Commento su Esodo 4:10

גם מתמול וגו׳ NEITHER FROM YESTERDAY [NOR FROM BEFORE YESTERDAY] — This teaches us that for an entire period of seven days God had been endeavouring to persuade Moses at the thornbush to go on his mission, for the terms מתמול and שלשום and מאז דברך imply three days, and the three-fold גם which is mentioned here point to three extensions of the period, making six in all, and therefore he had now reached the seventh day when he further said to him, (Exodus v. 13) “Send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send” — until God became angry with him (Exodus v. 14), and he accepted the mission (cf. Leviticus Rabbah 11:6, and Seder Olam ch. 5). All this reluctance was because he was unwilling to assume any dignity that would make him superior to his brother Aaron who was older than he and was also a prophet, as it is said (I Samuel 2:27) that the man of God spoke to Eli, the high-priest, in God’s name, “Surely I revealed myself unto the house of thy father when they were in Egypt” — thy father means Aaron. Similary in : (Ezekiel 20:5, 7) “And I made myself known unto them in the land of Egypt … and I said unto them, “cast ye away every man the detestable things of his eyes”, and that prophecy was spoken to Aaron (Exodus Rabbah 3:16; and cf. ברייתא דל"ב מדות).

AND MOSES SAID UNTO THE ETERNAL: O LORD, I AM NOT A MAN OF WORDS, NEITHER YESTERDAY NOR RECENTLY NOR SINCE THOU HAST SPOKEN UNTO THY SERVANT; FOR I AM SLOW OF SPEECH AND OF A SLOW TONGUE. “This teaches us that for an entire period of seven days, the Holy One, blessed be He, sat²⁶⁷“Sat.” This word is not found in our text of Rashi. and urged Moses to undertake the mission. [The expressions], ‘yesterday,’ ‘recently,’ and ‘since Thou hast spoken,’ imply three days, and the three-fold word gam — [here translated ‘neither’ or ‘nor,’ but literally meaning ‘also’] — points to a similar extension of time. Thus you have six days [that have passed], and it was now the seventh day [when Moses still refused to go on his mission].” Thus the language of Rashi.
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, the purport of the verse is as follows: [Moses said,] “For I am slow of speech from heretofore and from time past, for I have been slow of speech from my youth on and all the more now that I am old, and also now since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant, for Thou hast not removed the defect in my speech when Thou didst command me to go to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name. How then can I go before him?” Now Moses out of his great desire not to go [on the mission] did not pray before G-d, blessed be He, that He remove his defective speech from him, but he argued: “Since You have not removed my slowness of speech from me from the time You spoke to me to undertake this mission, do not command me to go, for it is inconceivable that the Master of everything should send a man of uncircumcised lips²⁶⁸Further, 6:12. to a king of the nations.” And since Moses did not pray [for the removal of his defect], the Holy One, blessed be He, did not desire to heal him. Instead, He said to him, I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak,²⁶⁹Verse 12. meaning that “you will be able to correctly express the words which I will put in your mouth.”
And in V’eileh Shemoth Rabbah,²⁷⁰Shemoth Rabbah 3:20. the Rabbis said: “The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: ‘Do not mind it that you are not a man of words. Have I not made the mouth of all that speak, and him that I desire I made dumb? And have I not made the deaf and the blind, and opened their eyes to see and ears to hear? Now had I wanted that you be a man of words, you would have been so. But it is my desire that you continue to be so, and when you will speak [to Pharaoh] your utterance will be correct, for I will be with thy mouth.’²⁶⁹Verse 12. This is the sense of the verse, Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth.”²⁶⁹Verse 12.
According to this Midrash, it appears to me that the reason He did not desire to remove his defective speech from him was because a miraculous event,²⁷¹That such is the intent of Ramban — and not that Moses did not desire to have the defect removed — may be seen from the language of the Tur, who states: “Some scholars say He did not heal him because Moses’ defective speech came through a miracle.” as told by our Rabbis, happened to Moses when he was still before Pharaoh.²⁷²Ramban evidently refers to Shemoth Rabbah 1:31, wherein it is related that when Moses was still an infant and Pharaoh played with him on his lap, Moses took the crown from the king’s head and placed it on his own. Terrified at what had happened, the magicians advised that he be slain. But Jethro, who was one of the counsellors of the king, advised that he be tested as follows: Two dishes were to be placed before him, one containing pieces of gold and the other live coal. If he would stretch out his hand for the gold, it would be known that his taking the crown was done consciously, and therefore he was to be slain. But it he would grasp the live coal, he was innocent. When the test was made, Moses began stretching his hand toward the gold, but the angel Gabriel made him take the live coal. Thereupon Moses put his hand with the coal into his mouth, which burnt part of his tongue. As a result, he became slow of speech and of a slow tongue for all his life.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that G-d said to Moses, “Who hath made man’s mouth? or Who maketh a man dumb? … Is it not I the Eternal²⁷³Verse 11. Who does all this? I could heal you. But now since you did not want to be healed, nor have you prayed to me about it, go and I will be with thy mouth,²⁶⁹Verse 12. and I will cause you success in My mission.” It is also possible that there is a hint in the verse, And the anger of the Eternal was kindled against Moses,²⁷⁴Verse 14. that He did not want to heal him, and that He sent him against his will.

