Chasidut su Esodo 7:78

If we see in the words of our masters that the words of the prophet were ‘to teach repentance and instruction,’ one could erroneously think that the prophet was merely one who rebuked. Even in yesteryear, during the times of the prophets themselves, when people beheld the(se) ‘pillars of fire’¹⁷⁷That is, the prophets. before them and the flames of God flowing from the mouths of these holy ones—we see that the people nonetheless called the prophets by terms reflective of their utility. As the verse puts it, “for the prophet today used to be called the seer” (I Samuel 9:9). Why would one call him a seer when the Torah preceded him to call him a prophet, as in “I will establish a prophet?” The answer is, simply, that the names and terms we use cannot convey anything beyond the boundaries of human utility or sensory perception. After all, an angel [malakh] is referred to as such due to its function as a messenger, not according to its essential nature. The soul [neshamah] is referred to as such after the breath (see Rashi to Genesis 7:22).¹⁷⁸Genesis 7:22 reads: “All in whose nostrils was nishmat ruakh hayim beapaiv (the merest breath of life-JPS), all that was on dry land, died.” In some versions of Rashi’s commentary here, the term ‘nishmat’ is rendered ‘neshimah shel’, ‘the breath of,’ rather than ‘the soul of.’ R. Shapiro cites this as evidence that the soul is called the neshamah because of its association with the breath rather than as a true descriptor of its metaphysical essence. For we have no name for the essence of the angel nor the essence of the soul. So too, the term ‘prophet’ does not describe the essence of the prophet but merely that God has spoken with him (despite the biblical reference to a prophet as “man of God,” [see Berakha 1¹⁷⁹The reference is to Deuteronomy 33:1, the beginning of Parshat Vzot haBerakhah. and several times in Kings¹⁸⁰E.g. I Kings 13:1.], the Targum always translates “man of God” functionally, as “prophet of God”). Therefore the people named them (the prophets) in correlation to their needs, alternating their titles according to the functions which the prophets performed more frequently: when the prophets were primarily teaching Israel repentance and issuing instruction, they called them neviim, from the language of “niv sefatayim”¹⁸¹“Expressions of the mouth.” (Rashi to Exodus 7:10), and when they more often told the future and provided for other needs, they were called seers. “For the prophet today used to be called the seer”-i.e. the people called them as such.¹⁸²That is, these were colloquial nomenclature, not proper names.

