Comentário sobre Êxodo 3:2

בלבת אש means IN A FLAME OF FIRE, i. e. in the very heart of (לב) the fire. Similarly is לב used of inanimate objects in: (Deuteronomy 4:11) “in the heart of (לב) heaven”; (II Samuel 18:14) “in the midst of (לב) the terebinth”. Do not be puzzled by the ת, although the ordinary word for heart, לב. does not require the suffix ת in the construct form, because we have another example of this form, viz., (Ezekiel 16:30) “how weak is thy heart (לבתך)”.‎

AND THE ANGEL OF THE ETERNAL APPEARED UNTO HIM IN A FLAME OF FIRE. Because Scripture originally states, And the angel of the Eternal appeared, and then it goes on to say, And when the Eternal saw that he turned aside to see, G-d called unto him,¹³⁵Verse 4. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that elohim mentioned here [in the second verse] is the angel mentioned [in the first], as in the verse, For I have seen ‘elohim’ face to face.¹³⁶Genesis 32:31. The reference there is to an angel. See Ramban on Verses 26 and 30, there. The expression, I am the G-d of thy father,¹³⁷Verse 6. is a case of the deputy speaking in the name of Him Who sent him.¹³⁸See Vol. I, p. 260, for a similar instance. But this is not correct. Moses the greatest in prophecy, would not have hidden his face from an angel [as is related in Verse 6].
Our Rabbis have said in Bereshith Rabbah:¹³⁹Bereshith Rabbah 97:4. The complete quote mentioned here by Ramban is found in Shemoth Rabbah 2:8. “Angel. This refers to the angel Michael. Wherever Rabbi Yosei Ha’aruch¹⁴⁰Literally: “Rabbi Yosei the tall one.” He was an outstanding pupil of Rabbeinu Hakadosh, or Rabbi Judah the Prince, redactor of the Mishnah. was seen, people would say, ‘There is Rabbeinu Hakadosh.’ Similarly, wherever the angel Michael appears, there is also present the Glory of the Divine Presence.” The Rabbis intended to say that at first, the angel Michael appeared to Moses, and there was also the Glory of the Divine Presence, but Moses did not see the Glory, as he had not duly prepared his mind for prophecy. When he duly prepared his heart for it and he turned aside to see, then the vision of the Divine Presence revealed itself to him, and G-d called unto him out of the midst of the bush.¹³⁵Verse 4.

איננו אוכל. Even at the point where the flame came forth from the bush there was no evidence of coal or ash.

וירא מלאך ה' אליו, in a prophetic vision. When angels appear to humans in human garb this is not considered a prophetic vision, i.e. it is something of a lower order of Divine manifestation. Divine communications to Avraham, Lot, Bileam, and others like them are not described as וירא, vayeyrah, “it appeared.” However, the recipient is described as וירא, “he saw,” i.e. he is described only in his active role, not his role as receptacle of G’d’s communication. Examples of the latter kind of communication occur in Genesis 18,2 as well as in Genesis 19,1 and in Numbers 22,31.

1 "He saw an angel": and then it explains what he saw, since in all places the Holy Blessed One does [G!d's own] mission.

וירא מלאך ה', “An angel of the Lord appeared to him;” First the Torah reports that an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses, and afterwards we read that G’d saw that Moses had taken note of the spectacle of the burning bush whereupon G’d called out to him. This prompted Ibn Ezra to say that the word אלוקים in verse 4 refers to the angel mentioned in verse 2 as מלאך ה', “an angel of the Lord.” We find a parallel construction in Genesis 32,31 where Yaakov describes himself as having “seen G’d face to face.” This in spite of the fact that G’d had described himself to Yaakov as “the G’d of your father.” The fact is that the messenger is permitted to assume the name of the One Who has dispatched him while he is carrying out the instructions of his master. [clearly, Yaakov had not had a vision of G’d Himself, face to face, something which is impossible, as explained by G’d to Moses in Exodus Ed.] Nachmanides disagrees with the commentary of Ibn Ezra, claiming that Moses, the most outstanding of all the prophets would certainly not be afraid to look at the vision of an angel, a vision granted to many prophets who were inferior to him. He goes on to say that our sages describe the angel Moses saw as being Michael, a most high ranking angel, not one of the lower ranking angels that appeared to other prophets. He identified this angel with the one described by Yaakov before his death as המלאך הגואל אותי in Genesis Elsewhere this angel is described by G’d as incorporating some of G’d’s essence, שמי, “within him.” (compare Exodus 23,21). (see Bereshit Rabbah 97,3 that whenever Rabbi Yossi ha-aruch is mentioned the listeners felt that his mentor, Rabbi Yehudah hanassi, was personally present. [Rabbi Yossi ha-aruch was not only a disciple but a personal valet of Rabbi Yehudah hanassi while the latter was alive. Ed.] The Midrash brings this example in order to illustrate the concept of angels of the caliber of, for instance, the one describing himself as שר צבא ה' in Joshua This type of angel, the one described as bearing the name of the Lord, is understood as being the category closest to the throne of G’d in the celestial regions. At the revelation of the burning bush, Moses encountered one of these angels.

