then they put in
the hard, hard work of training and retraining themselves to speak without a
stutter. Certainly, Moshe could have been successful in overcoming his
own speech inadequacies! Yet he didn’t.
Why not?
In a beautiful piece
in Aish.com, entitled “Insulting G-D”, Rabbi Benjamin
Blech relates how, as a young boy, he asked his teacher, “Since G-D can do
anything, why didn’t He heal Moshe?”
The teacher answered
that, yes, Moshe would seemingly be better off with the gift of eloquence
but G-D didn’t grant him that because, “…Moshe never asked.”
Our Rebbe, Rav Asher
Freund ZT’L asks, what then is G-D’s response to Moshe’s seemingly legitimate
point. Yes, G-D makes a mouth for man, but Moshe is a stutterer who can’t
speak to Pharaoh. Pharaoh will mock him. G-D’s response hardly
changes that?
Rav Asher explains by
returning to the most foundational aspect of our emunah – It
is all in His hands. Without G-D, we are helpless. With Him, we can
do anything. This simple statement of faith is one Rav Asher taught
throughout his many decades of sharing wisdom, inspiration and faith.
Rav Asher hears in G-D’s
response a very human message, what are you saying? So, you’re a
stutterer. You think if you were a perfect speaker then all will be
well?
G-D is clear in his
message, If I send you to speak with Pharaoh, there is no difference if you are
a stutterer or a polished speaker. Whatever will happen at Pharaoh’s court, it
is all from Me. Without My granting you the chiyus every
second, you can’t utter even one word. (Ohn mein chiyus vos ich gib dir
yeden sekunda hostu nisht kein ein vort).
We are helpless without
Him. We are powerful with Him. Stutterer or orator, strength and
success come only from G-D.
This lesson, is plain in
Parashat Terumah, as well, when G-D tells Moshe, “Veasita – you shall
make – a Menorah of pure gold, hammered out shall the Menorah te’ase –
be made.”
“You shall make.”
“It shall be made.”
Active voice.
Passive voice. These are at odds, no? A contradiction. But in
this “contradiction” we find a pure example of Rav Asher’s tremendous
insight.
Rashi cites the Midrash
Tanchuma which teaches that making the menorah was such a difficult task that
Moshe was unable to visualize how the menorah was to appear, so G-D showed him
a menorah of fire. But even then, Moshe could not visualize it, whereupon G-D
instructed him to throw the ingot into the fire, and lo and behold the
completed menorah appeared!
That is why the posuk says
‘te’ase’ – it shall be made and not, as initially phrased, ‘you shall
make’. Rav Asher asks again, If the menorah appeared miraculously
(it was “made”), why then does the posuk begin, “You shall
make”?
Rav Asher answers that
Moshe claims that he can’t make this menorah. G-D’s response is that even if
Moshe did “make it” did he really think it was he who made
it? All is from G-D. Without G-D, nothing is made or done in this
world.
Which crystalizes Rav
Asher’s insight into the issue at hand. Knowing that he cannot utter one
word without G-D enabling him to utter it, is exactly why Moshe
can go to Pharaoh!
Many years ago, I sat at
Rav Asher’s holy Shabbos table and I reminded him of something he said about a
particularly difficult event many years earlier. He listened closely,
looking at me with his piercing and shining eyes, and suddenly said, Ani
amarti ka’zeh davar?
“I said such a thing?”
Yes, I said, you said
that.
Rav Asher
responded, Atah choshev she’ani medaber? “You think that I am
speaking? My voice is simply a Keli, a vessel, through which
whatever G-D wants me to convey comes through.” He reiterated, “You think
I am speaking? I say nothing. G-D sends me a message which He wants me to
utter through my vocal chords, but it is not me.”
That is precisely what
G-D responded to Moshe, stutterer or not. “Who makes a mouth for man, is it not
I Hashem?”
Go and say what I tell
you to say. Externals are irrelevant. All that is relevant is the chiyus I grant
man to accomplish.
It is true when we stand
before the “pharaoh’s” in our lives. Our success is by G-D’s hand, not
our own.
By: Rabbi Dr. Eliyahu Safran