Ad-nai spoke to Moshe, saying: I am Ad-nai ; speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I am speaking to you. Moshe said before Ad-nai: Here, I am of foreskinned lips, so how will Pharaoh hearken to me? Ad-nai said to Moshe: See, I make you as a god for Pharaoh, and Aharon your brother will be your prophet (Exodus 6:29-7:1) We need to be precise: What is this, that the Holy One of Blessing said to Moshe 'I am Ad-nai'? What is the connection of it, here? And second, this that God said 'speak to Pharaoh all that I am speaking [dover] to you' also is not clear, since it should have said speak to Pharaoh what I will speak [adaber] to you. What is this 'that I am speaking'? It implies that even this very saying ' I am Ad-nai', that the Holy One of Blessing said to him, will be said to Pharaoh. And this is surprising. And the rest of the specific points will become obvious on themselves. And it appears that according to the simple meaning, behold, here it is written a secret of Hashem to those who have awe of God. One needs to understand what are the secrets of Torah that all Israel calls them secrets of Torah. One cannot say that the intention is directed to the wisdom of kabbalah and the writings of the Ariz"l, and the Holy Zohar, because behold, the expression 'secret' means something that is not possible to be revealed to others at all, and aren't all these writings, the kabbalah, the Arizal's, the Zohar able to be revealed to others and explained with some effort? And if so, since they are revealed, those are not 'secrets'. But what is really a secret, that no human can reveal to any other is the secret of Hashem, meaning, the essence of Godliness that was, is and will be, and this is the essence and the root of all worlds, what can't be revealed to any human, only each person assumes for themselves the comprehension of Godliness according to their mind, and according to the abilities/proportions of their heart. And everything that a person clarifies for themselves, and attains by themselves, with great effort to grasp what their mind can grasp, ever more clear. And what one can grasp with one's mind of God's Godliness. All that is what cannot be revealed to another human, it is inside the depths of the heart, and what is inside the depths of a person's heart, and their mind. Even if one can speak to others and bring the reality of God and the awe for God, blessed, inside their hearts, it is impossible to reveal all the consciousness of one's heart to them, as it is known to all those who are alive and enter truly to service. And this is called 'secret', because this is really secret, impossible to be revealed to any other human being, what is with a person in the deep point of their heart and thought, rather, each person understands according to their efforts and their self-purifying of their physical nature. And the more a human attains, in the understanding of Godliness, in general and in particular, which is the greater levels in understanding Godliness through self-purifying and analyzing, the harder it is to explain and reveal the consciousness of heart, and this is the secret of Hashem to those who have awe of Hashem (Ps. 25:14) meaning, that always remains with them in secret, impossible to explain. The more a person has awe of Heaven, the more secret is God, blessed, with the person, [until] it is impossible to reveal the depth of the consciousness of their heart, and it is impossible to understand from that person even the smallest of the great extent of what they understand from God, blessed. And those who are not yet at such great level in their grasping of God, blessed, is more able to explain to others what is in their heart, since there are no such great depths to their heart, and the simpler ones in the people can receive from them more than from the ones who have attained greater depths, as explained. And therefore, if a person who is great in their awe of Hashem, in great attainments of understanding of God, blessed be the Name, wants to reveal the depths of their consciousness so that others will understand, that person needs to translated to another person, smaller than them, who can understand their words and then tell them to others so that they can understand due to the smaller one telling them, and so they are able to receive and understand. And from this you can understand that this is the order of learning of all of our holy Torah, Aharon entered and taught his piece etc (Eruvin 54b), see there. We now return to explain the verses above...

Exodus 7,3-4. “but I will harden the heart ‎of Pharaoh, etc.” “Pharaoh will not listen to ‎you.” The Or Hachayim, in his ‎commentary on this line questions why G’d had to ‎repeat this statement in verse 4 when He had already ‎said in verse 3 that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart? ‎In order to answer this problem satisfactorily it is ‎important to examine the plague of frogs. Before ‎decreeing this plague Moses had said to Pharaoh that ‎if he were to refuse to let the Israelites go, G’d would ‎smite his entire country with a plague of frogs which ‎would invade even the most private parts of his ‎bedroom, including the houses of all his servants. ‎‎(Exodus 26-28) After the plague did strike and Pharaoh ‎asked Moses to bring it to an end, Moses tells him that ‎he will do so at a time of Pharaoh’s choosing, so that ‎he would learn that there is no G’d like the G’d of the ‎Israelites. (8,5) Later on when the wild beasts have ‎been let loose in urban areas, Moses adds that Pharaoh ‎should now learn that G’d’s domain is also the dry land ‎of the earth. (8,18) The reason why two different ‎domains of G’d’s power are mentioned on those two ‎occasions is that two different types of miracles were ‎involved. One basic miracle applying to all the plagues ‎was to demonstrate G’d’s power in His universe; the ‎other miracle was that G’d could, if He wished, ‎dominate man’s willpower so that he would foolishly ‎self destruct in spite of the evidence before his eyes ‎how his obstinacy would lead to his and his people’s ‎ruin.‎

