Reminds Me of a King

Mekorot in Honour of Tikkun Leyl Shavuot 5783

Mashal LeMelech

Louis Jacobs, Principles of the Jewish Faith

Maimonides is of the opinion that whatever attributes we use of God are to be understood in a negative sense. They do not tell us what God is but what He is not. Thus when we say that God is one we do not really mean to imply that we know anything about God's true nature but we merely affirm that He is not a plurality of beings. Or when we say that God is compassionate we refer to His acts, which if done by humans would be due to compassion, and that He is not cruel. Even when we say that God exists we mean that He is not non- existent.

Bereishit Rabba 2:2

The heaven and the earth… the earth was Tohu VaVohu R. Abbahu said: This may be compared to the case of a king who bought two slaves on the same bill of sale and at the same price. One he ordered to be supported at the public expense, while the other he ordered to toil for his bread. The latter sat bewildered and astonished [Tohe v’Vohe]: 'Both of us were bought at the same price exclaimed he, 'yet he is supported from the treasury whilst I have to gain my bread by my toil!'

Kach the earth sat bewildered and astonished, saying, ' The celestial beings [sc. the angels] and the terrestial ones [sc. man] were created at the same time: yet the celestial beings are fed by the radiance of the Shechinah, whereas the terrestial beings, if they do not toil, do not eat. Strange it is indeed!'

… Rabbi Tanchuma said Mashal LeVen Melech who was sleeping in his cradle, but his nurse was shocked and confused [Tohe v’Vohe]. Why? Because she knew that she was going to be punished under his hands.

Kach, the earth saw that she was going to be punished under the hands of humanity, as it is written "Cursed be the earth for your sake" (Genesis 3:17). Therefore the earth was Tohu VaVohu.

Boyarin, Intertextuality and the Reading of Midrash

The very conventionality of the mashal-proper is thus its essential element and meaning. Seen in this light, it bears a semiotic function similar to "Once upon a time, there were three brothers" in folktales, by which we know: the third brother will do something which is good, from which we are to learn.

Thus the mashal assigns the roles, as it were, to the characters in the nimshal as the King's counsellors, sons, friends, pedagogues, guards, etc., providing us the semiotic code.

 

David Stern, "Rhetoric and Midrash: The Case of the Mashal," Prooftexts

The Mashal differs distinctly from [‘allegory’ and ‘parable’]: … to bring a certain message to bear upon an ad hoc situation before its audience by suggesting it to them through an allusive tale. The allegorical, or symbolic, or referential features of the mashal exist only for the sake of enabling its audience to grasp for themselves the ulterior message the mashal bears.

In literary forms like the mashal, midrashic exegesis - its microstructure - is used merely as a raw material, as it were, for compositions whose intended purpose moves far beyond exegesis into the macrostructures of midrashic literature, (p. 276)

 

Shir HaShhirim Rabba 1:8

The rabbis say: Do not let this mashal be light in your eyes, for by means of this mashal one comes to comprehend the words of Torah. A mashal: To a king who has lost a golden coin from his house or a precious pearl – does he not find it by means of a wick worth a penny? Similarly, let not this mashal be light in your eyes, for by means of this mashal one comes to comprehend the words of Torah.

 

1.    Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael Lauterbach I,224

And the angel of God, going before the Camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. And the Pillar of Cloud moved from before them and went after them (Exod. 14:19).

R. Yehudah said: a mashal; to what is the matter similar? To a king who

was going on the way, and his son went before him. Brigands came to

kidnap him from in front. He took him from in front and placed him behind

him. A wolf came behind him. He took him from behind and placed him in

front. Brigands in front and the wolf in back he (He) took him and placed

him in his (His) arms, as is said, "I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them on

My arms" (Hos.ll:3). The son began to suffer, he (He) took him on his shoulders, as is said, "in the desert which you saw, where the Lord your God carried you" (Deut. 1:31). The son began to suffer from the sun; he (He) spread on him his cloak, as is said, "He has spread a cloud as a curtain" (Ps. 105:39). He became hungry; he (He) fed him, as is said, "Behold I send bread, like rain,

from the sky" (Exod. 16:4). He became thirsty, he (He) gave him drink, as is said, "He brought streams out of the rock" (Ps. 78:16).

