Va-eira & Shemot: Patchwork

Sometimes a narrative section in the Torah flows as smoothly as a tale told by a master storyteller. Other times the narrative is a patchwork of different versions of the story, with obvious seams.

Those who believe that God dictated every word in the first five books of the bible to Moshe (“Moses” in English) either ignore the seams, or do some mental acrobatics to explain them away. I like to imagine that God’s dictation is interrupted when God gets distracted by other things happening in the world. But I daresay the single-author stalwarts would never accept a God who has trouble multi-tasking.

I prefer to explain the patchwork parts of Torah by applying a key hypothesis of modern source criticism: that several versions of the same story were circulating in ancient Israel when a redactor¹ combined them to produce what became the authoritative version, the version recorded from then on in Torah scrolls. Sometimes the resulting narrative reads seamlessly. But some seams are definitely showing in the stitching together of last week’s Torah portion, Shemot (Exodus/Shemot 1:1-6:1) with this week’s Torah portion, Va-eira (Exodus/Shemot 6:2-9:35)—particularly regarding the question of who is qualified to speak for God.

Who speaks?

Moses Adores God in the Burning Bush, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The first time Moshe goes to Mount Sinai, in the portion Shemot, he is a shepherd. He walks over to look at a bush that burns but is not consumed, and finds himself having a conversation with God—the God of his Israelite birth parents in Egypt. He learns that God plans to bring the oppressed Israelites out of Egypt and to the land of Canaan, and that he will be God’s agent.

Moshe tries five times to get out of this assignment. His penultimate attempt is to protest that he is a very poor speaker.

Then God said to him: “Who placed a mouth in the human being? … Is it not I, God? And now go! I myself will be with your mouth, and I will teach you what you will speak.” But he said: “Excuse me please, my lord. Please send by the hand of [someone] you should send!” (Exodus 4:11-12-13)

But God is not about to send someone else to liberate the Israelites. So God compromises, saying:

“Is not your brother Aharon the Levite? I know that he can certainly speak. And also, hey! He is going out to meet you, and he will see you and rejoice in his heart. And you will speak to him, and you will put the words in his mouth. And I myself will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you both what you must do. And he will speak for you to the people. And he himself will be like a mouth for you, and you yourself will be like a god for him. And this staff, you will take it in your hand, because you will do the signs.” (Exodus 4:14-17)

In other words, Moshe will be God’s spokesperson, and Aharon will be Moshe’s spokesperson. Moshe will use his staff to initiate the miracles God has planned to impress first the Israelites, then the pharaoh.

Who holds the staff?

Moshe heads toward Egypt, and meets his brother at Mount Sinai. He tells Aharon everything he knows so far. Then both men go to Egypt and gather the Israelite elders.

And Aharon spoke all the words that God had spoken to Moshe, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people. And the people believed, and they paid attention … (Exodus 4:30-31)

Things seem to be going according to God’s plan. Next Moshe and Aharon go to the pharaoh and request that the Israelites get three days off work to go into the wilderness and sacrifice to their God. The pharaoh doubles their work instead, requiring them to find their own straw while still making their daily quota of bricks. The Israelite foremen blame Moshe and Aharon, and Moshe asks God:

“My lord, why did you do harm to this people? Why did you send me? Since I came to Paroh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people; and you have certainly not rescued your people!” (Exodus 5:22-23)

Paroh (פַּּרְעֺה) =the title of the king of Egypt, “Pharaoh” in English. The portion Shemot ends with God saying the equivalent of “Just wait and see”.

Who memorizes the divine words?

The portion Va-eira then begins with God repeating what Moshe already learned on Mount Sinai. Then God says:

“Therefore, say to the Israelites: I am Y-H-V-H. I will bring you out from under the forced labor of Egypt, and I will rescue you from serving them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments. And I will take you for myself as a people, and I will be for you as a God, and you will know that I am GOD, your God, who brings you out from under the forced labor of Egypt. And I will bring you to the land where I raised my hand [in an oath] to give to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov, and I will give it to you as a possession. I am Y-H-V-H.” (Exodus 6:6-8)

This is quite a speech to memorize and deliver, for a man who knows he is a poor speaker. But the next verse says:

Then Moshe spoke thus to the Israelites. But they did not listen to Moshe, due to shortness of spirit and due to hard servitude. (Exodus 6:9)

In the portion Shemot, Moshe refused to speak to the Israelites without Aharon as an interpreter. But here in Va-eira, Moshe simply tells the people what God said—with no speech defect, no difficulty with Hebrew, no hesitation over the words. Aharon is not mentioned.

Classic commentary does not try to explain this sudden change. But the change makes sense if a redactor has suddenly switched to a different version of the story. Modern source scholarship identifies the story of Moshe’s recruitment on the mountain in the portion Shemot with a non-P (non-priestly) tradition.² The version from the P tradition begins with Exodus 6:2, which is also the first verse of the portion Va-eira.

Clumsy lips

Right after the overworked Israelites ignore Moshe’s message, God orders Moshe to speak to the pharaoh. Moshe objects:

“Hey, the Israelites do not listen to me. Then how will Paroh listen to me? And I have foreskinned lips!” Then GOD spoke to Moshe and to Aharon, and commanded them regarding the Israelites and Paroh, king of Egypt—to bring out the Israelites from the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 6:12-13)

According to Richard Elliott Friedman, these two verses were added by a redactor.³ But why? Moshe and Aharon have already received God’s instructions. “Foreskinned lips” might indicate that Moshe’s problem as an orator is a speech defect, and the Israelites who were overworked and short of breath did not invest the energy to understand him. But there is no need to insert Moshe’s objection here, since he describes his lips that way again after an intermission giving Moshe and Aharon’s genealogy.

And GOD spoke to Moshe, saying: “I am GOD. Speak to Paroh, king of Egypt, everything that I speak to you.” And Moshe said before GOD: “Hey, I have foreskinned lips! So how will Paroh listen to me?” (Exodus 6:29-30)

Who speaks to the pharaoh?

In the P version of the story in the portion Va-eira, it appears that the whole conversation on Mount Sinai recorded in the portion Shemot never happened, because next God reacts to Moshe’s protest as if it were news, and tells Moshe the same solution God gave on Mount Sinai:

“See, I place you as a god to Paroh, and your brother Aharon will be your prophet. You yourself will speak everything that I command you, and your brother Aharon will speak to Paroh, and he will send out the Israelites from his land.” (Exodus 7:1-2)

Does this mean that from now on, God will speak to Moshe, Moshe will speak to Aharon, Aharon will speak to the pharaoh, and Moshe will initiate miracles with his staff—the same arrangement God decided on in the Mount Sinai version?

No.

First Moshe learns that God will harden the pharaoh’s heart after each miracle, so he will not let the Israelites go until God is ready to bring them out of Egypt. Then God gives instructions for a preliminary miracle:

“When Paroh speaks to you, saying: Give us a miracle for yourselves!—then you must say to Aharon: Take your staff and throw it down before Paroh; it will become a reptile.” (Exodus 7: 9)

Already Aharon is the brother wielding the staff.

The first miracle that affects the whole country is turning the water of the Nile River into blood. At God’s command, Moshe warns the pharaoh at length. Then Aharon strikes the surface of the river, and God turns the water into blood (Exodus 7:14-20).

Moses Speaks to Pharaoh, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

The next miracle, frogs, goes the same way, with Moshe speaking to Pharaoh, and Aharon wielding his staff (Exodus 7:26-8:2). Pharaoh summons both of them and promises to release the Israelites if they plead with their God to remove the frogs. With no prompting from God, Moshe asks Pharaoh to name the day of the frog removal, and adds that the death of the frogs on that exact day will prove God’s unique power (Exodus 8:5-7). For someone who claimed in the portion Shemot that he was “not a man of words”,⁴ he is thinking on his feet and speaking eloquently and confidently.

Moshe continues to be the one who speaks to Pharaoh throughout the rest of the portion Va-eira. Aharon stretches out his staff to initiate the miraculous plague of gnats or lice (Exodus 8:12-13), but Moshe holds out his staff to initiate the plague of hail (Exodus 9:22-23). Regardless of who wields his staff, Moshe does all the talking—and continues through the last three miracles—locusts, darkness, and death of the firstborn—in the following Torah portion, Bo.

Throughout the narrative of the ten miracles or plagues, non-P sources alternate with P sources, according to modern source scholars. But the redactor of this section of narrative stitches together the two versions of the story seamlessly, maintaining Moshe as the prophet who speaks directly to the pharaoh, and showing his increasing confidence and authority.⁵

But in the narrative section from Moshe’s call to prophecy on Mount Sinai (in the portion Shemot) to the miracle of turning water into blood (in the portion Va-eira), the redactor hops between sources without harmonizing them.

I wish the redactor had used more care. It is not that hard to redact; every week I write a lot about the weekly Torah portion or haftarah reading, then go back and select which paragraphs I will actually use for my blog post, often rearranging them in the process. If something I have written does not fit the theme, I remove it and save it for another post. If one paragraph seems to contradict the section before it, I add an explanation. And if I actually do contradict myself, I think about it and start over!

However, I am only redacting my own writing. What if I had the job of combining two earlier stories that I viewed as equally sacred? Perhaps the redactor of this part of the book of Exodus could not bear to eliminate either the narrative that views Moshe as unable or unwilling to speak, or the narrative in which Moshe speaks eloquently to the pharaoh.

What would I do, faced with that dilemma? I would include both—but rearrange the passages slightly, and write a little extra material, to show that Moshe is gradually learning how to speak and gaining confidence.

Although the current usage of “redact” usually focuses on making deletions from a piece of writing, biblical scholarship uses “redact” to mean selecting and arranging various pieces of writing to make a single document.
Julius Wellhausen (1844–1918), formulated a “documentary hypothesis” identifying different passages in the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) as coming from one of four sources: J, E, P, and D. Source scholarship today abounds with disagreements about non-P sources, as well as different theories for dating P and other sources. But the consensus is that the P (priestly) source is different from all other sources and is clearly identifiable.
Richard Elliott Friedman, the Bible with Sources Revealed, HarperCollins, New York, 2003, p. 128.
Exodus 4:10. See my post Shemot: Not a Man of Words.
See my post Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds his Voice.

Haftarat Shemot or Matot—Jeremiah: A Congenital Prophet

(In this post I refer to people by their Hebrew names first, but to books and places by their English names.)

The English word “prophet” means “1. one who utters divinely inspired revelations. … 2. one gifted with more than ordinary spiritual and moral insight. … 3. one who foretells future events: predictor.”¹

The Biblical Hebrew word navi (נָבִיא), routinely translated as “prophet”, means: 1. one who goes into a temporary altered state and experiences God.² 2. one who receives messages from God and communicates at least some of them to other people.³

Even the second kind of navi does not predict the future, but rather warns people about what God will do to them if they do not change their ways.⁴ Everyone in the Hebrew Bible who hears or reads one of these prophecies has a choice: to continue their behavior and eventually suffer the prescribed doom from God, or to stop doing the wrong things and avoid the doom.

Ironically, although the recipients of prophecies have free will (the ability to choose their own actions), the prophets themselves may not.

Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, by Rembrandt, ca. 1630

A time for prophecy

Yirmeyahu (“Jeremiah” in English) seems to have no choice but to prophesy, whether he wants to or not. His dilemma is introduced in the haftarah reading Jeremiah 1:1-2:3, which goes with this week’s Torah portion, Shemot, according to the Sefardi tradition.⁵ The book of Jeremiah opens:

The words of Yirmeyahu, son of Chilkiyahu, one of the priests who were at Anatot in the territory of Benjamin. (Jeremiah 1:1)

Already we know that the father of Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) is a priest, perhaps even the high priest named Chilkiyahu during the reign of King Yoshiyahu (“Josiah” in English).⁶ Priesthood is hereditary in Ancient Israel, so Yermiyahu (Jeremiah) is born a priest. He is also born in the territory of Benjamin, close to Jerusalem, the capital city of the kingdom of Judah.

Before he reaches adulthood, he finds out that he is also a prophet.

The word of God happened to him in the days of Yoshiyahu son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirtieth year of his reign. (Jeremiah 1:2)

King Yoshiyahu (“Josiah” in English) ruled the kingdom of Judah from 640 to 608 B.C.E.—after the Assyrian Empire to the north had become weak and ceded some of northern kingdom of Israel to Judah, and before the new Babylonian empire had grown strong. According to 2 Kings 22 and 23, King Yoshiyahu crusaded to get rid of all the shrines and priests serving other gods.⁷

There is not much work for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) until after King Yoshiyahu dies, since the main roles of a prophet during the time of the Israelite kingdoms are to challenge government policies and to shame or frighten rich citizens into reforming. But then Babylon’s power grows, and the kings of Judah make no changes in policy to address the threat. The word of God happens to Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) more often, and many of his prophesies warn that unless people return to the exclusive worship of God, and embrace God’s ethical rules, the Babylonians will conquer Judah and Jerusalem.

And it happened through the days of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Tzidekiyahu son of Yoshiyahu, until Jerusalem went into exile in the fifth month. (Jeremiah 1:3)

The reign of King Tzidekiyahu (“Zedekiah” in English) ended in 586 B.C.E. when the Babylonian army completed its conquest of Judah by destroying Jerusalem and exiling almost all of its remaining citizens to Babylon.

A congenital prophet

The narrative in this week’s haftarah then switches to the first person, and Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) speaks.