לא איש דברים אנכי; I am not experienced in knowing how to address people in authority, such as kings.

ויאמר משה בי א־ד־ו־נ־י לא איש דברים אנכי, Moses said: "Please my Lord, I am not a man of words, etc." After Moses' previous arguments had been silenced, Moses now appealed to the attribute of Mercy. This is why the Torah emphasises the name of G'd Moses used here. Moses had not used that name of G'd previously. The word בי is a word of entreaty.

כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, I am not fluent in the Egyptian spoken by the upper classes of the aristocracy. The reason is that I fled Egypt before I had completed my education there and in the meantime I am 80 years of age. We find in Ezekiel 3,4-6 that the prophet is told to address the Jewish people as opposed to addressing the local aristocracy whose tongue is described as unintelligible speech and difficult language, i.e. עמקי שפה וכבדי לשון. Is it possible that a prophet who could communicate with G’d freely, i.e. “face to face,” and who received the Torah from Him and communicated it to his people should have been afflicted with a stutter? [one could add to the author’s rejection of the commonly held view of Moses’ speech impediment that if he functioned as High Priest for a full week before his brother Aaron took over, how was that possible if he was afflicted with what would be considered a disabling mum, physical blemish for even an ordinary priest? Ed.] Nowhere in our traditional literature of Tannaim and Amoraim (Talmud) is there such a view expressed, and we certainly have no reason to accept such views when they are expressed in hagiographical writings.

גם מתמול גם משלשום, “not since yesterday nor since the day before.” We learn from all this that G’d spent seven days trying to convince Moses to accept the mission voluntarily. Looking at the plain text and trying to understand the relevance of Moses’ remarks, (as if G’d were not aware of his speech defect as well as his not being an orator), Moses argued that seeing that the people know that I have had this speech defect since youth, they will be astounded that You have not first fixed this, but have sent a prophet who suffers from such a blemish. Would not Pharaoh consider it an insult to have to deal with someone like me who suffers from such a blemish? Seeing that Moses, basically, did not wish to assume the burden of leadership at all, he did not pray to G’d to heal his speech defect. He contented himself with saying that someone with a blemish such as he suffered from was not likely to be the most suitable candidate for the task proposed by G’d. G’d, for His part, did not want to heal his speech defect precisely because he had not prayed to Him to do this. He simply told him to go and fulfill his mission, and that He would come to his aid whenever required. Whatever he would be saying to Pharaoh would come out of his mouth clear without Pharaoh ever becoming aware of the fact that he suffered from any speech defect. Moses therefore experienced a double miracle in that whenever he faced Pharaoh he could suddenly speak normally, without there being even a trace of his usual handicap. Both what he said an how he said it sounded complexly normal. Some commentators attribute Moses’ speech defect to the well known story in the Midrash, according to which Moses’ life was spared on account of something which led to his speech defect. He was suspected by the astrologers of becoming the redeemer of the Jews, and when, as a two year old, he was put to the test, being given the choice of grabbing for the king’s crown or for glowing coals, he grabbed for the latter and put them to his mouth when an angel had given him a push in that direction. Seeing that his very speech defect, in a manner of speaking, had been his “life saver,” it would have been inappropriate to reverse this “defect.” Some commentators do not agree that G’d healed Moses’ speech defect at all, even when he used to stand before Pharaoh, but that G’d might have done so if Moses had not used it as an excuse not to do His bidding. As it were, G’d expressed His displeasure by not healing Moses of this defect.

כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי. The very fact that Moses mentioned both these deficiencies of his separately is a clear indication that he had difficulty in formulating certain words which are articulated with the teeth. The consonants he had difficulty with were זשרצס, and when he referred to difficulty as כבד פה, he had in mind the letters דתל'ט.

V. 10. Wiederholt heißt es V. 8: והאמינו לקול האות ,ישמעו לקול האות und ist dies wohl nicht blos bildlicher Ausdruck für die Gewährung oder Versagung des Vertrauens; dies ist V. 9 ohne קול ausgedrückt. Vielmehr dürfte dies die belehrende und zu Geist und Herz redende Deutung des Zeichens sein, mit welcher das zu vollbringende Zeichen zu begleiten gewesen war, und wohl durfte Mosche sich sagen: hierzu bedarfs der Beredtsamkeit. — כי, von בהה wüste, unklar, eine Interjektion, welche eine ängstliche, unruhige Stimmung zum Ausdruck bringt. "Ich bin noch immer ängstlich, fühle die Fähigkeit nicht, den Auftrag zu vollbringen."