2.    Sifrei Devarim 313

"He found him in a desert land" (Devarim 32:10)

This refers to our father Abraham. Mashal - A king and his soldiers go out to the wilderness, whereupon his soldiers bring him to a place of afflictions, invaders, and marauders, and they abandon him — whereupon there joins him a hero, who says to him: King, do not despair; fear nothing. I swear not to leave you until you return to your palace and sleep in your bed, as it is written (in respect to Abraham, Genesis 15:7) "I am the Lord, who brought you out of Ur Kasdim, etc."

3.    Bereishit Rabba 39:1

"God said to Abram, 'Go forth from your land…'" (Genesis 12:1)

Rabbi Yitzchak said: Mashal - a man who was traveling from place to place when he saw a castle aglow. He said, "Is it possible that this castle lacks a person to look after it?" The owner of the building looked at him and said to him, 'I am the master of the castle.'" What happened with Abraham our father was similar. He said, “Is it possible that this universe lacks a person to look after it?," the Holy Blessed One looked at him and said to him, 'I am the Master of the Universe.'"

And let the king be aroused by your beauty since he is your master (Psalms 45:12) And let the king be aroused for your beauty in the universe. Hence, God said to Abram, [go forth...]

 

4.   Leviticus 18:3

You shall not copy the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelt, or of the land of Canaan to which I am taking you; nor shall you follow their laws.

 

Leviticus Rabba 23

Rabbi Hunya said: Mashal - a king who had an only daughter and he caused her to dwell in a particular alley and they all turned out to be masters of licentiousness (ba’alei zenut). He went and caused her to dwell in another alley and they all turned out to be masters of licentiousness and masters of magic (ba’alei keshafim). Her father said to her, “My daughter, give it your attention so that you will not practice like the practice or these or like the practice of those.” Thus, when Israel was in Egypt, the Egyptians were masters of licentiousness – “. . . whose members were like those of asses . . .” (Ezek. 23:20). And when they entered the land of Canaan, the Canaanites were masters of licentiousness  and masters of magic – “Because of the countless harlotries of the harlot (zenunei zonah), the winsome mistress of sorcery (ba’alat keshafim)” (Nahum 3:4). The Holy Blessed One said to them, “My child, be cautious not to practice either like the practice of these or like the practice of those.” Thus it is written, “You shall not copy the practices ...”

5.    Talmud Yerushalmi Taanit 2:2

R. Levi said: What is the meaning of erekh ‘apayim? (lit. long in anger) Mashal – a king who had two tough legions. The king said, “If [the legions] dwell with me in the province, when the citizens of the province anger me, [the legions] will make a stand against [the citizens]. Instead, I will send the legions far away so that if the citizens of the province anger me, before I have a chance to send for [the legions], the citizens of the province will appease me and I will accept their appeasement.”

Kach the Holy Blessed One said, “Af and Hemah [synonyms for anger] are angels of devastation. I will send them far away so that if Israel angers me, before I have chance to send for them and bring them, Israel will do teshuvah and I will accept their teshuvah.” This is that which is written, They come from a distant land, from the edge of the sky [God and the weapons of his wrath–to ravage all the earth] (Isaiah 13:5).

6.   Rambam Guide to the Perplexed 3:51 (Last chapter)

I will begin the subject of this chapter with a simile. A king is in his palace, and all his subjects are partly in the country, and partly abroad. Of the former, some have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, and their faces in another direction; and some are desirous and zealous to go to the palace, seeking “to inquire in his temple,” and to minister before him, but have not yet seen even the face of the wall of the house. Of those that desire to go to the palace, some reach it, and go round about in search of the entrance gate; others have passed through the gate, and walk about in the ante-chamber; and others have succeeded in entering into the inner part of the palace, and being in the same room with the king in the royal palace. But even the latter do not immediately on entering the palace see the king, or speak to him; for, after having entered the inner part of the palace, another effort is required before they can stand before the king—at a distance, or close by—hear his words, or speak to him.

