פירוש על במדבר 12:8

פה אל פה MOUTH TO MOUTH [I HAVE SPOKEN WITH HIM] — I have Myself told him to separate from his wife. And where did I tell him this? On Sinai, when I said to him, (Deuteronomy 5:27 Deuteronomy 5:28) “Go, say to them (to the people), ‘Get you into your tents (rejoin your wives). But as for thee, remain thou here by Me, [and I will speak unto thee]’” (Shabbat 87a; cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 103).

This is the meaning of the expression פה אל פה אדבר בו, “I speak to him as if one mouth to another mouth.” When he experiences prophetic insights he does not have to take leave of his senses and be put to sleep so that his senses have first become neutralised.

ומדוע לא יראתם לדבר, "why were you not afraid to speak?, etc" G'd repeats once more that they themselves should have been able to figure out that since Moses was constantly performing commands of G'd and was used by G'd as His instrument, surely He would not have chosen him for such a function if he had been guilty of neglecting such a basic commandment as family life which Miriam and Aaron accused him of. G'd stressed not only the word עבדי, i.e. that He described Moses as His servant, but He added Moses' name to indicate that this man had been destined for greatness. How could they have suspected him! It is also possible that the word במשה indicates that Miriam and Aaron did say what they said in Moses' presence, adding insult to injury. We discussed this in connection with verse 1 in this chapter.

פה אל פה אדבר בו, “I speak to him mouth to mouth, etc.” The meaning of these words is that G’d communicates with Moses without an angel as an intermediary. The word ומראה means: “I show him matters as they are in reality.” Just as G’d had shown Moses an illustration of the Tabernacle and it served as his blueprint, so whenever G’d speaks to Moses He illustrates matters for him in an unmistakable manner. Of the illustration (in the sky) of the Tabernacle the Torah had told us in Exodus 25,40: וראה ועשה בתבניתם, “see and make according to their form.”

I told him to separate. You might ask: We say (Shabbos 87a) that Moshe did three things on his own accord and Hashem agreed with him. One of these was that he separated from his wife, implying that Hashem did not command him to do so. See Tosafos Yevamos 82.

V. 8. פה אל פה .פה אל פה אדבר בו bezeichnet, im Gegensatz zu der V. 6 angedeuteten objektiven (במראָה) und subjektiven (בחלום) Vermittlung, die objektive und subjektive Unmittelbarkeit der Offenbarung. פה spricht mit ihm, und spricht mit ihm in einem Zustande, in welchem er selber פה, sprachfähig ist, also nicht במראה und nicht ומראה .כחלום: wessen er bewusst werden soll, das wird ihm in unverhüllter Unmittelbarkeit zur Anschauung gebracht, ולא בחירות, er hat es sich nicht erst aus einer vermittelnden Erscheinung, aus einem Symbol zu erschließen. חידה, Wurzel אחודה נא לכם חידה) חוד Richter 14, 12; חוד חידה ומשל משל Ezech. 17, 2) lautverwandt mit אות ,אוד, den Begriffen mechanischer und geistiger Vermittlung (siehe Bereschit 1, 1). ותמונת ד׳ יביט, nicht ד׳ במראה אליו אתודע (siehe Bereschit 1, 11).

This example shows that God can see all of the world just as Moshe sees. And if he knows, he knew what they said about him. They did not find it in their hearts to tell him [directly] to his face. And because of this God rebuked that also now, it was as if they had spoken to his face.

פה אל פה אדבר בו, “I speak to him mouth to mouth;” according to Rashi, G–d told Miriam and Aaron that it was He who had expressly told Moses to divorce his wife. At the revelation as related in Deuteronomy 5,28, G–d had told Moses to send the people home to their wives, whereas He had told him: “you stand here with Me.” If that was what had transpired already then, what did Miriam and Aaron get upset about now that Moses had separated from his wife? What other choice did he have? We may have to understand what transpired as follows. Moses had separated from his wife before being told to do so. Seeing that we have a rule that we are allowed to carry out our desires, i.e. permissible desires, בדרך שאדם רוצה ליליך מוליכין אותו, “G–d lets a person pursue the choice he makes concerning his lifestyle.” [otherwise what is free will all about? Ed.] Having heard that Tzipporah had told Eldod and Meydod that Moses had already separated from her earlier, before being commanded by G–d to so, Miriam and Aaron were upset about that. They were convinced that G–d would not have commanded him to do so, unless he had indicated that he was willing to do so even without being commanded to.

ותמונת ה' יביט “and he is allowed to see a visual image of the Lord.” G-d does not refer to a frontal image, but to a rear view as stated in Exodus 33,23.