ויאמר משה בי אדוני, Moses responded by saying: בי אדוני, “please O Lord, etc.” Moses pointed out that he had been asked to face Pharaoh and his advisors who had command of all seventy languages, and would ridicule him when addressing him in any of these languages which he did not have any command of. They would then add: “In whose name and language do you come to speak to us?” G–d reminded him that it had been He who had enabled Adam to give the proper names in the in all the languages to all of His creatures. (Genesis 2,20) [It did not say there שם in the singular mode, but in the plural mode, i.e. that he named each animal in each of the seventy languages.] If He had been able to enable Adam to do this, Adam who had eaten from the tree of knowledge, it would require only a minor adjustment of Moses’ faculties for him to be able to do so also, and He implied that He would do so immediately, seeing that he had been selected to perform much greater deeds than had Adam. An alternate interpretation of G–d’s response: The words: מי שם פה, “Who has provided a new mouth, etc;” surely the One Who provided the first mouth in the first place at the time of creating human beings with a mouth to express their thoughts. (Attributed to Rabbi Yoseph.) Rabbi Ovadiah interpreted the answer as a rebuke to Moses, who was surely aware of G–d’s abilities, and if He had given Moses a mouth to speak with, He was surely also aware of Moses’ speech defect, and did not need a reminder from him. It is within My power to remedy this. [G–d did not say that He would remedy this, and if so when He would do so. Ed.]

בי אדוני, this is the name of G-d spelled with the letters אדני; (not permitted to erase)

כבד פה SLOW OF SPEECH (lit. heavy of mouth) — I speak heavily (with difficulty); old French balbus. (English = stammerer).

גם מתמול, גם משלשום, neither when I was a stranger in a foreign land, nor when I grew up in Pharaoh’s palace, nor since You have spoken to me and I have responded.

Alternatively, we can understand the word בי as a pronoun in which case Moses would have answered G'd that he considered his own unsuitability for the mission as due to בי, his own shortcomings. As soon as the people would become aware of him stammering they would realise that even after he pronounced the words he had no command of language. They would reject him. Moses added the words גם מתמול גם משלשום, to point out that despite his repeated conversations with G'd, G'd had not cured him of his deformity. It appeared therefore that he was meant to suffer from this deformity also in the future. If so, the people would surely reject him because they would think that if G'd had spoken to him He would first have cured him of that blemish. (He left the last part of the sentence unspoken).

גם מתמול וגו׳. Es scheint, dass dieses ganze Zwiegespräch mit seinen Reden und Entgegnungen nicht rasch aufeinandergefolgt, dass vielmehr Mosche über das einzelne mit sich zu Rate gegangen und dann Gott seine Bedenken vorgetragen habe, die auch bis hierher nicht von Gott missbilligt worden sind. — כבד פה ist wohl die Mangelhaftigkeit des Sprachorgans überhaupt, כבד לשון die Schwerfälligkeit der Zunge insbesondere: "Ich kann meinen Mund überhaupt schwer in Bewegung setzen, und dann stoße ich auch mit der Zunge an, habe sie nicht in meiner Gewalt." Es ist aber eine böse Sache, wenn ein Redner, und noch dazu ein Volksredner — ausgelacht wird. Es gehört viel Verstand und Verständnis dazu, die Mängel eines Redners um des Inhaltes willen zu übersehen, eine Einsicht, die von einer Volksmenge mit Frauen und Kindern nicht leicht zu erwarten ist.

לא איש דברים אנכי, this verse is incomplete, and it must be understood as follows: “Please, O Lord, I have not been a man of eloquent tongue since my birth already.” By saying that he was not eloquent “yesterday, i.e. אתמול,” it follows that earlier, i.e. “the day before yesterday,” i.e. שלשום, I had been even less eloquent. I have also not become more eloquent since My Lord has seen fit to speak to me.”If we were to take the text at face value, how would we explain that Moses proceeds first backwards in time, i.e. “yesterday and the day before yesterday,” and then jumps to the present? He should have said: “I am not eloquent since You spoke to me, nor have I been eloquent the day previously, nor the day before that.”

גם מאז דברך אל עבדך, “neither since You have spoken to Your servant.” He meant to tell G-d that having been worthy to be addressed by G-d had not enabled him to henceforth speak more eloquently, (or distinctly).

כי כבד פה ובד לשון אנכי, “for I suffer from a speech handicap.” He implies that this handicap has been his ever since he was forced to flee from Egypt. I fled from Egypt when I was a young man of 20. Now that I am 80 years old I have forgotten to speak the Egyptian language, but Aaron my brother never left Egypt and he know how to speak Egyptian well. [I believe that our author feels uncomfortable with implying that Moses would have criticised G-d for having been born with this handicap. Ed.]

כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, the reason why I do not possess this facility is because the physical tools with which to express my thoughts are defective. I have therefore never even made the effort to develop this facility (compare Isaiah 50,4) לדעת לעות את יעף דבר, “to know how to speak timely words to the weary.”