And the word of God happened to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you; and before you went out of the womb, I set you apart as holy. A prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)

What is God communicating here?

“Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you.” Psalm 139 is the only other biblical passage that says God gives human fetuses their physical form and some aspect of their personality:

For you yourself provided my conscience;

You wove me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)

Furthermore, in Psalm 139 God knows all human thoughts:

God, you have examined me and you know me.

You know [when] I sit down and stand up,

You discern my intention from afar. (Psalm 139:1-2)

The new claim in the book of Jeremiah is that God knows Yirmeyahu even before weaving him together in the womb. This might mean that God knows what certain individuals will be like in the future. Or it might mean that God creates someone’s personality even before creating that person’s body.

“And before you went out of the womb, I set you apart as holy.” This statement could mean merely that Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) was born into the priesthood, since priests are holy in the sense of being set apart for temple service and restricted regarding marriage and mourning.⁸ But it might also mean that God made him, in utero, even holier than a priest, even more set apart from normal life.

“A prophet to the nations I appointed you.” In the rest of the book of Jeremiah, the prophet addresses most of his prophecies to the citizens of Judah, although he does utter some prophecies about other nations.⁹ But the point in this verse is that before Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) was born, God determined how he would spend his entire adult life.

A right of refusal?

That raises the question of whether it is even possible for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) to refuse to speak as a prophet. (Presumably he cannot help hearing, or otherwise experiencing, God.) Some modern commentators assert that he does have the power to refuse. For example, Plaut wrote:

“The call to Jeremiah may thus be seen to express both predetermination and freedom: the child was born with particular gifts and a high degree of religious sensitivity. But giving his life to a pursuit of the divine call—with all its rewards, difficulties and dangers—was a decision that Jeremiah had to make for himself.”¹⁰

After God’s opening salvo, Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) protests that he does not have the eloquence to be a prophet.

“Ah-ah, my lord God! Hey, I do not know how to speak, since I am a na-ar.” (Jeremiah 1:6)

na-ar(נַעַר) = boy or young man.

He says this, according to Malbim, because he lacks confidence, because he does not know how to speak well in front of a congregation, and because he is afraid people will kill him on account of his prophecies.¹¹

And God said to me: “Don’t you say ‘I am a na-ar’. For you will go wherever I send you, and you will speak whatever I command you.” (Jeremiah 1:7)

Midrash Tanchuma explains, ominously: “That is, against your will you will go, and against your will you will speak.”¹²

Indeed, later in the book Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) complains:

“… the word of God happens to me, for scorn and derision all day. So I thought: I will not mention him, and I will not speak any more in his name. But it [God’s word] happened in my mind like a burning fire shut up in my bones, and it exhausted me to hold it in, and I could not endure.” (Jeremiah 20:8-9)

By the prophet’s own testimony, he has no freedom of choice when it comes to prophecy.

A promise of rescue

After God tells Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) that he must go and speak at God’s command, God attempts to reassure him by saying:

“Don’t be afraid in front of them! For I am with you to rescue you.” (Jeremiah 1:8)

“To rescue you” could mean merely to rescue him if his speech stumbles. But God makes the real meaning clear before the interview is over:

“And hey, I appoint you this day as a fortified city, and as an iron pillar, and as bronze walls, against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, against its officers, against its priests, and against the people of the land. And they will battle against you, but they will not prevail over you, because I am with you,” declares God, “to rescue you!” (Jeremiah 1:18)

Later in the book, the prophecies of Yermiyahy (Jeremiah) are so unpopular that he needs to be rescued from various death threats.¹³ The worst is when he tries to leave Jerusalem on a business trip, and a guard at the gate accuses him of defecting to the Babylonians. City officials beat him, imprison him, and eventually convince King Tzediyahu to put him to death. Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) is lowered into a pit with no water, only mud. But before he dies of thirst and hunger, the king changes his mind and has him pulled up and returned to the regular prison. He remains there until the Babylonians capture Jerusalem.¹⁴ Then, while the city is burned down and its nobles are killed, the Babylonians remove him, give him food, and set him free.¹⁵

The characters in the Hebrew Bible have fewer choices than we do in today’s world, but almost all of them have free will, the ability to choose to do something different. We know this because the prophets who utter prophecies issue warnings about how people will suffer if they do not change their ways.

But do the prophets themselves have free will? It is hard to know, since even reluctant prophets like Moses come to accept their role in the world—except for Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah), who hates being a prophet so much that he wishes he had never been born. He declares:

“Accursed is the day that I was born! … Why did I ever go out from the womb to see trouble and grief, and to use up my days in shame!” (Jeremiah 20:14-20)

Today we have more choices than anyone in ancient Jerusalem, yet our range of choices is still limited by our starting point. A person is born into a family; events can change one’s upbringing as time goes on, but one’s first environment makes its mark. A person is born with predetermined genes; they can be turned on or off by events, but not replaced by different genes.¹⁶Some infants have congenital defects. Some, for all we know, might be congenital prophets.

Do we have more control over our own lives than Yirmeyahu? Or are we just less aware that someone or something is pulling the strings?

www.merriam-webster.com, 2025.
E.g. 1 Samuel 10:5-6 and 10-13.
E.g. Deutereonomy 34:10, 1 Samuel 3:20, etc. There are also false prophets, as in Deuteronomy 13:1-4.
Deuteronomy 18:22 is an exception to this rule; the book of Jonah is a prime example.
The haftarah reading Jeremiah 1:1-2:3 goes with the portion Matot in Numbers according to the Ashkenazi tradition.
2 Kings 22:4ff.
2 Kings 22:1-23:25.
Leviticus 21:1-15.
Jeremiah 9:25, 25:9–29, 27:3–11, and chapters 46–51.
W. Gunther Plaut, The Haftarah Commentary, UAHC Press, New York, 1996, p. 413.
Malbim is the acronym of Meir Leibush ben Yehiel Michel Weisser (1809–1879).
Midrash Tanchuma, c.500–c.800 C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
Jeremiah 11:21-23, 26:8-11, 26:24, 36:26.
Jeremiah chapters 37-38.
Jeremiah 40:1-4.
At least not yet; gene splicing is still in its infancy.

Naso, Bemidabar, & Vayakheil: Reconstructing

(It is a pleasure to type effortlessly and comfortably again! I am glad return to my favorite work: writing about Torah.)

Model of Tent of Meeting in Timna Valley Park, Israel

The Tent of Meeting that the Israelites make as a dwelling for God in the book of Exodus is 10 cubits wide, 10 cubits high, and 30 cubits long. (Ten cubits equals about 15½ feet, or 4¾ meters.) This boxy tent stands in the back half of an open courtyard, slightly smaller than an Olympic-sized swimming pool, with a linen wall stretched between acacia wood posts around its periphery.

Neither the tent nor the courtyard is a permanent structure.

In the first two Torah portions of the book of Numbers, we learn how everything is dismantled, transported, and reassembled at the next campsite on the Israelites’ long journey north from Mount Sinai—and who is responsible for the wood, the fabric, and the holy furnishings.

Exodus: Vayakheil

Neither the inside cloth nor the outside cloth of the Tent of Meeting is sewn into a continuous shell.

And all the wise of mind among the makers of the work, the mishkan, made ten cloths of fine twisted linen threads and blue, purple, and red [dyes]; they were made with a design of keruvim. (Exodus 36:8)

mishkan (מִשְׁכָּן) = (literally) dwelling place. (In the books of Exodus through Numbers, mishkan always refers to the portable tent-sanctuary where God dwells, at least part-time, in the tent’s back chamber, the Holy of Holies. After its first assembly, in Exodus 40:17-33, it is also called the Tent of Meeting and the Tent of Testimony. One common English translation for mishkan is “tabernacle”.)

Keruv, ivory from Samaria, 9th-8th century BCE

keruvim (כְּרֻבִים or כְּרוּבִים) = hybrid creatures with wings. Singular keruv. (Two gold keruvim rise from either end of the gold lid of the ark in the Holy of Holies, the back chamber of the mishkan, and keruvim are woven or embroidered into some of the fabrics of the mishkan as well.)¹

Each of these ten tapestries is 4 cubits wide (about 2 yards or meters) by 28 cubits long (about 14 yards or meters), long enough to drape across the ceiling frame and hang down on both sides just short of the ground. Fifty loops of blue wool are sewn down both side edges of each cloth, and the loops are connected with gold clasps.

And fifty gold clasps were made, and the cloths were joined, each one to the other, with the clasps. And the mishkan became one [piece]. (Exodus 36:13)

Someone has to fasten a row of 50 clasps nine times, every time the Tent of Meeting is assembled; and unfasten them all when the tent is dismantled again. (The open end of the mishkan is covered with a free-hanging curtain, so it serves at the entrance. A hanging curtain also separates the Holy of Holies from the main chamber inside the tent.)

The outside of the framework is covered with similar cloths woven from goat-hair, joined together by bronze clasps. Two layers of leather lie on top of the goat-hair cloth over the roof.

The frame of the tent roof is made from acacia wood bars, but the three walls are solid acacia wood: wide upright planks stabilized with cross-bars. Two tenons at the bottom of each plank fit into silver sockets in wood bases. And even though these wooden elements are hidden by linen inside and goat-hair fabric outside, they are covered with gold!² Each of the 48 upright planks is over 15 feet tall and 3 feet wide, so erecting and dismantling the underlying wooden structure means a lot of heavy labor.

Numbers: Bemidbar

The book of Numbers opens after the Israelites have made the Tent of Meeting and all its furnishings (in Exodus), and ordained new priests for the revised religion (in Leviticus). Before the people leave Mount Sinai and head north, God organizes them for the coming conquest of Canaan.

The first Torah portion, Bemidbar, opens with God calling for a census of soldiers for future combat: the men age 20 and older in every tribe except Levi. The Levites are exempt from battle because they are assigned their own “army” duty: transporting and guarding the Tent of Meeting.

And they will be in charge of all the gear of the Tent of Meeting, and the Israelites’ charge to serve the service of the mishkan. (Numbers 3:8)

Campsites of 12 tribes and 3 clans of Levites

When God signals that the people must pull up stakes, the Levites dismantle the Tent of Meeting. They carry the furnishings, the fabric, and the wood on every journey. When the Israelites pitch camp again, the Levites erect God’s tent in the middle and the courtyard wall around it. They pitch their own tents immediately around the courtyard, and serve as guards to prevent any unauthorized persons from encroaching on the sacred space.

There are three clans of Levites, named after the three sons of Levi listed in Genesis 46:11: Gershon, Kohat (or Kehat), and Merari. Sons in a biblical genealogy are list by birth order, so Gershon was born first, then Kohat, then Merari last.

And the charge of the Gershonites at the Tent of Meeting was the mishkan and the tent: its coverings, and the curtain of the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and the cloths of the courtyard, and the curtain of the entrance of the gate of the coutyard, which is near the mishkan and near the altar—all around; and their cords, and all its service. (Numbers 3:25-26)

The descendants of Levi’s middle son, Kohat, are responsible for transporting the holy items inside the mishkan, and the bronze altar in the courtyard.

Their charge was the ark, the table, and lampstand, and the altars, and the holy utensils for ministering to them, and the curtain, and all their service. (Numbers 3:31)

The only curtain that this clan is responsible for is the one inside the tent that divides the main chamber from the Holy of Holies.

But why are the descendants of Levi’s middle son responsible for the holiest items of the mishkan? In the book of Genesis, the firstborn son of each extended family becomes responsible for making burnt offerings to God. If the people followed this precedent, the descendants of Levi’s oldest son, Gershon, would be in charge of the holiest things.

However, in Exodus and Numbers, the job of burning offerings for God is transferred to the priests, with assistance from Levites. All priests are descended from the first high priest, Moses’ brother Aaron. Moses and Aaron’s father, Amram, is a descendant of Kohat, the middle son of Levi.³ That means the rest of the Kohatites are Moses’ and Aaron’s closest relatives. No wonder they become responsible for transporting the holiest items in the mishkan.

As for the descendants of Levi’s youngest son:

The Merarites are appointed for the charge of the beams of the mishkan and its bars, and its uprights, and its sockets, and all its gear, and all its service; and the uprights of the courtyard, all around, and their sockets, and their tent-pegs, and their cords. (Numbers 3:36-37)

While the men in the other tribes of Israel are mustered into the army at age 20, the work of disassembling, carrying, reassembling , and guarding the Tent of Meeting is restricted to Levite men between the ages of 30 and 50. (See my post Bemidbar: Two Kinds of Troops.)

When God’s cloud lifts from above the mishkan, indicating that it is time for the Israelites to journey on, the priests enter the tent first. Aaron and his sons Elazar and Itamar wrap up the ark, bread table, lampstand, and gold incense altar inside, and the bronze altar in the courtyard. (See my post Bemidbar: Covering the Sacred.) The embroidered curtain that divides the Holy of Holies from the main chamber of the mishkan becomes the first of three layers covering the ark.

Only after these holy objects are completely covered, so they cannot be seen or touched, may the other Kohatite men pick them up by their carrying poles. And only after the Tent of Meeting is empty may the Gershonites and Merarites begin dismantling it.

Numbers: Naso

This week’s Torah portion, Naso, opens with God’s instructions regarding the Gershonites and Merarites between the ages of 30 and 50—

—everyone who enters to do military service of the military, to serve the service at the Tent of Meeting. (Numbers 4:23 for Gershonites, Numbers 4:30 for Merarites)

They are non-combatants in any future battle because they must be continuously responsible for all the elements of the tent itself, as well as its unroofed courtyard.