I will now explain the simile which I have made. The people who are abroad are all those that have no religion, … I consider these as irrational beings, and not as human beings… Those who are in the country, but have their backs turned towards the king’s palace, are those who possess religion, belief, and thought, but happen to hold false doctrines…But those who have succeeded in finding a proof for everything that can be proved, who have a true knowledge of God, so far as a true knowledge can be attained, and are near the truth, wherever an approach to the truth is possible, they have reached the goal, and are in the palace in which the king lives.

 

7.    The Tainted Grain -  A Parable of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav (1772-1810)

A King once told his Prime Minister who was also his good friend, 'I see in the stars that whoever eats any grain that grows this year will go mad. What is your advice?'

The Prime Minister replied, 'We must put aside enough grain so that we will not have to eat from this year's harvest.'

The King objected, 'But then we will be the only ones who will be sane. Everyone else will be mad. Therefore they will think that we are the mad ones. It is impossible for us to put aside enough grain for everyone. Therefore we too must eat this year's grain. But we will make a mark [Heb. ot] on our foreheads, so that we will know that we are mad. I will look at your forehead, and you will look at mine, and when we see this sign [Heb. ot], we will know that we are both mad.'

 

What is Midrash?

A Midrash is a short text usually appearing in a classic Rabbinic work from the first six centuries of the common era (Bereishit Rabba, Mekhilta, Sifra etc).

The word itself is a conjugation of the Hebrew root D-R-SH, to seek. It is the paradigmatic way Rabbis engage with earlier canonical texts (usually but not exclusively Biblical verses) to … well to do all kinds of things.

There is a vast school of Midrash – known as Midrash Halacha - dedicated to explaining how every aspect of Rabbinic law can be derived from (often microscopically close and highly creative) reading of Biblical verses. But my great love is for Midrash Agada – folkloric, or narrative based, Midrash.

The Biblical verse relays that Cain said something to Abel before murdering him, but no words are reported. Most translators use ellipses, as if Cain has been rendered speechless but Midrash suggests the brothers argued as to who would inherit the world, or win the location of the Temple in their territory, or …. The point isn’t to solve a ‘gap,’ in the way a palaeontologist solves gaps in a fossil record, but rather to exploit openings to be creative; harnessing a love and staggering command of the Biblical canon to render one verse capable of bearing additional or new meaning, often by juxtaposing it with another.

The Holy Blessed One, said to Abraham, “You said, "Let a little water be brought [for the angels who came to visit you]" (Gen. 18:4). By your life, I [God] shall repay your descendants [by providing water for them]; in the wilderness as it is said, "Then Israel sang this song:  Spring up, O well" (Num. 21:17), in the land [of Israel]?  "A land with streams" (Deut. 8:7) and in the time to come, "In that day, fresh water shall flow" (Zech. 14:8).

Bereishit Rabba 48:10

This passage, one of six(!) correlating reward in the wilderness, the land and the future to hospitable actions Abraham performed for his visitors) is about more than an expression of Biblical command. It inspires, in its readers, acts of kindness performed for strangers, after all such actions motivate far off re-actions. And it serves as a gentle reminder that the world has a destiny, it is going to be OK; just as Israel survived the wilderness and entered the land, so too we can have hope for the time to come. But don’t imagine Midrash tends towards the pious, Midrash is impish and fearless, poking fun at Rabbis and Romans with equal panache, and even taking on God who can emerge as forgetful, priggish, even abusive, often through the Midrashic technique of parable or Mashal.

In the Biblical account, God calls Abraham to, go before me and be pure. “Mashal – what is this like? Like a King stumbling in the darkness who calls on someone to light up their way.” (Bereishit Rabba 30:10). Abraham is called, so are we all. Heschel, surely, was thinking of this Midrash when he chose the title of his greatest work, God in Search of Man. Bakers knead dough, and painters sketch. Rabbinic Jews Drosh. In doing so we seek God, but often find God in search of us.

I teach, and stream, a weekly class in Bereishit Rabba, Tuesdays 12:30. Contact rabbi@newlondon.org.uk for more information.

Who Owns the Castle?

At the opening of this week’s Torah reading God calls on Abraham to go, and he goes, and so the story of our people begins.
I have often referred to the famous tale of Abraham in his father’s idol shop, smashing up the idols and being dragged before the local potentate, most recently here.  But this year my attention has been taken by a more nuanced tale, from Midrash Hagadol.

