Musar untuk Mazmur 81:11

[And in this manner I have explained the verse in Psalms 81:10: "There shall not be in you a strange god and you shall not bow down to a foreign god. (11) I am the L-rd your G-d who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." Now, ostensibly, it should first have been written "I am the L-rd your G-d, etc." and only then "There shall not be in you a strange god," as it is written in the Torah. Why is the order reversed? But, Chazal have told us (Shabbath 105b): "Which is the strange god in the body of a man? The yetzer hara." (In the beginning it incites him to commit transgressions which are not so severe; but, in the end, "transgression breeds transgression," and it permits him even to bow down to idols.) And the intent of the verse [in Psalms]: "I am the L-rd your G-d, etc." is: Have I not brought you up from the land of Egypt so that you receive the Torah, as it is written (Shemoth 3:12): "And this is the sign for you [Moses] that I have sent you. When you take out the people from Egypt, you will serve G-d on this mountain." For this [the receiving of the Torah] is the purpose of the exodus, as Rashi explains. Therefore, "open wide your mouth and I will fill it." This is like a rabbi's telling his disciple: "Open up your mouth and let your words shine forth." For the Holy One Blessed be He wishes to give each Jew a great share in the Torah. However, in truth, everything is dependent upon the power of the recipient, wherefore He says: "Open wide your mouth." That is, ready yourself to receive much, and I will fill it according to your widening. But this is prefaced by: When will this be fulfilled in you? When "there will not be in you a strange god," when the yetzer hara will not be a guest in your body. Then you will be able to open wide your mouth to Torah, and I will fill it. For it is to this end that I brought you up from the land of Egypt (As it is written (Ibid. 13:9): "And it shall be a sign upon your hand… so that the Torah of the L-rd shall be in your mouth.") But if there is a strange god in your body— that is, if it is full of lewd thoughts, G-d forbid, I will not be able to fulfill your wish to widen your mouth with Torah.

Aaron also thought that the elevation of Moses to a position of redeemer was not necessary, but only an act of kindness on the part of G–d who imparts some of His own honour to those who fear and revere Him. He did not think that there was any practical significance in this, seeing redemption would be brought about by G–d Himself. Moses himself had thought along similar lines when he declined the mission to become the official leader of the Jewish people. His query: מי אנכי אשר אלך, "Who am I that I should go,” reflected his thinking (Exodus 3,11). The Midrash already re-phrases Moses' question as מי אני, "who am I, seeing that the one called אנכי is going to redeem the Jewish people!" Whereas Moses was correct in his basic assumption, G–d wanted to lend glamour to Moses, as He said later: ראה נתתיך אלהים לפרעה, "See here, I have made you a deity as far as Pharaoh is concerned." The greatness of Moses' honour can be measured by the fact that it was he who was chosen by G–d to hand the Torah to the Jewish people; he was told at the time that his mission would be considered a success when the Jewish people would accept the Torah at Mount Sinai (Chorev) (cf. Exodus 3,12). Aaron was unaware of these details at the time; this is why he thought that he had behaved in an exemplary fashion by not begrudging Moses his new status. The Midrash then was quite correct when it said that had Aaron been aware that he was to receive credit for his attitude, and that it was only Moses who could be the intermediary in accelerating redemption, he would have gone to meet his brother with drums and dances of joy just as we found Miriam doing after the miraculous rescue of the Jewish people (Exodus 15, 20).