Once the sacred objects have been removed, the Gershonites take down all the lengths of fabric and leather, carefully undoing 950 clasps. They handle the lightest objects, so their work requires the least physical strength. But it requires the most patience and delicacy.

The Merarites do heavy physical labor. Furthermore, disassembling and reassembly the wooden structure with its upright plants, cross-bars, and bases, is a team effort requiring coordination between the men so that nothing collapses.

Once the wooden structure is stable, the fabric layers have all been fastened to make continuous walls and roofs, and the holy objects are all in place, only the priests may enter the mishkan. But the Levites remain on duty, assisting in the courtyard, and guarding the sacred space they have rebuilt.

Some people excel at fine detail work, like the Gershonites. Others are good at team projects on a grand scale, like the Merarites, whether they help organize the team or do the heavy lifting. We need both kinds of people to build a community.

And although everyone who has contributed tries to guard their community and keep it going, no congregation, association, institute, or enterprise continues forever unchanged. At some point, it will fall apart—unless the Gershonites and Merarites in the group pitch in to carefully dismantle the old structure, help everyone move to a place that meets the people’s new needs, and then use the elements of the old structure to build a new one. And we need people like the Kohatites to carry the most sacred goals and values of the community into the next stage.

Never underestimate a Levite.

For more on keruvim, see my post Terumah: Cherubs are Not for Valentine’s Day.
Exodus 36:34.
Exodus 6:20.
Numbers 4:5-6. See my post Bemidbar: Covering the Sacred.

Ki Tisa: Apotheosis of Moses?

(This is my twelfth and final post in a series about the evolving relationship between Moses and God in the book of Exodus/Shemot. Next week’s post will be back in sync with the Jewish weekly readings. Meanwhile, this is Passover week! If you’d like to read one of my posts on Passover, you might try: Pesach & Vayikra: Holy Matzah.)

Moses: from fearful loner to authoritative leader

When Moses walks over to look at the bush that burns but is not consumed, he is a curious man who has compassion for the victims of bullies,¹ but he also has a history of anxiety. After a problematic childhood as an Israelite who was adopted by Egyptian royalty, he fled a murder charge in Egypt, then found a home with a Midianite priest. Safe but still wary, the last thing Moses wants to do is return to Egypt.

Moses and the Burning Bush, by Domenico Zampieri, 17th century

Then God speaks to him out of the fire, and Moses hides his face. (See my post: Shemot: A Close Look at the Burning Bush.) God tells him that he will be the human leader of the victimized Israelites in Egypt; Moses must give the pharaoh ultimatums, then conduct the people from Egypt to Canaan.

Moses tries to excuse himself from the job. He is certain that he is not qualified (see my post: Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility); that the Israelites will not believe or trust him (see my post: Shemot: Names and Miracles); and that he cannot speak well (see my post: Shemot: Not a Man of Words). But God patiently answers his every objection, like a parent with a resistant child. Panicked, Moses begs God to send someone else. God coaxes Moses into cooperating by promising that his long-lost brother Aaron will help him (see my post: Moses Gives Up).

Back in Egypt, Moses gradually changes. During his first few negotiations with the pharaoh, he simply parrots the words God gives him, but as his confidence grows he adds words of his own. It helps that a powerful deity backs him up with miraculous plagues, and it helps that the pharaoh and his court treat Moses with increasing respect. (See my post: Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice.)

When he leads the Israelites across the wilderness to Mount Sinai, they are the ones who behaved like wayward and frightened children. Moses behaves like a nervous new parent. He asks God, his mentor, for advice, but he also acts on his own initiative. (See my posts: Beshalach: Moses Graduates and Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.)

At Mount Sinai, God pursues a formal covenant with the Israelite people. Between them, God and Moses arrange a covenant four times. (See my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant.) The third of the four covenants is entirely Moses’ creation, and includes all of the people in a dramatic ritual with standing stones, animal sacrifices, blood splashing, and a public reading of the laws God has told Moses so far. The fourth covenant, God’s idea, is when the elders behold God’s “feet” and hold a feast (the Ancient Near East equivalent of a signing ceremony for a treaty).

Then Moses spends 40 days on the mountaintop listening to God outline a revamped religion, which includes a sanctuary tent where God will dwell in the midst of the people. But the Israelites below think Moses will never return, and they ask Aaron for an idol to follow instead. Aaron makes the Golden Calf, and the people worship it—a clear violation of the covenant with God.

On the 40^th day God offers to exterminate the people and start over with Moses’ descendants, but Moses passes God’s test and remains loyal to the Israelites. He walks down to the camp and smashes the two stone tablets engraved by God, but God recognizes Moses’ right to make decisions and takes no action. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Taking Risks.) The co-leaders arrange a massacre and a plague that kill the worst Golden Calf worshippers.

Then God tells Moses that a messenger will lead the Israelites to Canaan, because God is too angry to go in their midst. Moses presses God to reverse that decision, and also to pardon all the surviving Israelites. God seems favorable toward both requests, but never makes an explicit commitment. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.) A lack of openness between the two leaders of the Israelites continues through the book of Numbers, with Moses pitching arguments designed to flatter and influence God, and God making decisions that are close to what Moses requests but not exactly the same.²

The story about Moses’ second 40-day stint at the top of Mount Sinai illustrates that the working relationship between the two leaders is not the only thing that changes.

Moses and God: shifting commitments

At the burning bush, God was determined to rescue the Israelites from Egypt and give them the land of Canaan. Moses tried to get out of being personally involved, even though he was empathetic toward all victims of bullies.

By the time Moses leads the Israelites to Mount Sinai, he has unreservedly embraced the mission God gave him, and he would do anything to make sure the Israelites as a people get to Canaan, even if individual Israelites have to die along the way. So after the Golden Calf worship, he focuses on restoring good relations between God and the people.

But God views the Golden Calf as a personal rejection, and seems less committed to the Israelites after that episode. God starts calling the Israelites Moses’ people, and shies away from recommitting to God’s earlier plan to dwell among them in the sanctuary tent.³ Twice in the book of Numbers, God threatens to wipe out all the Israelites.⁴

The God character: a new development

Nevertheless, when Moses asks to see God’s “ways”, “glory”, and “face”,⁵ God shows him what Jews now call “The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy”, including compassion, patience, loyal-kindness, and a willingness to exonerate (some of) the guilty.⁶ Although God continues to smite people in sudden fury from time to time, this description of God indicates a change in the God character that was depicted earlier in the Torah.

And right after the revelation of the Thirteen Attributes, when Moses begs God once more to pardon the people, God says:

“Hey, I am cutting a covenant: In front of all your people I will do wonders that have not been created on all the earth and among all the nations. And all the people in whose midst you are, they will see the doing of Y-H-V-H, how awesome it is what I do with you.” (Exodus 34:10)

The only awesome deed God mentions is driving out the six peoples living in Canaan when the Israelites arrive there. This is a promise that God will “give” them the land of Canaan, even though God is still calling them “your people” (Moses’ people) instead of “my people”. In return, the Israelites must refrain from making idols or bowing down to any other god and reject the gods of Canaan by destroying their objects of worship. They must also refuse to make covenants with the natives of Canaan, and avoid intermarriage with them. Then God throws in some of the earlier rules about observing religious holidays and donating firstborn animals and first fruits to God.

Then Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Write these words for yourself, because according to these words, I cut a covenant with you and with Israel.” (Exodus 34:27)

So even if God does not explicitly pardon the people, as Moses asked, God is now patient and loyal enough to propose another covenant.

Moses: an apotheosis?

Moses on Mount Sinai, by Jean-Léon Gérôme,
1895-1900

The experience of beholding God’s attributes also changes Moses in ways that might be considered an apotheosis: deification or elevation to divine status.

And he was there with Y-H-V-H forty days and forty nights. Bread he did not eat, and water he did not drink. And [God] engraved on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Words. (Exodus 34:28)

Exodus does not say whether Moses went without food or drink the first time he spent 40 days at the top of Mount Sinai, though it is hard to imagine him trudging up to the barren volcanic mountaintop carrying enough food and water on his back to last 40 days. But Exodus does say that Moses lives without eating or drinking during his second 40-day stint.⁷

Shemot Rabbah explained: “What, then, did he eat? He was sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence. Do not wonder, as the heavenly beasts that bear the Throne are sustained by the aura of the Divine Presence.”⁸ This makes Moses like the serafim in Isaiah’s vision or the divine creatures in Ezekiel’s vision, at least temporarily.⁹

Rabbeinu Bachya wrote: “Moses’ nourishment during these forty days was provided by the attribute חסד and the radiation of supernatural light.”¹⁰ Chesed, חסד, is the “loyal-kindness” in God’s thirteen attributes. This commentary implies that God’s new gentle and compassionate approach sustains Moses so that he can live on the supernatural equivalent of light.

At the end of Moses’ first 40-day stint on the mountaintop, God gave him a pair of stone tablets that were already engraved. These were the tablets that Moses smashed at the foot of the mountain when he saw the ecstatic worship of the Golden Calf. For Moses’ second 40-day stint, God tells him to hew out his own stone blanks and carry them up.¹¹ Then God engraves them after revealing the Thirteen Attributes. Moses may even see the words appearing on the stones.

And it was, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai—and the two tablets of testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from Mount Sinai—then Moses did not know that the skin of his face karan because of [God’s] speech with him. (Exodus 34:29)

karan (קָרַן) = shone, was radiant.

This verb has the same root as keren (קֶרֶן ) = horn, ray of light. (The Latin translation of this verse in the Vulgate said Moses “sprouted horns”, so for centuries artists depicted Moses with two horns growing from his forehead.)

What makes Moses’ formerly ordinary face start radiating beams of light? The text says it happens because of God’s “speech with him”. Many Jewish commentators wrote that it happens when God reveals the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy to Moses. God said:

“… as my glory passes by, I will place you in a crevice of the rock, and screen you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you will see the back side of me. But my face will not be seen.” (Exodus 33:22-23)

The “back side” of God that Moses “sees” consists of the Thirteen Attributes. Either God’s supernatural hand,¹² or the experience of these divine attributes,¹³ gives Moses an inner light so strong that it shines out through the skin of his face.

On the other hand, some commentators wrote that God gives Moses a radiant face as a strategic move to make sure the Israelites continue to accept him as their leader. The 13^th-century commentary Chizkuni says:

“Seeing that prior to Moses’ return with the first set of Tablets the people had been prepared to accept another leader in Moses’ place, his emitting rays of light on his descent from the Mountain this time made a repetition of such an attempt quite unlikely.”¹⁴

And Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, and hey! The skin of his face karan! And they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:30)

Chizkuni explained: “According to the plain meaning of the verse, when they beheld him, they thought that they were looking at an angel.”¹⁵

And Robert Alter wrote: “If, as seems likely, Moses’ face is giving off some sort of supernatural radiance, the fear of drawing near him precisely parallels the people’s fear of drawing near the fiery presence of God on the mountaintop.”¹⁶

Detail from Terra Sancta, by Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Joan Blaeu, 17th century

Moses himself is not aware that his own face was radiating light, according to the 18^th-century commentary Or HaChayim, because he assumes that the extra illumination came from the second pair of stone tablets he is holding as he walks down the mountain. “As soon as he deposited the Tablets and he became aware that the light had not departed, he realised that he himself was the source of the light.”¹⁷

Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chiefs in the congregation returned, and Moses spoke to them. And after that, all the Israelites approached, and he commanded them everything that Y-H-V-H had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 34:31-32)

According to Chizkuni, just hearing Moses’ voice calling out was enough so that “they realized that he was not an angel”. Then when Moses spoke to Aaron and the chiefs, the rest of the Israelites “noticed that no harm had come to them from his speaking to them.”¹⁸

And Moses finished speaking with them, and he put a veil over his face. And whenever Moses came before Y-H-V-H to speak with [God], he would remove the veil until he went out. And [whenever] he went out to speak with the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see Moses’ face, that skin of his face was karan. Then Moses would put back the veil over this face, until he came in to speak with [God]. (Exodus 34:33-35)

Moses exposes his altered face to God, and he to the Israelites whenever he is telling them the latest batch of rules from God. Who would question the words of someone whose face emits supernatural light? But the rest of the time when he is with people, Moses covers his face with a light-proof veil.

According to Rashi and Ibn Ezra, Moses puts on the veil out of respect for the light God has created on his face; it is not for ordinary use, or for people to gawk at. People should only see it when he is transmitting God’s instructions. According to Kli Yakar, “Moshe, in his great humility, was embarrassed when people gaped at the radiance of his face.”¹⁹

It seems as if God has turned Moses into a semi-divine being. He lives for 40 days on the aura of God’s presence, like God’s divine attendants. When he comes down from Mount Sinai, God’s supernatural fire shines through the skin of his face. Moses might look like one of the gods of other peoples in the Ancient Near East, who radiated an unearthly light called melammu. For example, a story about the Babylonian god Marduk says “With burning flame he filled his body” and “With overpowering brightness his head was crowned.”²⁰ The gods in Mesopotamian myths sometimes gave melammu to their favorite kings.

Or perhaps (if he took off his robe) Moses would look like the celestial being shaped like a man whom Daniel sees in a vision sent by Y-H-V-H:

His body was like yellow jasper, and his face had the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were like torches of fire, and his arms and legs were like glittering bronze, and the sound of his speech was like a roaring crowd. (Daniel 10:6)

But in the Hebrew Bible, the various angelic creatures in the bible are either mouthpieces for God or manifestations of God’s powers, without lives of their own.

