Commentaire sur Les Nombres 12:2

הרק אך FOR HAS INDEED THE LORD SPOKEN with him alone.

'הרק אך במשה דבר ה?, has Moses been the only one who experienced the distinction that G’d spoke to him in addition to the whole people experiencing that G’d spoke to them when He gave the Ten Commandments?

הרק אך במשה דבר ה׳?? "Did G'd speak to Moses exclusively?" Our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 1,14 and Jerusalem Talmud Berachot 9,7 have said that every time the words אך or רק appear they are restrictive in character. In this instance we can also detect that both words are meant as some kind of restrictive clause. Miriam and Aaron felt that the fact that Moses had abandoned normal family relations with his wife was a silent accusation against them who continued to maintain regular marital relations with their respective spouses. Sifri takes the same line expanding Miriam's complaint by accusing Moses of criticising the patriarchs by his refusal to maintain family relations with his wife. Miriam and Aaron felt it also was an act of arrogance vis-a-vis our patriarchs all of whom G'd had communicated with, and who had not stopped living normal married lives with their spouses because G'd had addressed them from time to time. Did Moses pretend to be more pious than the patriarchs? On the other hand, it is possible that Miriam and Aaron alluded to two deficiencies in Moses as a prophet. 1) Moses never began his career as a prophet until he attained the age of 80 as we know from Exodus 7,7, whereas she, Miriam, as well as Aaron had already been given prophetic powers at the age of 3, prior to Moses' birth. 2) Moses' second deficiency conisted in the fact that on the very day he was appointed as a prophet he contracted the dread disease of Tzoraat indicating he had been found wanting in the eyes of G'd (Exodus 4,6). Neither Miriam nor Aaron had ever been afflicted with that disease. The words אך and רק in our verse refer to these two deficiencies Miriam and Aaron perceived in Moses.

'ויאמרו הרק אך במשה וגו, in addition to what they had already said concerning the Cushite woman to whom Moses was married, they also had another subject to criticise him for, namely that Moses could not boast about G’d communicating with him, seeing G’d did also speak to them.

With him alone. (Nachalas Yaakov) Rashi was answering the question: The two words רק and אך are terms that indicate a limitation, thus the Torah should have said “הרק (was it only) with Moshe that He has spoken… Did He not also [speak] with us?” Rashi answers that “with him alone” [teaches], but not with others at all, whether they were as righteous as him, or whether they were less righteous than him. “Did He not also speak with us,” even though we are on a lower level of prophecy than Moshe? Therefore the Torah required two terms that indicate both facets of the limitation of speech. The Sifri suggests a similar answer.

ויאמרו הרק אך במשה דבר, “did G-d then speak exclusively to Moses?” We have a rule in the Hebrew language that when restrictive clauses such as “only,” or “exclusively,” follow one another consecutively, they are meant to add something instead of to subtract something. In this instance we have two such clauses following one another, i.e. רק and אך. The addition follows promptly by Miriam adding that G-d had spoken to them, i.e. herself and to her brother Aaron also, so that they too were prophets. (The Talmud, tractate Megillah folio 14, and tractate Sotah folio 12 claims that Miriam had prophesied even before Moses had been born.) Concerning Aaron prophesying, the reader is referred to Samuel I 2,27, as interpreted by Sh’ ’mot Rabbah 3,21.)

הלא גם בנו HAS HE NOT ALSO [SPOKEN] WITH US, and we have not separated from our spouses! (Sifrei Bamidbar 100).

'וישמע ה, as our sages have said junior Torah scholars are in a class by themselves in that G’d is extremely stern in reacting to their slightest misdemeanours. (B’rachot 19)

בנו, using us as His medium.

וישמע השם. G'd heard. The Torah had to write these words [although we know that G'd hears every word spoken by anyone Ed.] to tell us that Miriam and Aaron did not say what they said within earshot of any other creature [a third party which was not involved. Ed.]. Another reason the Torah wrote these words is to tell us that G'd heard this directly from Miriam and Aaron and not as a complaint from Moses. Moses did not complain to G'd about having been slighted.

'וישמע ה “the Lord heard;” even though Miriam and Aaron had this conversation completely privately, and no one overheard them, G-d was privy to it, and He would demand that Moses’ integrity be defended. (Ibn Ezra)