In this tale, all the wrestling happens within Abraham’s own mind. He is ‘Shotef b’Daato’ roaming in his mind. He is initially attracted by the power of the sun but when it sets he turns to the stars. He gives up on the stars as they disappear before the dawn. He yearns to know if there is something truly ultimate, something which has no causation. The Midrash continues, “To what can this be compared?

To a traveller who saw a tremendous large castle and wanted to enter it. He examined it from, but could find no entry. He called out, but there was no response. Then he lifted up his eyes and saw red woollen cloths spread out on the rood. After that he saw white flaxen cloths. The traveler thought, ‘Surely someone lives in that castle, for otherwise how would the cloths appear and disappear?’ When the owner of the castle saw that he was in distress over this, the owner asked, ‘Why are you in distress? I am the owner of the castle.’”

In later Chasidic thought this Midrash inspires a much-cited teaching about a King hidden in the innermost chamber of a palace. Fine draperies and gold trinkets abound in the outer courtyards and most of those who come to seek the King are distracted by the first piece of sparkle they find and give up on a deeper search. It’s only the truly great seeker who penetrates to the heart of the castle to sit with the King.

The point is that Judaism prizes theological questing (a favourite word of our founder Rabbi). Theology isn’t supposed to be easy. The easy theologies are the stars and the fancy drapes, simple, but dishonest and false. The quest of a source of power that has no causation isn’t a childish vision of a deity on a cloud, it’s stripping back of distractions and accretions. It’s ultimately a belief that there is an owner of the castle, that all this beauty is not without any meaning at all. Talking about God is hard, expecting it to be easy is refuse to consider a true theology at all.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Jeremy

And Jacob left for Haran - A Kiss Isn't Just a Kiss

This week’s Torah reading begins with Jacob fleeing his furious brother and deceived father. He heads for Haran, dwelling place of his uncle Lavan. Lavan’s first encounter with this family of Hebrews came when he met Eliezer, Abraham’s servant, who came bearing gold to persuade Lavan to let his sister, Rebecca, marry Isaac. The penniless Jacob arrives - already having met his wife to be, Rachel.

[And Lavan] ran towards Jacob and embraced him and kissed him and brought him into his house.

The Rabbis of Bereishit Rabba take the opportunity to paint Lavan as a deceiving moneygrabber. Lavan ran towards Jacob thinking he had come bearing gold. He embraced him, taking the opportunity to check if there was any gold in Jacob’s pockets. He kissed him, taking the opportunity to check if there was any gold secreted in his mouth.

It’s a terrific playful interjection, sensitive and sceptical to Lavan’s eagerness and prefiguring Martin Buber by around 1500 years. Lavan’s relationship with his nephew is precisely what Buber had in mind in his analysis of the ‘I-It’ relationship. The relationship based on the single question - what’s in it for me? Relationships founded on self-service are never going to be profound. At their best they are reciprocal. Reciprocity isn’t evil, but it’s a long way from love. The ‘I-Thou’ relationship, where one seeks to serve another without regard for self-interest is of an entirely different, deeper, sort.

So this is the challenge, when we encounter others do we interact on the basis of what is in it for us, or without regard to our own self interest? Can we crank up the number of interactions we have with others that are based on wilful acts of generosity of deed? How much sweeter, and more surprising, could we make this world if we led with a desire to do things for others, freed of the need to be assured of precise predictable payback. It’s a way of encountering others that will work for nieces, other family members, work colleagues, friends and strangers alike. I commend it.

Shabbat shalom

An (un)original midrash - The Flask of Oil

 

In our year long journey through the Biblical narrative text Jacob is preparing to meet his estranged brother. Fearing for his life he sends all his goods and even his wives and children before him across the River Yavoc. But Jacob remains behind. We know, from the written text that he ends up wrestling an angel, but why hasn’t he gone ahead? The Talmud (TB Hullin 31a) suggests he has gone back for some small flasks and suggests that this proves that righteous people don’t like to leave valuable property lying around, but I want to suggest a slightly different interpretation to explain why Jacob turns back. These were not just any old flasks. What follows is an (un)original Midrash I wrote on the cusp of Chanukah some time ago. It weaves together a number of elements in the written Torah and the classic oral Torah and, please God, it can help us arrive at Chanukah (first night next Friday, 11^th December) suitably illuminated.