Perhaps that is why Moses’ radiant face appears only in Exodus 34:29-35. The authors of the rest of the Torah chose to depict Moses as a human being—one who is especially close to God, but a mortal man with his own thoughts and personality.

In the next chapter of Exodus, Moses proceeds with God’s earlier plan for building a tent-sanctuary, as if God had never refused to dwell in the midst of the Israelites. And God does not challenge Moses’ stubborn human initiative.

Moses Sees the Promised Land from Afar, by James Tissot, circa 1900

When Moses is 120 years old and has finished speaking to the Israelites on the Moabite bank of the Jordan River, God tells him to climb up the heights of Aviram and look across the river at the land of Canaan. God says:

So, after delivering a prophecy about the tribes, Moses hikes up.

“You will die on the mountain where you are going up … because at a distance you will see the land, but you will not enter there, into the land that I am giving the Israelites.” (Deuteronomy 32:50, 52)

And Moses, the servant of Y-H-V-H, died there in the land of Moab, al-pi Y-H-V-H. And [God] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab … and no man knows his burial place to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:5-6)

al-pi (עַל־פִּי) = an idiom meaning at the order of, at the command of, according to the word of. Literally: al (עַל) = upon, over, on account of, because of, by. + pi (פִּי) = mouth of.

Some commentators translate al-pi as “by the mouth of”, and say that Moses dies by a kiss from God.²¹ So although Moses is not permanently transformed into a semi-divine being, he has the the most intimate human relationship with God.

And no prophet arose again in Israel like Moses, whom Y-H-V-H knew face to face. (Exodus 34:10)

Moses has already taken action against an Egyptian taskmaster beating an Israelite (Exodus 2:11-12) and male shepherds bullying female shepherds (Exodus 2:16-19). See my post: Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility.
E.g. Numbers 14:11-35.
See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.
Numbers 14:11-12, 17:8-9.
Exodus 33:13, 33:18, 33:20. See my post: Ki Tisa: Seeking A Pardon.
Exodus 34:6-7.
At least this is the second time Exodus says Moses spends 40 days and 40 nights on the mountaintop. But some classic commentators claimed it was the third time, the second time being the indefinite period when God and Moses converse in Exodus 33:12-34:3.
Shemot Rabbah, 12^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Isaiah 6:2-7, Ezekiel 1:5-26 and 10:1-22.
Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher ibn Halawaa, 1255-1340), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Exodus 34:1.
E.g. Midrash Tanchuma (8^th century), Rashi (11^th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), and Da-at Zekinim (12^th-13^th century).
E.g. Ibn Ezra (12^th century) and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz (21^st century).
Chizkuni, by Chizkiah ben Manoach, 13^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Chizkuni, ibid.
Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 512.
Or HaChayim, by Chayim ibn Attar, 18^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Chizkuni, ibid.
Kli Yakar, by Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz, 16th century; translation in www.sefaria.org.
Enuma Elish IV, lines 40 and 58; translation by L.W. King.
E.g. Talmud Bavli, Moed Katan 28a, Bava Batra 17a; Rashi; Da-at Zekinim.

Ki Tisa: Seeking a Pardon

(This is my eleventh post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Vayikra, the first in the book of Leviticus/Vayikra, you might try: Vayikra: A Voice Calling.)

Moses Destroys the Tablets, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

On top of Mount Sinai, God gives Moses a pair of stone tablets engraved with laws, and detailed instructions for making a portable tent-sanctuary. At the foot of the mountain, the Israelites despair of seeing Moses again, and start worshiping a Golden Calf. God offers to exterminate the people and start over with Moses’ descendants, but Moses remains loyal to the Israelites. Then Moses goes down and smashes God’s stone tablets without permission, but God takes no action against him. The working relationship between the two leaders, human and divine, seems strong. (See my post: Ki Tisa: Taking Risks.)

Moses, citing an order from God, arranges the massacre of 3,000 Israelites who are presumed to be the worst of the Golden Calf worshipers.¹

Then it was the next day, and Moses said to the people: “You, you are guilty of a great guilt! And now, I will go up to Y-H-V-H. Perhaps akhaprah [with God] on behalf of your guilt.” (Exodus 32:30)

akhaprah (אֲכַפְּרָה) = I may make atonement, appease, effect reconciliation.

Moses does not want the surviving Israelites to think they are in the clear, so he reminds them that they, too, bear some guilt, even those who passively stood by while others engaged in calf worship. But he also wants God to forgive the surviving Israelites, so he tries to get God to commit to a general pardon.

Forgive them or erase me

Then Moses returned to Y-H-V-H and said: “Please, this people is guilty of a great guilt; they made themselves a god of gold! And now, if you would lift their guilt— But if not, erase me, please, from the book katavta!” (Exodus 32:31-32)

katavta (כָּתָבְתָּ) = you have written, you have engraved words on.

According to Rashi, “the book you have written” means “the entire book of the Torah” and the reason Moses asked to be erased from it is “that people should not say about me that I was not worthy enough to pray effectively for them.”²

Yet in the Hebrew Bible, the only part of the Torah that God writes directly (instead of dictating to Moses) is whatever God engraves on the two stone tablets (according to Deuteronomy 5:19, the Ten Words or Ten Commandments).

Other commentators have identified “the book you have written” with “the book of life” in Psalm 69.³ Praying for the downfall of his enemies, the psalmist begs God:

“Erase them from the bookof life, and do not inscribe them among the righteous!” (Psalm 69:29)

Many psalms assume that God grants health and long life to the righteous, but Psalm 69 is the only one in which God keeps a (perhaps metaphorical) account book.⁴

So Moses is asking God to either pardon the Israelites, or give him death. I suspect he hopes that God will quickly opt to preserve the life of God’s favorite prophet, and issue a pardon.

According to Or HaChayim, “… it is one of God’s virtues that He cannot tolerate seeing His righteous people, His ‘friends,’ suffer pain. Accordingly, how could God inflict the pain of destroying His people on Moses? Surely God was perfectly aware of how Moses would grieve over the destruction of his people!”⁵

Yet God’s reply indicates that he does not fall for Moses’ either-or statement.

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Whoever is guilty against me, I will erase from my book. And now go, lead the people to where I have spoken to you! Hey, my messenger will go before you. But on the day of my accounting, I will call them to account over their guilt.” (Exodus 32:33-34)

God is not about to erase Moses, who is innocent. But God refuses to declare a blanket pardon for the surviving Israelites.

When is the day of God’s accounting? Every day, according to a commentary in Yiddish: “The Holy One said: I will forgive the sin. However, I will make Israel pay for the sin a little at a time. No trouble comes upon Israel that is not related to the Golden Calf. That is to say, the Holy One repays Israel for the sin of the Golden Calf all the time.”⁶

Or perhaps God’s day of accounting is the day of a plague in the next verse of Exodus:

And Y-H-V-H struck the people with plague over what they did with the calf that Aaron made. (Exodus 32:35)

The text does not say how many people die in this plague, but it certainly counts as a punishment.

Let me know your ways

Then Y-H-V-H spoke to Moses: “Go up from here, you and the people whom you brought up from Egypt! … I will not go up in your midst—because you are a stiff-necked people—lest I consume you on the way.” (Exodus 33:1, 3)

Now God says Moses brought up the people from Egypt, making him responsible even though it was God’s idea in the first place, and it never would have happened without God’s persistence and miracles. God also seems to be ordering an immediate departure from Mount Sinai, even though the people have not constructed the tent-sanctuary God requested so that God could “dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8).

Furthermore, God decides not to dwell among the Israelites as they travel, because God is so angry already that when the stubborn Israelites violate the rules again, God will “consume” them. (This God character is located in only one place at a time.)

The Israelites mourn over the news that God will not go with them. But Moses is determined to get God to both pardon them and travel in their midst. He tries a different tactic, saying:

“And now, please, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me know your ways! Then I will know you—so that I can find favor in your eyes. And see that your people is this people!” (Exodus 33:13)

Moses asks to learn God’s ways so that he can continue to please God in the future. He does not mention that if he knows how to please God, he can bargain more effectively for God’s pardon and presence.

Moses on Mount Sinai, by Jean-Leon Gerome, 1895-1900
(Divine communion?)

Rabbi Steinsaltz, however, assigned Moses an additional motivation: “Moses requested a deeper relationship with God than he had attained thus far. Until this point, he had mainly received instructions. Now Moses desired the secret knowledge that would enable him to achieve communion with God, as one’s closeness to God is related to the extent of his knowledge of the Divine.”⁷

Moses follows up his polite request to know God’s ways with an imperative: “See that your people is this people!” God must admit ownership of the Israelites. They would not be in the wilderness of Sinai if it were not for God, and they will feel abandoned if God’s presence is not with them.⁸

And [God] said: “[If] my panim goes [with you], will I make you rest easy?” (Exodus 33:14)

Moses exclaims:

“If your panim is not going, don’t bring us up from here!” (Exodus 33:15)

panim (פָּנִים) = face; front surface; presence.

He adds a rationale that he hopes will sway God.

“And how is it to be known, then, that I have found favor in your eyes, I and your people? Isn’t it in your going with us? Then we are distinct, I and your people, from all the people that are on the panim of the earth.” (Exodus 33:16)

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Indeed, this word that you have spoken, I will do, since you have found favor in my eyes, and I know you by name.” (Exodus 33:17)

It is not clear which “word” God is promising to do: to go in the midst of the Israelites, or to let Moses know God’s ways. At this point Moses decides to press his request to learn God’s ways.

Then [Moses] said: “Please let me see your kavod!” (Exodus 33:18)

kavod (כָּבוֹד) = impressiveness, honor, splendor, glory.

All the Israelites have seen the kavod of God as a fire at the top of Mount Sinai, which looked like a cloud to Moses.⁹ But Moses is asking to see more. According to Chizkuni, “Moses asked for a visual appearance of God’s essence.”¹⁰ But according to Rabbi Hirsch, “The perception he now seeks is on a higher level, that of intuition.”¹¹

And [God] said: “I, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of your panim, and I will call out the name of Y-H-V-H in front of your panim. But … you will not be able to see my panim, because a human cannot see me and live.” (Exodus 33:19-20)

Here panim means “face”. Moses’ face is where his physical organs for seeing and hearing are located (if we count ears as part of a human face). God’s face is unknowable.

“… as my kavod passes by, I will place you in a crevice of the rock, and screen you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you will see the back side of me. But my panim will not be seen.” (Exodus 33:22-23)

Next God grants an additional favor that Moses has not asked for.

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Carve yourself two stone tablets like the first ones, and I will inscribe on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you smashed.” (Exodus 34:1)

The first time, God provided the completed tablets. Now God tells Moses to carve stone blanks, which God will inscribe. Abarbanel explained: “For it was Moses’ obligation, since he destroyed the first set of tablets … And the reason for the word ‘yourself’ was to warn Moses that he himself, and no other, should carve the tablets.”¹²

Moses carries two blank stone tablets up Mount Sinai early the next morning. God comes down in a cloud, and as “the back side” of God passes Moses, Moses perceives some of God’s qualities. Either God or Moses calls out:

“Y-H-V-H! Y-H-V-H! Mighty-one, compassionate and gracious, long-nosed [slow to anger], abundant in loyal-kindness and reliability, keeping loyal-kindness to the thousandth [generation], lifting away crookedness and transgression and wrong-doing, and clearing [the guilty]!” (Exodus 34:6-7)

This list is called “The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy”, which are still chanted at services on Jewish holy days. (Most commentators reach thirteen by counting the second “Y-H-V-H” as a different attribute from the first.) Rashbam noted that each of these thirteen “is of relevance when inducing forgiveness and repentance.”¹³ Since Moses wants God to forgive the Israelites, this insight would be encouraging.

Is the compassionate god in this description the same deity who killed thousands of innocent Egyptians without a second thought in the tenth miraculous plague, the death of the firstborn? Is this the god who would angrily “consume” the stiff-necked Israelites along the way to Canaan?

Perhaps the God character has decided to become more compassionate and kind, and is giving an aspirational self-description. Moses seizes the moment to repeat his request.

And Moses hurried and bowed to the ground and prostrated himself. And he said: “Please, if I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, please may my lord go among us! Indeed, it is a stiff-necked people. So forgive our crookedness and our wrong-doing, and make us your possession!” (Exodus 34:8-9)

Moses identifies himself as one of the Israelites, begging God to forgive and accept “us”.

Commentator Jerome Segal detected an additional strategy in Moses’ plea. What if God’s anger overwhelms God’s compassion? “Thus, it appears that Moses prevailed upon God to be in their midst just so he would be able to argue, should the eventuality arise, that God is too closely identified with the Israelites to destroy them. In short, Moses emerges as a canny strategist, subtly manipulating the powerful but less crafty deity.”¹⁴

A year or so later, God is indeed ready to wipe out the Israelites, and Moses persuades God to refrain with an argument along those lines.¹⁵

An ambiguous answer

After Moses has asked God again to “go among us” and forgive the Israelites, God says:

“Hey, I myself will be cutting a covenant: in front of all your people I will do wonders that were not created on all the earth or among all the nations. Then they will see, all the people in whose midst you are, the deeds of Y-H-V-H—that it is awesome what I myself do with you.” (Exodus 34:10)

Once again, God calls the Israelites Moses’ people, not God’s own people. And once again, God’s response is favorable but avoids addressing Moses’ request directly. Instead, God tries to resolve the whole issue with a new covenant. The terms are that God will perform more wonders for the Israelites, through Moses. In return, the Israelites will obey the commandments on the stone tablets, along with some other rules that God dictates to Moses on the spot.