ומראה ולא בחידת AND IN A מראה AND NOT IN RIDDLES — When it says מראה, this refers to the clearness of the Divine communication, i.e. that I express My communication unto him in the clearest form in which it can be put and do not obscure it in riddles, as e.g. was the manner in which it was said to Ezekiel: (Ezekiel 17:2), “Put forth a riddle etc.” — One might, however, think that it refers to the “appearance of the Shechinah” (i.e. that he saw God)! It, however, states, (Exodus 33:20) “Thou cannot see My face” (Sifrei Bamidbar 103).

ומראה, a clear vision (masculine mode of the word), something our sages refer to as “a clear picture, visual image.” (compare Yevamot 49).

בעבדי במשה, “against My servant, against Moses.” Our sages in Tanchuma Tzav 13 comment on the emphasis on both these words that even if My servant were not Moses you have no right to speak against him. Seeing that he is of the stature of Moses you have even less right to speak against him.

I am not aware. You might ask: How did it occur to Hashem that Aharon and Miriam would speak in this way? The answer is that it was because they said “Is it only to Moshe that Hashem has spoken? Did He not also speak with us?” yet we have not abstained from marital relations. Why did Rashi add “… from marital relations”? — because it was a product of their haughtiness. They said “the Divine Presence rests upon him, but since Scripture writes “I will rest upon the contrite and the humble” (Yeshayahu 57:15), given that Moshe is haughty, why then does the Divine Presence rest upon him? It is as if Hashem is not aware that he is haughty.” Consequently Rashi says that this statement is worse than the first, and this is also why it is written here “the man Moshe was exceedingly modest” (v. 3) – in response to what Aharon and Miriam said that Moshe was haughty. This is in contrast to the explanation of Re’m who expounds this from the extra beis of בעבדי (about my servant). However, this presents a difficulty: Why not expound the extra lamed in לעבדך ליעקב “to your servant, to Yaakov” (Bereishis 32:19) and also לאדוני לעשו “to my master, to Eisav” (ibid. v. 5)? He brings a different [version of Rashi’s] text there in order to answer the difficulty, but according to our explanation it is not necessary to modify our version of Rashi.

ומדוע לא יראתם וגו׳, wie habt ihr es gewagt, euch mit עבדי, mit Mosche in Parallele zu stellen, von euch auf עבדי, auf משה zu schließen, habt ihr beurteilen zu können vermeint, was עבדי, was משה gezieme!

ותמנת ה' יביט AND THE SIMILITUDE OF THE LORD DID HE BEHOLD — This refers to beholding the after-effects of God’s Providence, just as it is stated, (Exodus 33:22 Exodus 33:23) “[And it shall be when My glory passeth by] thou shalt see what is behind Me” (Sifrei Bamidbar 103).

ולא בחידות, neither in riddles, such as parables, sometimes even having to be helped to understand the meaning of the parables. (Zecharyah 4,5) Other prophets understood such parables without an angel being needed to help them, such as Jeremiah 1,12 who was told that he had correctly understood the vision which had been granted him in the form of a parable. Bileam also sometimes revealed the parable he himself had been shown as the Divine message (Numbers 23,7) he was revealing.

בעבדי במשה [WHY WERE YE NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK] AGAINST MY SERVANT, AGAINST MOSES — It does not state “against My servant Moses”, but “against My servant, against Moses”, which suggests: why were ye not afraid to speak against My servant, even though he were not a Moses; and why were ye not afraid to speak against a Moses — even though he were not My servant — in either of these cases you ought to have feared him! How much the more ought you to be afraid to speak against him (Moses) he being also My servant — and the servant of a king is a king (a noble person) himself! You should have said: The King does not love him without reason! — But if you reply that I am not cognizant of his doings (i. e. that I love him though he does not deserve it, since I am not aware of his treatment of his wife) — then this statement is even worse than your previous one (Midrash Tanchuma, Tzav 13; cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 103).

ותמונת ה' יביט, all of the aforementioned Moses experiences as a direct communication from G’d in His capacity as “hashem, i.e. the Essence.” He was distinct from Bileam who received the message not clearly formulated but only expressed in the guise of a parable.

ומדוע לא יראתם, if you have not been afraid to speak as you did this could only be due to something evil in your heart. For, if you thought that I am certainly aware of Moses’ deeds you must have mistakenly concluded that I find pleasure in the wicked. This is exactly the reverse of what you should have been thinking. You should have thought that in view of Moses’ position and the miracles he performed in My name that I would not have allowed him to do this unless I had thought that he was worthy of such a lofty position. If, perchance, you thought that I am unaware of Moses’ past deeds and that you know more about this than I do, and that is why I considered him fit for his lofty position whereas in fact he is not, you would be far more guilty of an error than the error you kept accusing Moses of.