Exodus 7,9. “if Pharaoh will say to you: ‎‎‘identify yourselves by means of a miracle, say to ‎Aaron to take his staff etc.;’” at first glance ‎the word ‎לכם‎ used by Pharaoh here was superfluous as ‎Moses and Aaron did not need to identify themselves ‎to each other. He should simply have said: ‘prove your ‎mission by performing a miracle!’”
The Ari z’al writes that it is a rule that ‎every human being is convinced that his words will ‎make a favourable impression on his Creator, and as a ‎result further G’d’s dispensing of benefits to His ‎people. Because of this belief in the power of speech, ‎every person has to be extremely careful not to abuse ‎this power of speech by talking nonsense, or worse. ‎Pharaoh invited, or challenged Moses and Aaron to say ‎things which would serve as proof that due to their ‎words their G’d of whose existence Pharaoh was well ‎aware, would perform acts that would impress him. ‎When Moses therefore instructed Aaron to take his ‎staff, throw it to the ground and it would turn into a ‎snake, he complied with exactly what Pharaoh had ‎demanded of them. The miracle was the result of ‎Moses’ speaking to Aaron.‎‎

Exodus 7,16. “and behold so far you have ‎not listened.” The words: “so far,” appear ‎strange, and sound as if G’d had already performed a ‎number of miracles, whereas in fact He had only ‎brought on one plague, i.e. the waters of the Nile ‎turning into blood. We may be able to understand this ‎turn of phrase when considering a statement by our ‎sages when they compared Moses’ prophecies as ‎characterized by the word ‎זה‎ and that of the other ‎prophets by the word: ‎כה‎. (Sifri Mattot, 2) On ‎the face of it this statement appears strange as Moses ‎frequently introduced his prophecies with the words: ‎כה ‏אמר ה'‏‎.‎
This apparent contradiction has been dealt with by ‎the Rivash, (Rabbi Yitzchok bar Rabbi Sheshet) ‎in his commentary on Exodus 19, 9 ‎‏ בעבור ישמע העם בדברי ‏עמך וגם בך יאמינו לעולם‎ “in order that the people can hear ‎when I speak with you (Moses‏(‏‎ and they will also have ‎complete faith in you forever.” The Rivash writes that ‎there is a difference between what a person sees with ‎his own eyes and between what he knows through use ‎of his intelligence to be the truth. In spite of what his ‎brain tells him is the truth, he still tends to trust his ‎eyes more than he trusts his intellect. This principle ‎also became manifest during the Exodus of the Jewish ‎people from Egypt, and again during the revelation at ‎Mount Sinai when they received the Torah. In spite of ‎the people having witnessed any number of miracles ‎during the period immediately preceding the Exodus ‎so that their faith in G’d should have become absolute, ‎there was a further need to strengthen their belief at ‎Mount Sinai. In spite of all the miracles that Moses had ‎been instrumental in performing ever since he ‎returned from Midian to Egypt, G’d still found it ‎necessary to make the people hear Him speak to Moses ‎directly, before they would believe in him absolutely. ‎The famous proverb: “seeing is believing,” applied to ‎the Jewish people also.‎

Exodus 7,23. “Pharaoh turned and went to ‎his palace and did not pay attention even to this.” ‎Our sages, analyzing the word: ‎לזאת‎, “to this,” cite ‎Leviticus 16,3 where the Torah introduces the Temple ‎service of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement, ‎with the words: ‎בזאת יבא אהרן אל הקודש‎, “equipped with ‎this Aaron is to enter the Sanctuary, etc;” as an allusion ‎to the collective soul of the Jewish people. We must ‎always remember that the universe was created only ‎for the sake, or on account of, the Jewish people (and ‎their destiny on earth). In other words, the word ‎זאת‎ ‎refers to the principal component of something. We ‎find this repeated when Moses blesses the Jewish ‎people for the last time before dying, in Deuteronomy ‎‎33,1 when the Torah writes: ‎וזאת הברכה אשר ברך משה וגו'‏‎, ‎‎”and this is the blessing which Moses invoked, etc.” ‎When Moses, on the occasion of the first plague visited ‎upon the Egyptians uses the word ‎זאת‎, he does so to ‎bring home to Pharaoh the idea that the Jewish people ‎are the principal reason that the universe exists as it ‎does. It was this that Pharaoh refused to believe and ‎that is why he chose to ignore the plague.‎