Moses has to assume that God has forgiven the Israelites, and that the new covenant means God will dwell among them after all.

Moses and God respect one another, but Moses resorts to wheedling and subterfuge—because God refuses to make definite commitments. Their relationship has become like an unhealthy marriage.

To be continued …

Exodus 32:25-28. See my post: Ki Tisa: Golden Calf, Stone Commandments.
Rashi (11th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki), translation in www.sefaria.org.
E.g. Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 16b; Rashbam (12^th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meir), Chizkuni (a 13^th century collection), Tur HaArokh (14^th century), Or HaChayim (by 18^th century rabbi Chayim ibn Attar).
In Talmud Bavli, Rosh Hashanah 16b, God writes down the names of the righteous in one book and the names of the wicked in another. People whose deeds are partly good and partly bad are listed in a third book until Yom Kippur, ten days later, when God decides which of these intermediate people to record with the righteous in the book of life. To this day, the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur liturgy includes prayers to be written in God’s “book of life” so we will not die before the next Rosh Hashanah.
Or HaChayim (18^th century), by Rabbi Chayim bin Attar, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Tze-enah Ure-enah (17^th century), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.
This may be a misunderstanding. What if the Israelites only want the manifestation of God as the column of cloud by day and fire by night that led them from Egypt to Mount Sinai? God might consider that a divine messenger. When the Israelites leave Mount Sinai, the column appears again to lead them, and when God is dwelling among them in the tent-sanctuary, cloud and fire appear over its roof.
Exodus 24:16-17.
Chizkuni, a 13^th-century collection of commentary, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Samon Raphael Hirsch (19^th century), The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 794.
Isaac ben Judah Abarbanel (15^th century commentator), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam (12^th-century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meier), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Jerome M. Segal, Joseph’s Bones, Riverhead Books, New York, 2007, p. 134-135.
Numbers 14:11-20.

Ki Tisa: Taking Risks

(This is my tenth post in a series about the evolving relationship between Moses and God in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Pekudei, you might try: Pekudei: Clouds of Glory.)

After Moses has orchestrated four covenants between God and the Israelites (see my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant), God tells him:

“Go up to me on the mountain and be there, and I will give you the stone tablets and the teaching and the command that I have written to teach them.” (Exodus 24:12)

Moses spends 40 days and 40 nights on top of Mount Sinai, listening to God tell him how to set up a formal religion for the Israelites, from the portable sanctuary-tent to the gold-plated ark to the ordination of Aaron and his four sons as priests.

Moses Receiving the Tablets of Law, by Marc Chagall, 1966

Only at the end of the 40-day period does God give Moses any stone tablets.

Then [God] gave to Moses, when [God] finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone engraved by the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)

Meanwhile, in the camp at the foot of the mountain, the Israelites despair of ever seeing Moses again.

… and the people assembled against Aaron and said to him: “Get up, make us a god who will go before us! Because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him!” (Exodus 32:1)

Blame game

Moses has no idea that the Israelites are worshipping a golden calf below. After giving Moses the stone tablets, God breaks the news to him.

Then Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “Go, get down! For your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have become corrupt! They have quickly turned away from the path that I commanded them; they made themselves a cast-metal calf, and they bowed down to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt’!” (Exodus 32:7-8)

First God says the calf-worshipers are Moses’ people whom Moses brought up from Egypt. Then God notes that they are calling the Golden Calf their gods who brought them up from Egypt.

Yet God was the one who noticed the suffering of the Israelites, recruited and trained Moses, created the ten miraculous plagues in Egypt, led the Israelites with a column of cloud and fire, split the Reed Sea, and fed them manna in the wilderness. God told Moses:

“And I will bring out my ranks, my people the Israelites, from the land of Egypt …” (Exodus 7:4)

But now God seems to be disowning the people and the whole enterprise.

Rashi¹ and earlier commentators claimed that the people whom God calls “your people” are not all the people, but only the non-Israelites who chose to leave Egypt with the Israelites. In this reading, the non-Israelites are Moses’ people because Moses converted them. And the non-Israelite converts are the ones who corrupted the “real” Israelites and persuaded them to demand an idol. (Like most humans, the classic commentators were not exempt from xenophobia.) The Torah itself does say that an erev rav—mixed multitude or riff-raff—joined the Israelites,² but it never says Moses converted them.

To me it seems more likely that the God character says “your people” as a way to pass the buck for the people’s violation of the divine rules. Alternatively, the God character is pretending to assign the blame to Moses in order to see how he will respond.

Moses tosses the blame back at God. After God tells Moses about the Golden Calf, Moses says:

“Why, Y-H-V-H, should your nose burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?” (Exodus 32:11)

(A burning nose is a biblical idiom for anger.)

Moses is confident enough to pass the buck back to God, and God lets it go and moves on to the important item on God’s agenda: making Moses an offer he can refuse.

Taking a risk with Moses

And Y-H-V-H said to Moses: “I have observed this people, and hey! It is a stiff-necked people. And now, hanichah me, and my nose will burn against them, and I will exterminate them! And I will make you into a great nation.” (Exodus 32:9-10)

hanichah (הַנִּיחָה) = allow, leave alone. (Imperative of the hifil form of nach, נעָה = rest, settle, wait.)

It sounds as if God is ready to give up on the Israelites, eliminate them, and start over with Moses’s descendants, who presumably would someday rule Canaan. But first God wants Moses’ permission.

Is God serious? One possibility is that God is asking Moses as a courtesy, but is determined to exterminate the Israelites no matter what Moses says. This is unlikely, however, since Moses has become a full partner in leadership, and would not agree with God the way a subordinate says yes to curry favor.

Another possibility is that God really is leaving the decision up to Moses. According to the Talmud, “Moses said to himself: If God is telling me to let Him be, it must be because this matter is dependent upon me. Immediately Moses stood and was strengthened in prayer, and asked that God have mercy on the nation of Israel and forgive them for their transgression.”³

But it is hard to believe that God has no strong preference. A few hundred years before, God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would rule the land of Canaan. Recently God created ten miraculous plagues that ruined Egypt. The Israelites have become God’s people as much as Moses has become God’s prophet. It seems unlikely that God would discard them and wait another four hundred years until Moses’s descendants had multiplied enough to occupy Canaan.

A third possibility is that God intends to give the Israelites a sharp lesson without abandoning them altogether—but also wants to find out what Moses would choose. After all, God tests Abraham in the book of Genesis by ordering him to slaughter his son Isaac as an offering, and then calls him off at the last minute.⁴ Now God seems to be testing Moses.

Then Moses softened the face of Y-H-V-H, his god, and he said: “Why, Y-H-V-H, should your nose burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?” (Exodus 32:11)

In order to “soften the face” of God, i.e. reduce the God character’s anger, Moses reminds God of how much God has invested in the Israelites. Next he gives one of the reasons that God went to all that trouble: to prove to the Egyptians that they had better not mess around with a people God chooses to deliver.

“Why should the Egyptians actually [be able to] say: ‘In evil he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains, and to exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your burning nose, and hinacheim about the evil against your people!” (Exodus 32:12)

hinacheim (הִנָּחֵם) = have a change of heart; regret, repent, or find consolation. (From the verb nacham, נָחַם.)

Moses knows God wanted to establish a reputation as more powerful than any Egyptian god because God told Moses to pass on these words to the pharaoh before the plague of hail:

“Indeed, on account of this I let you stand: so that you would see my power, and for the sake of recounting my name throughout all the land!” (Exodus 9:16)

In case all this is not enough to persuade God to refrain from wiping out the Israelites, Moses offers a third argument:

“Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, whom you yourself swore to when you spoke to them: ‘I will multiply your seed like the stars in the heavens, and all this land that I said, I will give to your seed, they will inherit it forever.” (Exodus 32:13)

Here Moses is insisting that God must keep promises. This argument is not as convincing, since Moses himself belongs to the tribe of Levi and is a “seed” of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, a.k.a. Jacob. God’s promise could still be fulfilled through Moses’ descendants, although it would take several hundred more years.

But I suspect that the content of Moses’ arguments does not matter. God’s motivation is to test Moses and find out if he will stick up for the Israelites, instead of pursuing his own glory as the founding ancestor of a nation. And Moses passes the test without hesitating for a moment, by arguing against eliminating the Israelites.

Vayinachem, Y-H-V-H, about the evil that [God] had spoken of doing to [God’s] people. (Exodus 32:14)

vayinachem (וַיִּנָּחֶם) = and he had a change of heart; regretted, repented, consoled himself. (Also from the root verb nach.)

From Moses’ point of view, God has a change of heart and therefore rescinds the plan to wipe out the Israelites. The text does not tell us the God character’s point of view. But I think God takes a risk by tempting Moses with an easier path to fame, something he could achieve simply by going home to Midian and having more children. God knows Moses never wanted to be in charge of thousands of frightened, stubborn, and wayward ex-slaves.

Taking a risk with God

Moses turns around and walks down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets engraved by God. The text emphasizes the divine origin of the tablets, saying:

And the tablets, they were God’s making. And the writing, it was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. (Exodus 32:16)

What could be more precious and holy?

Moses Breaking the Tablets, by Ephraim Moshe Lilien, 1808

Then it happened, as he approached the camp and he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses’ nose burned, and he threw the tablets from his hands, and he shattered them at the bottom of the mountain. (Exodus 32:19)

The text implies that Moses acts in anger, as God had threatened to do. But much of the commentary assumes that whatever his mood, Moses is not throwing a temper tantrum, but rather acting on a flash of insight.

According to the midrash Shemot Rabbah, “he saw that Israel would not survive, and he joined himself with them and broke the tablets. He said to the Holy One blessed be He: ‘They sinned and I sinned, as I broke the tablets. … if You do not pardon them, do not pardon me …”⁵

According to 12^th-century commentator Ibn Ezra, the stone tablets “served, as it were, as a document of witness. Moses thus tore up the contract.”⁶ (Ibn Ezra considered the stone tablets a contract document because according to Deuteronomy 5:19, God uttered the “Ten Commandments” and later engraved them on the stone tablets. One of these commandments prohibits making or worshiping idols. In Exodus 24:3, Moses told the people all the rules God had handed down, including the “Ten Commandments”, and the Israelites vowed: “All the words that God has spoken, we will do!”⁷)

And according to 19^th-century commentator Hirsch, when Moses saw the dancing, “he realized that the pagan error had already borne its usual fruit—the unleashing of sensuality. He then understood that the nation would have to be re-educated … By this act he declared in no uncertain terms that the people in its present state was unworthy of the Torah and not fit to receive it.”⁸

Whatever Moses’ insight is, he risks retribution from God when he shatters God’s words carved in stone. By taking this risk, he joins his fate to the fate of the people (Shemot Rabbah), shatters the evidence of the covenant so the Israelites are not technically guilty of violating it (Ibn Ezra), and sets himself the task of teaching the Israelites how to behave (Hirsch).

And the risk pays off. God never questions Moses’ dramatic action. The two leaders, Moses and God, work together to punish the Israelites for the Golden Calf.

To be continued …

Rashi is the acronym of 11^th-century Rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki.
Exodus 12:38.
Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 32a, William Davidson translation, from www.sefaria.org.
Genesis 22.
Shemot Rabbah 46:1 (10^th-12^th century midrash), translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, translation in www.sefaria.org.
See my post: Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translated by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 770.

Yitro & Mishpatim: Four Attempts at a Lasting Covenant

(This is my ninth post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Vayakheil, you might try: Vayakheil & Psalm 13: Waiting in Contentment.)

Between God and Moses’ conversation at the burning bush on Mount Sinai and God’s revelation to all the Israelites at the same mountain a couple of years later, the God-character in Exodus maintains the same approach to Moses: calm, reassuring, patient with all of his prophet’s panic and dithering, but always nudging him to take the next step toward becoming the human leader of the Israelites.

By the time Moses returns to Mount Sinai, he has become that leader. His experiences have changed him from a frightened introvert with an inferiority complex who is certain he cannot speak convincingly or lead anyone (see my posts Shemot: Not a Man of Words and Shemot: Moses Gives Up) into someone who asks God for advice, but is prepared to speak and to make decisions for his people when necessary (see my post Beshalach: Moses Graduates). While God remains the ultimate authority, Moses is the human leader whom the Israelites both follow and complain to.

Now that the Israelites have camped at the foot of God’s mountain, they must make a binding covenant with God. Moses, knowing he must arrange it, orchestrates four covenants in a row.

First covenant

One the Israelites have pitched camp, Moses climbs up the mountain to speak with God—even though he had no trouble speaking with God at any place in Egypt or on the journey across the wilderness. Perhaps at Mount Sinai, he keeps hiking up and down so that all the Israelites can see him when goes to speak with God. (See my post Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.) The first time he walks back down,

Moses came and summoned the elders of the people, and he set before them all these words that God had commanded him. And all the people answered as one, and they said: “Everything that God has spoken, we will do!” Then Moses brought the words of the people back to God. (Exodus 19:7-8)

This is the first covenant, an oral agreement. “All these words that God had commanded him” are only that the people must “really listen to my voice and observe my covenant” and become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”. In return, God promises that the Israelites will be God’s personal treasure out of all the nations on earth.¹

This initial agreement may be inspiring, but it lacks specifics.