 

Shabbat shalom,

 

 

An (Un)Original Midrash – The Flask of Oil

 

Adam and Eve grabbed out at whatever they could reach as they were dragged from the Garden of Eden. Eventually, lost and alone in the wilderness, they opened their hands to see what reminders of paradise they had smuggled away. There wasn’t much; some seeds, some fruit and the first pair of tongs (Avot 5:2). They tilled, hoed and planted the seeds and waited for harvest. It was bitter, inedible. Eve tried pressing the fruit, which drew out the bitterness, but it was hardly tasty. She put the oil aside for safekeeping.

 

As the days passed into weeks Adam noticed the nights getting longer and the days shorter. He wailed, ‘This is the punishment for our sin. Darkness is overtaking the world and we are sliding back to the primordial state of darkness and void.’ (Avodah Zara 8a) Meanwhile Eve created a small lamp for the olive oil and during the darkest nights she would light the oil and she, her husband and children would sit in its light and the darkness no longer seemed so terrifying.

Generations passed and Eve passed the flask on to her descendents. And a great miracle happened; the oil never ran out.

 

Many years later Noah’s wife took one look at her husband’s craftwork and reached for the oil. The ark had been fully covered with pitch, inside and out and was totally dark. (Genesis Rabbah 31:11) The bats and the badgers were happy, but the rest of the animals refused to enter. So she lit the oil and she, her husband and children and all the (diurnal) animals would sit in its light and the darkness no longer seemed so terrifying.

 

Many years later the flask had been passed to Jacob. ‘Light it when you are most afraid,’ Rebecca counseled as she pressed the oil into his hand. And now Jacob was afraid. He had sent his wives, his children, his servants, all of his possessions across the river and he forgot the flask of oil. He turned back ‘for he had left behind some small jars’ (Hullin 91a) and, in darkness, he lit his lamp and wrestled the angel and the darkness no longer seemed so terrifying.

 

So goes the story of the oil.

It was the last remaining possession of the ‘woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets’ who didn’t understand its miraculous properties until Elisha told her to keep pouring oil from the flask, knowing it would last forever and that the revenue could pay off the creditor who had come to take her sons into slavery (2 Kings 4). Samuel used the oil to anoint Saul, the first King of Israel, and also to anoint David, his successor (I Sam. 10:1 & 16:3). It was used to light the everlasting light that would light up the sanctuary and the Temple. And always the oil brought comfort, in its light the darkness no longer seemed so terrifying.

 

When the Hasmoneans defeated the Greeks and re-entered the Temple they searched and could find only one flask of oil, and to the untrained eye it seemed as if there was only enough for one day’s lighting. (Shabbat 21b) But this was no ordinary oil, and of course it lasted.

And today, when we light our own Chanukiot, we remember all the great miracles bestowed upon on our ancestors and upon us. But perhaps the greatest miracle is the miracle of a flame. For when we sit in its light, the darkness no longer seems so terrifying.

 

 

Awkward Individuals

A highlight of the week, for me, was the opportunity to engage with my colleague, friend and mentor, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg over one of our favourite Talmudic passages. At the heart of our discussion about the text – the story of the Oven of Achnai – was a disagreement about how the text valued debate, difference, edginess and the voice of the individual.

 

The story is an argument between the massed ranks of the Rabbis and Rabbi Eliezer over a matter regarding ritual impurity. Eliezer is convinced he is right and calls on various miracles and even God to witness to his correctness, but the Rabbis insist on the power of the majority and carry the day. In the middle of the story God laughs seemingly delighted that ‘my children have defeated me.’ The Rabbis then seek to rub out any of Eliezer’s previous declarations and even to excommunicate their defeated foe, an act that results in mass destruction of harvests and, ultimately, the death of the senior Rabbi who watched the disagreement unfold.

