Commentaire sur L’Exode 3:4

וירא ה', the angel, who is called “G’d,” seeing he is carrying out G’d’s assignment.

וירא ה' כי סר לראות, When G’d saw that Moses took a deeper interest in the phenomenon,

ויאמר הנני, he said: "I am ready." This was different from the time G'd first called out to the prophet Samuel (Samuel I, 3,4) when Samuel thought that the High Priest Eli had called him. Moses knew right away that G'd was speaking to him. This was because Moses was a prophet already from birth; this was merely his first vision. On the other hand, perhaps the words את המראה הגדול הזה "this great spectacle," merely indicates that compared to previous contacts between G'd and Moses this one seemed infinitely more remarkable.

ויקרא אליו אלוקים מתוך הסנה, “G’d called out to him from inside the bush.” A reference to the immediate area of thorns, the raw material attacked by the flames, a place which was uncontaminated, seeing that neither man nor beast would walk there, being afraid of being stung by the thorns. This was the reason that site qualified for a manifestation of the Divine. Ibn Ezra writes that the reason that this mountain was subsequently known as הר סיני, was in commemoration of the סנה, the burning bush which refused to be consumed by the flames.

And God saw that he had turned to see since the level of 'through a glass, darkly' which he had prophesied at up until now needed no preparation. And the vision he saw now was allegorical and by means of a riddle, and from the midst of the strength of this metaphor, his soul didn't need to extend out from his body. For his bodily powers hadn't failed, at this moment - for he was prepared in his nature, from his fathers, for this prophecy. But after he turned to look, and the soul extended out of his body - for then he grasped at the level of 'an illuminated glass', and through this it may be that, since he turned to see, through an illuminated glass - "no human may see Me and live" (Shemot 33:20). And for this reason "God called to him... and said Moshe, Moshe" (Shemot 3:4). Our sages of blessed memory have already explained that every "saying" is preceded by a "calling", and it's said in Sifra 61:3/section 3 that Moshe Moshe, Avraham Avraham, etc., are the language of affection and encouragement. Another take: he was Moshe before he had spoken with Them, he is Moshe now that he has spoken with Them. And I explained there that in the beginning They said her name, that They doubled the calling, did it twice - the calling itself teaches of encouragement, and the doubling of the calling teaches of affection. And again it gives a reason for the distinction between calling Moshe Moshe - for no separating trope note had come between the ruler of the names [?] and Avraham. And so with every two names that come next to each other - there's always a separating trope note between them. Regarding this I say an alternative: he was Moshe before he spoke with Them, etc - means to say, for all the prophets who were unprepared in their natures for prophecy needed one calling to awaken their material selves and to prepare them for the extending of the soul out of them, and the second calling was to the weak houses of the soul. And for this reason there is a separating trope note for them. But for Moshe, whose materiality was already prepared for this extending in its nature, didn't tremple or quake from it, and so there's no separating trope mark between them, for the callings had begun immediately to the innermost soul. And regarding this it is said in the Midrash that God stopped [הפסיק, same word as separating trope mark] speaking to all the prophets, but to Moshe he didn't stop. It means to say that Moshe always stood ready for the Word with no break, and this is why God said to him, Moshe Moshe, to awaken hem in this because he was prepared by means of his nature. And Moshe said "Here I am", meaning to say he was ready and prepared for the Divine Word.

ויאמר הנני, “He said: “I am at Your disposal.” G–d responded that though you showed your preparedness with the same word as your forefather Avraham when I called upon him, (to offer his son to Me as a sacrifice) this is not what I come to ask of you. We know from Proverbs 25,6: במקום גדולים אל תעמוד, “do not stand in the place of great men.” (do not aspire to be important actively or passively) Aaron was commanded to come close to holy sites, the altar, (Leviticus 9,7) Not so Moses. He had to shun a holy site. Neither was allowed to aspire to Royalty, as opposed to David. He acknowledged that G–d had brought him הלום, instead of as Moses: אל תקרב הלום. (Compare Samuel II 7,18 and Sh’mot Rabbah 2,6)

ויקרא אליו אלוקים, to explain the phenomenon to him, in accordance with the well known principle ofהבא לטהר מסיין אותו, “when someone wants to purify something impure one extends a helping hand to him “ A well known example of this is Exodus 19,3 where we find that as soon as Moses ascended the mountain G’d descended toward him.

משה משה, there is no comma between these two words. It is similar to אברהם אברהם in Genesis 28,19, or יצחק בני יצחק, (Chronicles I 1,34) [the author quotes a couple more examples of such constructions, without elaborating. Ed.]

כי סר לראות, “that he had turned to have a look;” whenever the expression סור appears and is followed by the prefix letter מ, it means that the subject of whom the verse speaks has distanced himself further from the phenomenon under discussion. Best known example: סורו ממני, ”turn away from me!” (Psalms 6,9) On the other hand, if the word following is either אל or the prefix ל, it invites the person addressed to come closer.