Second covenant

The Law on Mount Sinai, by Jan Luyken, 1708

Three days later, God stages what Jews call “The Revelation”, which includes dense cloud, thunder, lightning, the sound of a ram’s horn blowing, smoke, and earthquake.² Moses leads the people out of the camp to the foot of the mountain.

And God came down upon Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And God summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. (Exodus 19:20)

Moses obeys even though Mount Sinai seems to be an erupting volcano. Clearly he has learned to trust God to preserve his life.

Before the revelation begins, God tells Moses:

“Hey, I myself am coming to you in a dark cloud, so that the people will listen when I speak with you, and also they will trust you forever.” (Exodus 19:9)

We do not know whether the dark cloud is the smoke emerging from the mountain, or a manifestation of God coming down from the heavens.

At this point, the redactor of the story inserts what have become known as the Ten Commandments (called “The Ten Words” when they are repeated in Deuteronomy).³ Then God’s revelation continues with:

And all the people were seeing⁴ the sounds of thunder and the flashing lights and the sound of the ram’s horn and the smoking mountain. And the people saw, and they trembled, and they stood at a distance. And they said to Moses: “You speak with us, and we will listen! But may God not speak with us, lest we die!”⁵ (Exodus 20:15-16)

God’s plan is working; the people are terrified of God—and they now trust Moses and promise to listen to whatever he says God said.

Moses steps closer to the dark cloud where God is, and God tells him the dozens of laws in verses 20:21 through 23:22, which are more specific than the “Ten Commandments”. Most of the laws are ethical rules for an agrarian society, including two laws about not oppressing an imigrant.⁶

Then comes God’s side of the covenant:

“And you must serve God, your God! And [God] will bless your food and your water, and I will remove sickness from among you. There will be no miscarriage or barrenness in your land, and the number of your days I will make full. My terror I will send before you, and I will panic all the people among whom you come, and I will give all your enemies to you by the neck.” (Exodus 23:25-27)

The ancient Israelites prized fertility as well as good health and long life. And people facing a protracted war for land ownership would be relieved to learn that God will be on their side—as long as they follow the rules.

The final word from God during this session with Moses is about the Canaanite tribes that have been living for centuries in the land God will give to the Israelites:

“You must not cut a covenant with them or their gods. They must not dwell in your land, lest they cause you to do wrong against me.” (Exodus 23:32-33)

Immigrants should be treated fairly, but existing residents of Canaan must be rejected.

Then God tells Moses:

“Come up to God, you and Aaron, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy elders of Israel, and bow down from a distance. Then Moses alone will come close to God, but they must not come close, and the people must not go up with him.” (Exodus 24:1-2)

But first, without any order from God, Moses confirms a second oral covenant between God and the people.

Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of God and all the laws. And all the people answered with one voice, and said: “All the words that God has spoken, we will do!” (Exodus 24:3)

Third covenant

Next on God’s agenda is a special revelation and covenant partway up Mount Sinai, between God and seventy elders plus Aaron and his two older sons. But Moses has a different idea. He imagines a written covenant, which he will notarize with ritual elements that the Israelites are accustomed to: an animal sacrifice and the splashing of its blood. And God does not interfere with Moses’ plan.

Standing stones on the Sinai Peninsula, photo by Emmanuel Anati

Then Moses wrote down all the words of God. And he started early in the morning and he built an altar below the mountain, and twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent the young men of the Israelites, and they made rising offerings and slaughtered wholeness offerings for God: bulls. And Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls, and half the blood he threw over the altar. (Exodus 24:2-6)

The altar represents God in this covenant ceremony, so Moses scatters half of the blood over it. He reserved the other half for the Israelites after they have agreed to the covenant.

Then he took the scroll of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said: “Everything that God has spoken, we will do and nishma!” (Exodus 24:4-7)

nishma (נִשְׁמָע) = we will listen, hear, pay attention, heed, obey.

This time the people add another vow after “we will do”. Why do they add nishma? According to one early commentary, their vow should be translated as “We will do, and then we will understand.”⁷ The people were wise enough to realize that sometimes you cannot understand what an action means until after you have done it.

Another explanation is that the Israelites meant: “We will carry out what God has said already, and we are also prepared to listen (obey) to what He will command from here on in.”⁸

Either way, the people make a stronger commitment (although they break it when they worship the golden calf). And Moses figured out how to inspire them to make that commitment.

Then Moses took the blood and threw it on the people, and he said: “Here! The blood of the covenant that God cut with you according to all these words!”⁹ (Exodus 24:8)

Only after the Israelites as a whole have finished ratifying the written covenant with God does Moses carry out God’s order regarding the seventy elders.

Fourth covenant

Then went up, Moshe and Aharon, Nadav and Avihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. And they saw the God of Israel, and under [God’s] feet something like a brick pavement of sapphire, and like the substance of the heavens for purity. And God did not send out [God’s] hand to the eminent Israelites. Vayechezu God, and they ate and they drank. (Exodus 24:10-11)

vayechezu (וַיֶּחֱזוּ) = and they beheld, saw in a vision, perceived.

This may not sound like a covenant between God and the elders. Furthermore, many medieval Jewish commentators criticized the Nadav, Avihu, and the elders for eating and drinking at a time like that.¹⁰ Others wrote that looking at God “provided them with the kind of satisfaction ordinary people get through the intake of food and drink”.¹¹

But one 13^th-century commentary pointed out: “…we know from Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov, that when they made a pact with human beings, they invariably sealed it by having a festive meal with their partner.”¹²

Rabbi Steinsaltz wrote in his 2019 commentary: “And they beheld God, to the extent that this is possible, and ate the peace offerings and drank, as though sharing a meal with God.”¹³

Moses walks to the top of a smoking, thundering volcano because he trusts God to keep him safe. And God goes along with Moses’ additional covenant ritual because he trusts Moses to know what the Israelites need. The two leaders have reached a point of harmony.

Until God decides to test Moses, and Moses decides to test God.

To be continued …

See my post: Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager.
Exodus 19:16-20; Deuteronomy 4:13.
Exodus 20:1-14.
Exodus 20:15 says “the people ro-im (רֺאִים)” sounds as well as sights. Usually ro-im means “were seeing”. Some translations say “the people were perceiving”. Others suggest that the people were experiencing synesthesia.
The story assumes that Moses could hear the people below when he was on top of the mountain. Perhaps the authors imagined a shorter mountain than any of the current top candidates for Mount Sinai: Jabal Sin Bisher, Jabal Musa, and Chashem el Tarif.
Exodus 22:20, 23:9. The word geir (גֵר) is often translated as “stranger”, but it means a resident alien or immigrant.
Avot DeRabbi Natan 22:1, c.700–900 CE, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rashbam (12^th century Rabbi Shmuel ben Meier), translation in www.sefaria.org.
The story assumes that enough of the thousands of Israelites were splashed with blood to make the ritual effective.
From Rashi (11^th century) to Rabbeinu Bachya (14^th century).
Chayim in Attar, Or HaChayim, 18^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org. This concept also appears in Talmud Bavli, Berakhot 17a.
Chizkuni, 13^th ccentury, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.

Yitro: Moses as Middle Manager

(This is my eighth post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tisa, you might try: Ki Tisa: Making an Idol Out of Fear.)

The Israelites reach Mount Sinai three months after they leave Egypt, and perhaps a couple of years after God recruited Moses on that same mountain to serve as their prophet and leader.

The ultimate goal of the Israelites’ journey is Canaan, which God has promised to give them as their own land (after dispossessing the people who already live there). But Moses knows that Mount Sinai, also called Mount Choreiv or simply “the mountain of God”, is a necessary stop on the way. Back when God first spoke to Moses, out of the fire in the bush that burned but was not consumed, God said:

“When you [singular] have brought the people out of Egypt, you [plural] will serve God at this mountain.” (Exodus 3:12)

Moses does not know that this is the spot where God will stage an impressive revelation, and make a covenant with the Israelites. But after all his leadership training in Egypt and on the road, he is ready for whatever God has in mind. (See my posts Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice and Beshallach: Moses Graduates.)

Up and down the mountain

… and Israel camped there, opposite the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and God called to him from the mountain, saying: … (Exodus 19:2-3)

Moses takes the initiative and starts climbing up the mountain before God calls to him. According to the 18^th-century commentary Or HaChayim,

“Moses felt that if he waited until he would be asked to ascend, this would demonstrate both lethargy on his part and perhaps even unwillingness. … As soon as God noticed that Moses was ascending, God called out to him. You have to remember that it is in the nature of sanctity, not to make the first move towards a person until that person has made active preparations to welcome such sanctity.”¹

God Appears to Moses, anonymous English woodcut, 1539

Yet in Egypt, when Moses first initiated a conversation with God, he did not go to any special place first.² Moses and God have had conversations in Egypt, at the Reed Sea, and at several spots on the road to Mount Sinai, all without special preparations.

I think Moses follows a different procedure when the Israelites reach Mount Sinai because he knows that something significant will happen there, even though he does not know what. Now that they have arrived, Moses does not wait for God to make the first move. He has learned how to think like a leader. So he decides to show the Israelites that this mountain is God’s place, where something important will happen. So he decides to show the Israelites that this mountain is God’s place by climbing up while everyone watches. Does Moses walk to the spot where he first heard God’s voice? Or does he climb to the summit, closer to the “heavens”? The book of Exodus does not say.

Then God calls to him and says:

“Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and you will tell to the children of Israel:³ ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on wings of eagles and I brought you to me. And now, if you really listen to my voice and observe my covenant, you will become to me a segulah out of all the peoples—for all the earth is mine.” (Exodus 19:3-5)

segulah (סְגֻלָּה) = personal treasure, cherished possession.

This is the first time the Torah says God has a segulah. Three later references in the Hebrew Bible say both that the Israelites are God’s segulah and that God “chose” them.⁴ A standard idea in the Ancient Near East was that each god had his or her own chosen people. The God character in Exodus claims power over all the peoples on earth, but makes the offer of becoming God’s segulah only to the Israelites.

Here God may be using the word segulah to introduce the idea of a covenant or treaty. Being God’s personal treasured possession is conditional upon the people’s behavior: they must earn that status by paying attention to God’s instructions and keeping God’s yet-to-be-revealed covenant with them.

The God character in the Torah definitely plays favorites. Just as God did favors for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph in the book of Genesis, God does favors for Moses in the book of Exodus. So far in this book, God has been patient not only with Moses, but also with the Israelites—even though they keep wanting to go back to Egypt.⁵

God finishes by saying:

“‘And you, tiheyu to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation!’ These are the words that you must speak to the Children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:6)

tiheyu (תִּהְיוּ) = you (plural) will be, will become, would become, should become, must become.

In Exodus 28:1-2, during Moses’ first 40-day stint on top of Mount Sinai, God tells him that Aaron and his sons will be the priests of the new Israelite religion. It is unlikely that God first plans a religion in which everyone (or at least every man) is a priest, and then switches to the hereditary priesthood plan in less than two months. During that period, all the Israelites agree to the covenant with God three times, and do not disobey any of God’s laws.

On the last day of Moses’ 40-day stint, the Israelites commit a major violation by demanding an idol to follow. But Aaron is the one who makes them a golden calf. So God would have no reason to install Aaron and his sons as the priests instead of letting every Israelite be a priest.

Perhaps ‘And you, tiheyu to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation!’ is a goal for the distant future, rather than an immediate divine plan. The sentence could be translated: “And you, you should become to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.”

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks wrote that God’s pronouncement means:

“The Israelites were called on to be a nation of servant-leaders. They were the people called on, by virtue of the covenant, to accept responsibility not only for themselves and their families, but for the moral-spiritual state of the nation as a whole.”⁶

One of the duties of the priests, we learn in Leviticus 10:10-11, is to teach the people about God’s rules. In a kingdom of priests, presumably, everyone would remind everyone else about the right thing to do.

Up and down again

And Moses came and summoned the elders of the people, and he set before them all these words that God had commanded him. And all the people answered as one, and they said: “Everything that God has spoken, we will do!” Then Moses brought the words of the people back to God. (Exodus 19:7-8)

The implication is that Moses climbed back to the top of the mountain to give God the people’s reply. Rashi repeated a common objection in the classic commentary when he wrote:

“But was it really necessary for Moses to deliver the reply to God? God is Omniscient! — But the explanation is that Scripture intends to teach you good manners from the example of Moses …”⁷

Although later theologians decided that God is omniscient, the God character in the Torah does not know ahead of time what human beings will do.⁸ This God also loses track of what the Israelites are doing; they suffer because of forced corvée labor for many years before God hears their moaning and recruits Moses to lead them out of Egypt.⁹ Moses knows how long it took for God to notice the cries of the Israelites. Perhaps now he reports the Israelites’ reply in case God missed it in a moment of distraction.

Moses might also think that climbing Mount Sinai again is more likely to get God’s attention than standing at the bottom and silently praying.

When Moses reaches the top of the mountain again, God speaks first.