 

Like all good Talmudic stories this tale evades simple explanations but one element is clear. No-one likes a smart-alec. No-one likes a person so convinced of their own rectitude that they embarrass the comfortable majority. I see Rabbi Eliezer as this kind of person. And the response of a majority to this kind of discomforting voice is often to attack not the argument, but the individual. In increasingly totalitarian societies the threat to the provoking individual increases to the point of danger. In many ways, of course, this is what happened to our founding Rabbi (who I am certainly not considering a smart-alec, perish the thought). He confronted a comfortable majority with an uncomfortable truth and was shunned. It is also what happens, in this week’s parasha, to Moses who turns to Pharaoh with the undeniable demand for individual liberty and freedom, which results in ever greater oppression being placed upon the shoulders of the Children of Israel.

 

Throughout history the Jew has often served as provocateur, smashing idols of deceit and holding up uncomfortable message before power. We have picked up Nobel Prizes and suffered pogroms aplenty because of it. Truth will do that but ultimately truth will win out. As a community and as individuals I would want us to value ever more carefully the dis-comforting voices that challenge our cosy view of the world. We need to create spaces for solitary provocateurs, truth-telling outsiders and we need to recognise that truth rarely comes comfortably packaged. It didn’t for Moses, it  didn’t for Rabbi Eliezer and it doesn’t today.

 

Shabbat Shalom,

 

 

Why Do We, Putzy Humans, Deserve Torah

Talmud Shabbat 88b

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi said, When Moses went up on high, the ministering angels said to God, ‘Master of the Universe, what is one born of woman doing among us, God said to them, ‘He has come to receive Torah.’

They said to him, ‘That is a great treasure, hidden by you for nine hundred and seventy four generations before the world was created and you want to give it to one of flesh and blood! What is humanity that you should take note of him, the son of adam that you should account for him (Psalms 1). God, our Master how excellent is your name in the earth, who has set your glory in the Heavens (Psalms 8).

So the Holy Blessed One said to Moses, ‘Give them an answer.’

‘Master of the Universe, I’m scared they will burn me up with their breath.

God said to him, ‘Hold onto the Throne of My Glory and give them an answer.’ As it says, He made him hold onto the face of his throne and spread his cloud over him. (Job 26)

…

Then he said before them, ‘Master of the Universe, the Torah you give me, what is written in it. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. (Deut 5)’ He said to the Angels, ‘Did you go down to Egypt, were you enslaved to Pharaoh, why then should the Torah be yours?

Another one, what is written in it, ‘You should have no other gods (Deut 5). Do you live among nations who worship other Gods?

Another one, what is written in it, ‘remember the Sabbath day and make it holy. You don’t do any work that you would need to rest from.

Another one, what is written in it? Do not take [the name of God] in vain. Do you get involved in business transactions?

Another one, what is written in it Honour your father and mother. Have you fathers and mothers.

Another one, what is written in it, You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal. Is their jealousy amongst you? Is the evil inclination amongst you?

Immediately they acquiesced to the Holy Blessed One... Immediately each of them showed love for him and passed (masar) him a thing/word, as it says, ‘You have ascended on high, you have taken spoils, you have received gifts on account of adam (Psalm 68). As payback for calling you ‘Adam’ you took gifts. Even the Angel of Death passed on a thing, as it says … and he stood between living and death. (Num 48)… Had [the Angel] not told him how to do this, how would he have learnt it?

Let's hear it for Moses

Poor ol’ Moses doesn’t even get a look in a the beginning of Pesach.

I thought it might be interesting to cull some of the glorious Midrashim on him for study at the end of the Festival.

These are my own translation of material, largely, gleamed from a fabulous essay at the back of Menachem Kasher’s ‘Israel Passover Haggadah.’

1. Vayikra Rabba 1:3

Go and learn that of all the names that Moshes had, the Holy Blessed One only ever called him by the name that Batya the daughter of Pharaoh called him by. As it says and she called him Moses since she saved him out from death.

And not only that, the Holy Blessed One said to Batya daughter of Pharaoh , ‘Moses was not your son, but you called him your son, so too even though you are not my daughter I will call you my daughter as it says, these are the children of Batya (I Chron 4) – Bat Yah.