V. 2. לבת von לבב, wie לב, das Innere, die Mitte des Feuers. Der Engel erschien somit in der Mitte des Feuers und das Feuer war in der Mitte des Dornbusches, das Feuer umloderte also den Dornbusch nicht, es kann also die Bedeutung der Erscheinung nicht gewesen sein, dass hier ein Dornbusch im Feuer stand, ohne zu verbrennen und also auch nicht haben veranschaulicht werden sollen: Israel werde in dem Galut nicht untergehen. Vielmehr, wie es auch die Weisen auffassen: das Feuer ruht im Dornbusch und der Engel im Feuer, so ja auch später: שוכני סנה. Wie es bei מתן תורה heißt: והר סיני עשן כלו מפני אשר יוד עליו ד׳ כאש (Schmot Kap. 19.18) und ומראה כבוד ד' כאש אכלת בראש ההר (K. 24, 17), so kündigt sich das im irdischen Kreis Stätte nehmende und finden sollende Göttliche immer als Feuer an, die תורה selbst ist nichts, als das zum Gesetz sich gestaltende Feuer — אש דת — das auch als solches Feuerskraft und Feuerbestimmung behält, uns durchdringen und läutern, wärmen und beleben will, und das wir, durch Dahingebung aller unserer Beziehungen als לחם אשה ד׳, als "Nahrung des göttlichen Feuers" auf Erden, nähren und erhalten sollen. Die Gotteserscheinung im Dornbusch spricht daher, allgemein gefasst, die bedeutsame Wahrheit aus: אין מקום פנוי בלא שכינה אפי׳ סנה, auch die niedrigste Stätte ist nicht zu niedrig, um Stätte für das Göttliche zu werden, alles Irdische, auch das in den Augen der Menschen Geringfügigste, hat die Bestimmung und Fähigkeit, Träger des Göttlichen zu werden (והסנה איננו אכל ,(שמות רבה: und nicht Vernichtung durchs Göttliche, sondern Verbindung mit dem Göttlichen heißt die Aufgabe für jegliches, das sich dem Aufnehmen des Göttlichen in sein Inneres öffnet; oder, national begriffen, spricht es: שותף אני בצערן ,עמו אנכי בצרה, auch in dieser dornvollen Erniedrigung bin ich bei ihm, nehme Teil an seinen Leiden, bin mit ihm im "Dorn". (Ebendas.)

”out of the burning bush.” The reason that G–d chose this bush to reveal Himself in was that one could not construct a deity or symbol of a deity out of the bush.

בלבת אש, “in the heart of the fire;” G-d wanted Moses to get used to such a phenomenon so that when the time came for the revelation at Mount Sinai, he would not become frightened by either it or the lightning.

מתוך הסנה OUT OF THE MIDST OF A BUSH (a thornbush) — and not from any other tree, in accordance with the idea (Psalms 91:15) “I will be with him in trouble” (Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 14).