The Cloud of Smoke over Mount Sinai, by James Tissot, circa 1900

And God said to Moses: “Hey, I myself am coming to you in a dark cloud, so that the people will listen when I speak with you, and also they will trust you forever.” Then Moses told the words of the people to God. (Exodus 19:9)

Rabbi Rami Shapiro explained:

“God isn’t saying that He will speak directly to the people that they may know He is God, He is saying that He wants the people to see that He is speaking to Moses so that they will believe that when Moses says such and such is the word of God, they will trust him. There is no reason to think that the people will even overhear what God is saying to Moses; all they will hear is that something is being spoken. Which is exactly what happens …”¹⁰

After Moses has reported how the people promised to do everything God said, God gives Moses orders to prepare the Israelites for a revelation (including a dark cloud) in three days. God tells him to make the people holy (without describing the method), to have everyone wash their clothes, to set a boundary around the mountain, and to warn the people that anyone who crosses that line, or even touches it, will be put to death.

Then Moses went down from the mountain to the people, and he made the people holy, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people: “Be ready for the third day. Don’t go near a woman!” (Exodus 19:14-15)

Once again, Moses is taking initiative. Why does he add this injunction?

According to Leviticus 15:16-18, an emission of semen makes a man ritually impure, and anything it touches also becomes impure. If a man and a woman have sex, they must both bathe and wait until evening before they are ritually pure and able to participate in religious rites. Someone can be ritually pure without being holy, i.e. set aside for God, but a person cannot be holy without being ritually pure.

In a patriarchal society, Moses is addressing only the (heterosexual) men. He orders them to go without sex for two days before the day of God’s revelation. The classic commentators assumed that Moses somehow already knew the laws about ritual purity that God gave later, in Leviticus, and they explained that Moses thought a man’s semen might stay alive inside his wife for three days.¹¹

This seems far-fetched. I prefer Rabbi Steinsaltz’s explanation that Moses was telling the men: “Refrain from sexual relations during these three days in order to focus your minds and prepare for the encounter.”¹²

At Mount Sinai, God is the boss, and Moses is the middle manager who relays God’s words to the people and the people’s words to God. But God is not a micro-manager, and welcomes it when Moses takes the initiative—as he does when he climbs the mountain to speak with God, and when he adds the order to refrain from sexual intercourse for three days.

And it happened on the third day, when it became morning. And there were thunder-sounds and lightning-flashes, and a heavy cloud on the mountain, and a very loud sound of a shofar [ram’s horn], and all the people who were in the camp trembled. (Exodus 19:16)

The revelation of God has begun.

To be continued …

Or HaChayim, by Chayim ibn Attar, translation in www.sefaria.org.
In Exodus 5:22-23, after his first audience with the new pharaoh, when the Israelites were given more labor instead of the holiday that Moses and Aaron had requested. See my post: Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice.
The ethnic group known to the Egyptians in the book of Exodus as Hebrews is usually called the “children of Israel” (i.e. Israelites) in the Hebrew Bible, but occasionally called the “house of Jacob”. Exodus 1:1-6 explains that these people are the descendants of Jacob in the book of Genesis, to whom God gave a second name, Israel.
Deuteronomy 7:6 and 14:2, and Psalm 135:4, announce both that the Israelites are God’s segulah and that God chose them, using the verb bahar (בָהַר) = “chose” or “chosen”.
So far, they complain about leaving Egypt and/or say they want to return there in Exodus 14:11-12, 16:3, and 17:3. Their backsliding will continue.
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, Covenant & Conversation, “A Nation of Leaders: Yitro 5781”, 2022.
Rashi (11^th century Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzchak), translation in www.sefaria.org.
But God does predict what the pharaoh in Exodus will do, and hardens the pharaoh’s heart at key points to make sure it happens.
Exodus 2:23-25.
Rabbi Rami Shapiro, teaching@topica.email-publisher.com, May 25, 2004, Shavuot.
E.g. Avot deRabbi Natan, Talmud Bavli Niddah 42a and Shabbat 86a, Rashi.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.

Beshalach: Moses Graduates

(This is my seventh post in a series about the conversations between Moses and God, and how their relationship evolves in the book of Exodus/Shemot. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, you might try: Tetzaveh: Flower on the Forehead.)

The first time Moses and God have a conversation on Mount Sinai, God tells Moses to return to Egypt, ask the pharaoh to let the Israelites leave, and persuade the Israelites to follow him out of the country. Moses keeps making excuses to get out of this terrifying mission, certain that he cannot persuade anyone of anything. But God gives him one reassurance after another, finally promising to deploy Moses’ long-lost brother, Aaron, as his spokesman (or perhaps interpreter; see my post: Shemot: Not a Man of Words). Then Moses finally, reluctantly, heads back to Egypt.

When he leaves Egypt a year or two later, 600,000 Israelites and supporters follow him into the wilderness.¹ Although leadership comes more naturally to extraverts, introverts like Moses can become effective leaders with sufficient preparation and self-confidence. As God backs him up in his negotiations with the pharaoh, Moses earns respect from the pharaoh and his court, and his self-confidence increases exponentially.² His standing also improves with the Israelites; by the time they leave Egypt, the people view both Moses and God (as manifested in a column of cloud and fire) as their leaders.

And God was going before them, by day in a column of cloud to lead them on the way, and by night in a column of fire to give light to them for walking day and night. (Exodus 13:21)

A junior leader when the sea splits

The pharaoh has another change of heart, thanks to some heart-hardening from God, and he pursues the Israelites with a squadron of charioteers. God tells Moses to make the Israelites turn around and camp on the shore of the Reed Sea³ so they will appear to be trapped between the Egyptian army and the water. Moses does, even though God neglects to explain the next part of the divine scheme.

And Pharaoh approached, and the Israelites raised their eyes, and hey! Egyptians were setting out after them! They were very afraid. And the Israelites cried out to God. And they said to Moses: “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt, that you took us out to die in the wilderness? What is this you have done to us, to bring us out from Egypt?” (Exodus 14:10-11)

Out of their two leaders, the Israelites address God first, but they blame Moses. The 14^th-century commentary Tur HaArokh explained: “When they noted that their prayer had not helped, they became heretical in their attitude, making above-mentioned sarcastic comments to Moses, blaming him for their present predicament.”⁴

They declare that they were better off being enslaved in Egypt. Moses replies, on his own initiative, that God will do battle for them. But then God tells Moses to order the Israelites to march forward into the sea, adding:

Moses and the Parting of the Red Sea, Providence Lithograph Co., 1907

“And you, raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and split it! And the Israelites will come into the middle of the sea on the dry land. And I, I will be here strengthening the Egyptians’ heart, and they will come in after them. Then ikavdah by Pharaoh and by all Pharaoh’s army, by his charioteers and by his horsemen. Then Egypt will know that I am Y-H-V-H …” (Exodus14:16-18)

ikavdah (אִכָּבְדָה) = I will be considered impressive, I will be honored, I will be respected. (From the same root as koved, כֱֺבֶד = weight.)

It is important to God to acquire an impressive reputation in Egypt.^5ֶ But it is also important for the Israelites to respect Moses, so God has him initiate the miracle of the parting of the Reed Sea with a dramatic gesture.

The Egyptian charioteers urge the horses onto the dry sea-bed, still chasing the Israelites. But as soon as all the people and their livestock have reached the other side, God lets the water rush back and drown the Egyptians.

And Israel saw the great hand [power] that Y-H-V-H had used against the Egyptians, and the people feared Y-H-V-H, and they had faith in Y-H-V-H and in [God’s] servant Moses. (Exodus 14:31)

In their first conversation on Mount Sinai, God was like a patient parent reassuring an anxious young child. (See my post: Shemot: Moses Gives Up.) In Egypt, God is like a reliable parent to an adolescent uneasy with his place in the world. (See my post: Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice.) But as the Israelites journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai, God is like a mentor who takes time to make sure a young adult protégé comes to be viewed as a leader And Moses responds by turning to God when he needs advice.

A moment of panic

At Refidim, the Israelites’ last stop on the Sinai Peninsula before Mount Sinai, there is no water. The people are probably carrying some water from the last campsite, but they are anxious—or inclined to grumble.

And the people complained against Moses, and they said: “Give us water, so we may drink!” And Moses said to them: “Why do you complain against me? Why do you test God?” (Exodus 17:2)

Moses has identified so completely with his role as God’s agent that he now considers any quarrel with him a quarrel with God. After all, God makes the decisions; he merely carries them out.

But the people were thirsty for water there, and the people grumbled against Moses, and said: “Why this? To bring us up from Egypt [only] to bring death to me and my children and my livestock by thirst?” And Moses cried out to God, saying: “What can I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me!” (Exodus 17:3-4)

Moses is still insecure about his new role, afraid that at any time the people will turn angry enough to kill him.

And God said to Moses: “Pass before the people, and take with you some of Israel’s elders, and take the staff with which you struck the Nile in your hand, and go.” (Exodus 17:5)

Robert Alter noted: “… passing before the enraged people would be rather like running the gauntlet, and it is this that God compels him to do as the prelude to the demonstration of divine saving power.”⁶

In this way God nudges Moses to do something courageous. When he does pass in front of the people, they see that he is going somewhere (with witnesses) to find water, and trust him enough to wait for his return.

Moses Striking Water from the Rock, by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1577

Calmly God tells Moses the next step:

“Here, I will be standing before you there on the rock at Choreiv. And you must hit the rock, and water with come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did thus, before the eyes of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:6)

Choreiv (חֺרֵב) = the alternate name for Mount Sinai, the name used for the “Mountain of God” in the passage about Moses seeing the bush that burned but was not consumed.⁷ (Ironically, from the root verb charav, חָרַב = dried up, made desolate.)

The Torah does not say that anyone actually sees God standing on a rock at the mountain. Perhaps Moses has developed a sense for the direction from which God’s instructions reach him. The 14^th-century commentary Tur HaArokh suggested that Moses saw a vision of an angel on the rock.

And why does God create the miracle at Choreiv instead of at their camp at Refidim? Hirsch speculated in the 19th century that God had planned for water to gush from a rock when they arrived at the mountain, but the Israelites complained about thirst prematurely, before their portable supplies had run out. “The only effect of their untimely murmuring was that even now, while they were in Refidim, God provided them with water from Chorev. The words … seem to indicate that the water flowed from Chorev to the people’s camp in Refidim.”⁸

A staff initiative

Moses demonstrates his new ability as a leader in one more event before the Israelites pitch camp at the foot of Mount Sinai/Choreiv.

Then Amaleik came and would do battle with Israel at Refidim. And Moses said to Joshua: “Choose men for us and go out, wage battle against Amaleik! Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill, and the staff of God will be in my hand.” (Exodus 17:8-9)

Nobody expects Moses to be a war leader. He is God’s prophet and deputy; when a warlike band of Amalekites appears, Moses appoints Joshua as the military general. Moses also decides to spend the day of the battle on top of a low hill where the Israelite troops can see him holding the staff. God does not need to instruct Moses this time; he has already taken charge.

Malbim, another 19th-century commentator, wrote “Moshe’s special abilities lay in the realm of the supernatural. … On this occasion, by contrast, God hid His face so that they were required to do battle in a natural manner. Therefore Moshe delegated command to Yehoshua, who had been chosen by God to lead the conquest of Canaan, which was to be accomplished through natural wars accompanied by hidden miracles.”⁹

Moses climbs to the top of the nearby hill with his brother Aaron and another trusted assistant, Chur.

Battle with the Amalekites, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860

And it happened that when Moses raised his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he rested his hand, Amaleik prevailed. Then Moses’ hands were keveidim. So they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sat down on it, and Aaron and Chur supported his hands, one on this side and one on the other side. And his hands were steadfast until the sun came in [went down].” (Exodus 17:12)

keveidim (כְּבֵדִים) = heavy. (From the same root as ikavdah,אִכָּבְדָה,in Exodus 14:18 above = I will be considered impressive, I will be honored, I will be respected.)

According to the 13^th-century commentary Chizkuni, Moses’ motivation was “to be able to follow the course of the battle while personally watching, and even more, so that the Israelite fighters could see their leader and be encouraged by this visual contact … Moses’ staff in this instance served as a flag for the Israelites fighting Amalek.”¹⁰

And Joshua disabled Amaleik and his people with the edge of the sword. (Exodus 17:13)

Enough Amalekites are killed or wounded so that they give up and run away. The immediate cause of the Israelites’ victory is that they keep swinging at the Amalekites with swords (which they must have taken from Egyptians, along with the gold, silver, and clothing). But they have the confidence to attack instead of retreat only when they see Moses holding up the staff of God.

Moses has had enough mentoring by God, and enough practice being the leader of thousands, that this time he acts on his own initiative and does exactly the right thing to save his people. He has become a worthy co-leader with God.

To be continued …

Exodus 12:37 says: The Israelites journeyed from Ramses to Sukkot, about 600,000 fighting men on foot, apart from non-walkers. This would mean the total number of Israelites was more than a million, which would take more miracles than the book of Exodus reports to keep alive in the arid wilderness. The next verse, Exodus 12:38, says: And also riffraff went up with them …
On Moses’ increasing self-confidence, see my post: Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds His Voice. On the courtiers, see Exodus 11:3: The man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s courtiers and in the eyes of the people. The pharaoh reveals his growing respect for Moses in more subtle ways. The first time Moses and Aaron speak to him, he rejects their request out of hand (Exodus 5:1-9). After the second plague, the pharaoh summons Moses and Aaron and says if they will plead with God to remove the frogs, he will let the people go (Exodus 8:4). He keeps making these deals, then backing out on them, but at least he views Moses as someone who has God’s ear and must be negotiated with. When the pharaoh and Moses make another deal after the fourth plague, Moses adds: “Only may Pharaoh not deceive us again …” (Exodus 8:25)—and the pharaoh swallows the insult. During the final plague, death of the firstborn, the pharaoh begs Moses and Aaron not only to take the Israelites out of Egypt with no conditions, but also to bring a blessing upon him (Exodus 12:31-32).
The Hebrew word for this body of water is yam suf (יַם־סוּף), which means “Sea of Reeds”. It is commonly translated as the Red Sea, since the northern tip of the Red Sea is one possibility for the Israelites’ crossing point.
Tur HaArokh, by Rabbi Jacob ben Asher, written circa 1280–1340 C.E., translation in www.sefaria.org.
See Exodus 14:4.
Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary, W.W. Norton & Co., New York, 2004, p. 412.
Exodus 3:1.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, The Hirsch Chumash: Sefer Shemos, translation by Daniel Haberman, Feldheim Publishers, Jerusalem, 2005, p. 293.
Malbim (19^th-century rabbi Meir Leibush Weisser), translation in www.sefaria.org; I substituted “God” for “Hashem” for clarity.
Chizkuni, by Chizkiah ben Manoach, 13^th century, translation in www.sefaria.org.