2. Shmot Rabba 4

And when the Holy Blessed One said to Moses, And now go and I will send you to Pharaoh , he said to Him, ‘Master of the World, I can’t since Jethro has received me with honour and opened his house to me and I am as a son for him, and one for whom a door is opened is obliged to his neighbour. I can’t go without his permission. Therefore it states And Moses when and returned to Jethro his father-in-law. He went to get permission to go to Egypt.

3. Guide to the Perplexed 2:45

Moses didn’t only intervene in the disputes of his brethren, he would intervene for those who were part of the covenant and those who were not part of the covenant, whenever their hand was upon the lowest ones in society as it says And the priest of Midian had seven daughters who came to draw water but the sheperds drove them off. So Moses helped them and watered their flock. Even though he was at that time a ger – stranger and he had no-one to defend him he wanted to give his soul to rescue the oppressed from the hands of their oppressors and therefore he went to bring out the pursued from the hand of the pursuer and the Hebrews from the hand of the Egyptians. And since his heart was pure and strong and he was pure and strong and his eyes were pure to the point of not seeing wickedness or evil, the Holy Blessed One chose him as the shepherd of Israel.

4. Shmot Rabba 3, Midrash Aseret HaDibrot, Tanhuma Vayikra 3

Then Moses hid his face for he was afraid [yirah] to look at God. Moses said, ‘I stand before the God of my ancestors, shall I not hide my face?’ At that moment the Holy Blessed One said to him, ‘When I revealed Myself to you, you honoured me by covering your face. By Your Life! You shall survive 40 days and night with nothing to eat or drink, sustaining your self by the glory of the divine presence as it says Moses did not know there were beams of light from his face while speaking to God.

The Holy Blessed One looked in each and every generation and could find anyone more appropriate to receive Torah than Moses. And how did Moses merit being hatan Torah? Because of the humidly and awe within him. As it says Then Moses hid his face for he was awed [yirah] looking at God.

Since Moses fled from honour, honour pursued him to fulfil the verse A person’s pride will bring them low, but the humble will attain honour. (Prov 29)

5. Sifrei Behalotecha 91

And God spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge regarding the Children of Israel (Ex 6)

The Holy Blessed One said to them, ‘Know that my children, they are rebellious, they are wearisome- tarchanim, they are overly excitable. There is a condition for your leadership of them that they will curse you and hurl stones at you. And this lesson goes for every leader and judge, they need to suffer the torech of the community and bear it like Moses our Rabbi, for it is said of him as a wet nurse carries a suckling child

6. Midrash Tanhumah, V’era 5

And Moses and Aaron came [before Pharaoh] (Exodus 5:1)

Rabbi Hiyya son of Abba said, ‘This was coronation day, when all the Kings came to crown Pharaoh because he was the Emperor. While they were placing crowns on Pharaoh’s head, Moses and Aaron stood at the entrance to the hallway. Pharaoh’s guards told him, ‘Two elders are standing at the doorway’

Pharaoh asked ‘Have they got a crown?’ The guard replied ‘no.’ ‘Then let them enter last.’ When Moses and Aaron finally stood before Pharaoh he said, ‘What do you want?’ Moses replied ‘The God of the Hebrews has sent be to you to say, “Let my people go so they will serve me.”’ (Ex 7:16).

Pharaoh replied angrily, ‘Who is this GOD that I should listen to His voice. Doesn’t He know enough to send me a crown, rather you come with words.’

Rabbi Levi said, ‘Pharaoh then took the list of gods and began to read, ‘The god of Edom, the god of Moab, the god of Sidon, yada yada yada,’ and he said to them, ‘There, I have finished all my records and your god’s not on the list.’

So Moses and Aaron said to Pharaoh, ‘Fool, the gods you mentioned are all dead. But the LORD is a living God, Ruler of the Universe.’

Pharaoh asked, ‘Is he young or old? How many cities has he captured? How many states has he humbled? How long has he been in power?

They replied, the strength and power of our God fills the world. God was before the world was created and God will be at the end of the worlds. He fashioned you and placed within you the breath of life.’

What else has he done? Pharaoh asked.