Shemot to Bo: Moses Finds his Voice

(This is my sixth post in a series about the interactions between Moses and God on Mount Sinai, and how their relationship evolves. If you would like to read one of my posts about this week’s Torah portion, Terumah, you might try: Terumah: Insecurity.)

Moses hears God speak to him for the first time out of the fire in the thornbush on Mount Sinai. (See my post: Shemot: A Close Look at the Burning Bush.) God has already decided to use devastating miracles to liberate the Israelites in Egypt, but needs a human agent to persuade the Israelites to leave for Canaan and the pharaoh to let the Israelites go.

For this job, God picks an Israelite by birth who was raised by Egyptian royalty, and is now herding sheep in Midian. Moses’ assets are that he is curious and open to new ideas, he empathizes with the underdog, he is humble, and he is sufficiently awed to hide his face when he hears a divine voice speaking out of the fire. (See my post: Shemot: Empathy, Fear, and Humility.)

But he does not want to go. He knows he is not an adept speaker. (See my post: Shemot: Not a Man of Words.) And he longs to continue his safe and peaceful life in Midian. So he tries five times to excuse himself from the mission. (See my post: Shemot: Names and Miracles.)

In this first conversation on Mount Sinai, Moses sounds like an anxious child, and God sounds like a patient parent. It takes God a long time to reassure Moses enough so he will cooperate with God’s plan. Finally God promises that Moses’ brother Aaron will be his spokesman in Egypt, and Moses stops trying to get out of the job. (See my post: Shemot: Moses Gives Up.) After a brief stop at his father-in-law’s camp, he heads back to Egypt.

A year or two passes before Moses meets God on Mount Sinai again. During that time, God continues to give Moses instructions, and occasionally Moses asks God a question. These conversations are silent, inside Moses’ mind.

Does Moses change during this period in Egypt? Does his relationship with God change?

Shemot: Moses wins and loses the people’s trust

Aaron meets Moses on the road as he heads across the Sinai Peninsula toward Egypt.

And Moses told Aaron all the words with which [God] had sent him, and all the signs [God] had instructed him in. Then Moses and Aaron went, and they gathered all the elders of the Israelites. And Aaron spoke all the words that God had spoken to Moses, and he did the signs before the eyes of the people. And the people trusted … (Exodus 4:28-31)

The text does not say whether the Israelites trust Moses, whom they do not know, or only Aaron, one of their own elders. Either way, they believe they are hearing the words of their own god.

Moses and Aaron Come Before Pharaoh, Golden Haggadah, 14th century

And afterward Moses and Aaron came and said to Pharaoh: “Thus says Y-H-V-H, the god of Israel: ‘Let my people go, and they will observe a festival for me in the wilderness!’” (Exodus 5:1)

The text does not say which brother is doing the actual speaking. The pharaoh says no, and Moses and Aaron clarify their request:

“Please let us go a distance of three days into the wilderness, and we will make slaughter-offerings to Y-H-V-H, our God …” (Exodus 5:3)

Instead, the pharaoh increases the workload of the Israelites, and they turn against Moses and Aaron.¹

Then Moses returned to Y-H-V-H and said: “My lord, why have you done harm to this people? Why did you send me? Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done harm to this people. And you certainly have not rescued your people!” (Exodus 5:22-23)

Until now, Moses has only responded after God spoke to him. This is the first time Moses initiates a conversation with God.²

On Mount Sinai, God warned Moses that the pharaoh would not let the Israelites go until after God had inflicted some devastating miracles on Egypt.³ Has Moses forgotten? Or is he making a different point with his questions?

Eleventh-century rabbi Chananel viewed Moses’ question “Why have you done harm to this people?” as an enquiry about the problem of evil. “This is not to be understood as a complaint or insolence, but simply as a question. Moses wanted to know the use of the [divine] attribute which decrees sometimes afflictions on the just, and all kinds of advantages for the wicked …”⁴

In the 14^th century Rabbeinu Bachya saw Moses’ first question as an acknowledgement that God does do harm to people God favors. “The Torah wanted to inform us that improvements or deteriorations in the fate of the Jewish nation are the result of God’s doing, not of someone else’s doing. By his very question, Moses wanted to make it clear that he understood this. After all, evil does originate with God, though in a more indirect manner than good.”⁵

Their explanations are theologically interesting, but Moses has not engaged in such abstract thinking yet in the storyline of Exodus, and his second question, “Why did you send me?”, shows he is taking the situation personally. Other commentators have offered a more likely explanation: that Moses thought God would move quickly once he has spoken to the pharaoh, and life would improve for the Israelites until the final miracle freed them altogether. Therefore he asks why God sent him before the divine deliverance was at hand.⁶

According to 16^th-century rabbi Ovadiah Sforno, Moses’ second question means: “Why did You make me the one to be the immediate cause of [their suffering]?”⁷

Moses’ questions to God remind me of a child complaining, “It’s not fair!” To his credit, Moses points out that the unfairness to the Israelites (why have you done bad to this people?), as well as unfairness to himself (why did you send me?).

According 19^th-century rabbi S.R. Hirsch, Moses is telling God: “You caused this new calamity. You did not just remain aloof when it happened; rather, You provoked it through my mission.” Then Hirsch explains: “His mission has been a complete failure. … Moshe, too, is doubting himself; indeed, who, if not Moshe, would now not have heightened misgivings about his own capability, would now not ask himself whether he had mishandled his mission?”⁸

He also goes so far as to accuse God by saying: “and you certainly have not rescued your people!”. It is human nature to assign the blame to someone else when you suspect you are partly responsible for a disaster.

Moses may feel as insecure as ever about speaking to other human beings, but he is much bolder now when he speaks to God. He treats God the way an adolescent might treat a reliable parent at a moment of crisis.

And God’s response is mild enough:

“Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh.” (Exodus 6:1)

Va-eira: Moses trusts God—and himself

When God tells Moses to go speak to the pharaoh again, Moses replies:

“Here, the Israelites don’t listen to me. How will Pharaoh listen to me? And I have foreskin-covered lips!” Then God spoke Moses and to Aaron, and commanded them … (Exodus 6:12-13)

Moses may trust God to listen to him patiently, but he still does not trust himself to be a convincing speaker. He uses the biblical metaphor of the foreskin to indicate that his power to speak well is blocked.⁹

Perhaps God thinks that Moses’ ears are also foreskin-covered, since God switches back to addressing Moses and Aaron at the same time.

Aaron’s Rod Changed into a Serpent, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Charles Foster Bible,1860

They obey God and return to the pharaoh to demonstrate the miraculous sign God gave Moses on Mount Sinai, in which his staff turned into a snake. This time Aaron is holding the staff.¹⁰

Then God dictates what Moses must say to the pharaoh the next morning at the Nile, and assigns Aaron to wield the staff to initiate the miracle of the water turning to blood.¹¹ The miracles continue, with Moses repeating God’s words to the pharaoh, and Aaron making the gestures. Clearly Moses can speak upper-class Egyptian correctly. But if he is an insecure introvert, as I proposed in my post Shemot: Not a Man of Words, he needs to know ahead of time what to say, and God tells him.

Then Moses begins adding a few words of his own. After the miracle (or plague) of frogs, the pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron that if they beg God to remove the frogs, he will let the Israelites go make their offerings to God. Moses asks the pharaoh to choose the time for the divine frog extermination, “so that you will know there is none like Y-H-V-H, our God.” (Exodus 8:5-6)

He trusts God to back him up by killing the frogs on the day the pharaoh designates—and God does.

After the fourth plague (arov (עָרֺב) = swarms, mixtures of insects), the pharaoh tells Moses and Aaron that he will let the people make their offerings to God as long as they stay inside Egypt. Apparently on his own initiative, Moses replies:

“It would not be right to do thus, since we will slaughter for Y-H-V-H, our God, what is taboo for Egyptians. If we slaughtered what is taboo for Egyptians in front of their eyes, then wouldn’t they stone us? Let us go on a journey of three days into the wilderness …” (Exodus 8:22-23)

The pharaoh agrees this time, and Moses agrees to ask God to remove the swarms. But he adds:

“Only let Pharaoh not trifle with us again, by not letting the people go to make slaughter-offerings to Y-H-V-H!” (Exodus 8:25)

If Moses is an introvert, then he has probably spent days mulling over what he might say to the pharaoh in various situations. When one of those situations arises, he does not need to wait for either God or Aaron; he can simply deliver one of the replies he practiced. (This is how I have managed to speak up in difficult social situations despite my introversion.)

Moses is also getting used to being listened to. His trust in himself, as well as in God, is increasing.

Bo: Moses transcends himself

After the penultimate plague, three days of utter darkness for all the Egyptians, the pharaoh tells Moses that all the Israelites may go into the wilderness, even the women and children, as long as their livestock stays behind. Moses is now accustomed to the pharaoh bargaining in bad faith, and he has his answer ready.

And Moses said: “You, too, must give into our hand slaughter-offerings and burnt offerings, and we will make them for Y-H-V-H, our God. And also our own livestock will go with us; not a hoof will remain behind. Because we will take from them to serve Y-H-V-H, our God, and we ourselves will not know what we will serve God [with] until we arrive there.” (Exodus 10:25-26)

The 18^th-century commentary Or Hachayim noted: “At any rate, this answer of Moses to Pharaoh was obviously one that Moses invented and is not to be regarded as an instruction given to him by God.”¹⁰

The pharaoh loses his temper, possibly because Moses’ answer is obviously an excuse.

Then Pharaoh said to him: “Go away from me! Watch out against seeing my face again, because the moment you see my face you will die!” And Moses said: “You spoke the truth! I will not see your face again!” (Exodus 10:28-29)

Perhaps Moses forgets that God has saved one final plague to inflict upon Egypt. According to many commentators, God hurries to instruct Moses about it before he stalks out of the pharaoh’s audience chamber.¹¹

Moses then follows God’s new instructions by announcing that at midnight every Egyptian firstborn male, from the pharaoh’s oldest son to the firstborn of cattle, will die. Then he adds something God did not tell him to say.

“And then all these courtiers of yours will come down to me and prostrate themselves to me, saying: ‘Go! You and all the people who follow you!’ And after that I will go.” And he walked away from Pharaoh bahari af. (Exodus 11:8)

bahari af (בָּחֳרִי־אָף) = with the hot nose (an idiom for “in anger”).

Moses’ final words to the pharaoh do not sound like something an introvert rehearsed ahead of time. Carried away by his anger in the moment, Moses says the first thing that comes into his head.

It was standard procedure to prostrate oneself before a king in order to receive permission to speak; Moses and Aaron would have done it at every audience with the pharaoh. Now Moses says that the pharaoh’s courtiers will come to him and prostrate themselves, as if he were a king.¹²

Pharaoh and his Dead Son, by James Tissot, ca. 1900

It does not happen exactly the way Moses’ inflamed imagination pictures it. At midnight, when the firstborn Egyptians are dying and people are wailing in every Egyptian house, the pharaoh himself summons Moses and Aaron and commands the Israelites to leave Egypt and take their flocks and herds with them.

They march out of Egypt with everything they own, as well as some gold, silver, and clothing “borrowed” from Egyptians. They leave behind a country devastated by God’s ten miraculous plagues, a country in which everyone from pharaoh to commoner acknowledges that the God of Israel is the most powerful god.

The first stage of Moses’ mission, and God’s, has succeeded.

To be continued …

Exodus 5:21.
Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, The Steinsaltz Tanakh, Koren Publishers, Jerusalem, 2019, quoted in www.sefaria.org.
Exodus 3:19-20.
Rabbeinu Chananel (Rabbi Chananel ben Chushiel), as quoted in other commentaries, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Rabbeinu Bachya (Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, 1255–1340), translation in www.sefaria.org
E.g. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra (12^th century), Ramban (13^th-century rabbi Moses ben Nachman), Chizkuni (a 13th-century compilation), Or Hachayim (by 18^th-century Rabbi Chayim ben Moshe ibn Attar).
Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno, translation in www.sefaria.org.
Exodus 7:9-10.
Leviticus 26:41 says that God will welcome the Israelites back “if their foreskin-covered heart humbles itself”. Jeremiah 6:10 says that the ears of the Judahites are “foreskin-covered, and they cannot listen”.
Exodus 7:14-20.
Or HaChayim, by Rabbi Chayim ben Moshe ibn Attar, translation in www.sefaria.org.
E.g. Or HaChayim, ibid.
Or HaChayim, ibid.