They replied, ‘God stretched out the heavens and the earth and God’s voice carved out flames of fire,^[1] God rips open the mountains and smashed the rocks.^[2] God’s bow is of fire, God’s arrows are flames, God’s spear is a torch, God’s shield is the clouds, God’s sword is lightening, God forms the mountains and the hills; covers the mounts with grass, the heavens with clouds, God brings down the rain and the dew and gets the plants to grow and the fruits to ripen. God afflicts the beasts and forms the embryo in the womb of the mother and brings it forth into the light of the world.’

Pharoh said, ‘You are speaking lies, because I am the Lord of the world, and I created myself and the Nile, as it says, mine is the Nile and I made it (Ezekiel 29:3)^[3]

7. Brachot 32a

And GOD said to me [Moses], ‘Go, Descend’ (Deut 9) What is meant by ‘Go, Descend.’ Rabbi Elazar said the Holy Blessed One said to him, ‘Moses, descend from your greatness. For everything I gave you was for the sake of Israel. And now Israel has sinned, what are you to me?’ Immediately Moses became powerless and he had no strength to speak.

But when God said, ‘Let Me alone and I will destroy them’ (Deut 9) Moses said “This thing depends on me,” and immediately he stood up and was seized with prayer and pleaded for mercy.

Mashal - To a king who was angry with his son and beat him severely. And [the King’s] beloved was sitting before him, scared to say a word. The king said, ‘Were it not for my beloved sitting before me I would kill you.’ [The beloved] said, “This thing depends on me.” Immediately he stood up and rescued him.

Rabbi Abbahu said: ‘Were this not a written verse, it would be impossible to say this. This is to teach that Moses seized the Holy Blessed One, like one who seizes their friend by their garment and said before God: Sovereign of the Universe, I will not let You go until You forgive and pardon them.

---

^[1] (Psalms 29:7)

^[2] (I Kings 19:11)

^[3] Full verse – Thus said God, I am going to deal with you, Pharaoh who said “Mine is the Nile and I made it.’

How to be God's Perfect Partner

Midrash of the Week

Tanchuma, Ki Tisa, #30^[1]

What led Moses to break the tablets?

A parable: A king went on an overseas voyage and left his fiancee in the company of the servants. Because of the improper behavior of the servants, the reputation of the royal fiancée became impugned. Her attendant arose and destroyed her wedding document. He said, “If the king gives the order to kill her for her misbehaviour, I will say to him, ‘There is no evidence that she was your wife.’ During the interim (between accusations and defenses) the king conducted an investigation and found that the improper behavior was confined to the maidservants alone. He was reconciled with his fiancée. Her attendant told the king to write his wife-to-be a new wedding document since the first one was destroyed. The king replied, “You tore it up, therefore you must acquire the fresh paper required, and I will write the new document in my own hand.” The king is God; the servants are the mixed multitudes who left Egypt. The attendant is Moses. The fiancée of is Israel. For this reason, it is said (to Moses) “Form by yourself (new tablets to replace the ones that you destroyed)…”

מדרש תנחומא (ורשא) פרשת כי תשא סימן ל ומה ראה משה לשבר את הלוחות, משל למלך שהלך למדינת הים והניח אשתו עם השפחות ומתוך שהיתה עמהם יצא עליה שם רע שמע המלך ובא ובקש להורגה, שמע שושבינה עמד וקרע כתובתה אמר אם יאמר המלך כך וכך עשתה אשתי נאמר לו עדיין אינה אשתך בדק המלך אחריה ולא מצא בה ערות דבר אלא השפחות הם היו שקלקלו, מיד נתרצה לה, א"ל שושבינה מרי עשה לה כתובה אחרת שנתקרעה הראשונה, א"ל אתה קרעת אותה לך והביא את הנייר משלך ואני כותב כתב ידי,

--

This is the human in sleeves- rolled-up mode. It’s a motif we know from Abraham and it fits perfectly the ‘pshat’ of the defence Moses launches to save Israel from God’s threatened destruction in the words of the Bible itself.

But what imagery!

No Rambam-aloofness.

A deeply impassioned deity - God in search of a partner.

The question is, do we have a better shot at being this partner by dedicating ourselves to the model of a sweet and winsome wife, or the model of the proactive master of chutzpah Moses?

---

^[1] Found on http://www.kmsynagogue.org/Rabbi.htm