AND, BEHOLD, THE BUSH ‘BO’EIR’ (BURNED) WITH FIRE. [The word bo’eir] has the same meaning as doleik (burning),¹⁴¹Ramban’s intent is to solve this difficulty: In the verse before us it says, and, behold, the bush ‘bo’eir’, and in Verse 3 it says that Moses asked, why the bush is not ‘yiv’ar’? Ramban explains that in the first case, bo’eir has the same meaning as doleik (burning), while yiv’ar means “consumed.” i.e., [the bush] was in the midst of a burning fire, and it is like the verse, and the fathers ‘m’va’arim’ the fire,¹⁴²Jeremiah 7:18. meaning, “kindling” and burning the wood with fire. But the expression, why the bush is not ‘yiv’ar’?¹⁴³Verse 3. means, “why is it not consumed and wasted?” Similarly, As flax that was ‘ba’aru’ with fire¹⁴⁴Judges 15:14. means “consumed.” And so is the opinion of Onkelos, who translated the first [bo’eir] as bo’eir (burning), and the second one [yiv’ar] as mitokad, [the Aramaic word for “consumed”]. It may be that yiv’ar has the same meaning as in the verses, ‘Uvi’arta’ (So shalt thou put away) the evil from the midst of thee;¹⁴⁵Deuteronomy 17:7. Then a man useth it ‘l’va’eir’ (for fodder).¹⁴⁶Isaiah 44:15. The expression “for fodder” suggests destruction and annihilation. See R’dak, (mentioned in my Hebrew commentary, p. 288), who so interprets this verse. Here then the sense of the verse would be: “why does the fire not remove or eat up the bush altogether?” Such is the style of the Sacred Language to use [one term in the same instance with two different meanings], as in the verse: They rode on thirty ‘ayarim’ (ass colts) and they had thirty ‘ayarim’ (cities).¹⁴⁷Judges 10:4. Thus the word ayarim has two separate meanings in the same verse. In the instance before us here, the Hebrew root bo’eir is used with two separate meanings: burning, and consuming or removing.

וירא והנה הסנה בוער באש, it kept burning; This phenomenon indicated the prophetic nature of the experience. Unless the angel had been within the bush, this could not have happened as something natural. The fire Moses saw burning enveloped the angel. The implied message was that the righteous members of the Jewish people, who are themselves angels of G’d, i.e. His messengers on earth, and who are surrounded by the Egyptian nation who treated them as burning thistles or less, would themselves become subject to this fire when enduring the ten plagues, but would remain unharmed by all those plagues. This is what Moses was taught when he saw והסנה איננו אוכל. it was not consumed by the flames which kept burning. The level of Moses’ prophecy at that time was not yet at the level it would be later on. The very fact that the Torah describes Moses as being even afraid to look at the spectacle before his eyes is proof of this (compare verse 6). From the day the Torah was given, as the Torah testifies in Numbers 12,8 ותמונת ה' יביט, G’d extended the power of Moses’ prophetic visions so that He shows him a visual image of G’d. The entire Jewish people had had a brief revelation of G’d’s glory at Mont Sinai only. Their power of endurance was so limited even at that time that the Torah reports them as saying that they could not even endure hearing the voice of the Lord, not to speak of enduring a visual image. Only Moses was able to retain the level of prophecy which the entire nation experienced during the revelation at Mount Sinai. This is the meaning of Deuteronomy 5,27-28 שובו לכם לאהליכם ואתה פה עמוד עמדי, “you (pl.) go back to your tents, and you (sing.) remain standing here beside Me.” This is also borne out by Exodus 20,18 ויעמוד העם מרחוק, “the people stood at a distance,” followed by ומשה נגש, “whereas Moses approached.” (to the cloud within which the glory of G’d was enveloped). Moses’ level of prophecy from that time on remained on the level known as פנים אל פנים, “face to face,” i.e. direct, not indirect. G’d told Miriam and Aaron there that He does not speak to Moses in riddles but by showing him a visual image (Numbers 12,8)

"In the heart of the fire": libah instead of lehava, and thus in the Mishna [Bava Qama 6:4]. From the bush [sneh]: from the thorn bushes that were on that mountain, and thence it was called Sinai (cf. ibn Ezra). Now the bush was on fire, but it was not really burning, but was surrounded by flames like a burning object, since the fire was flashing between the thorns, but did not take to them, and thus at first Moses saw the fire amid the bush, and the bush flashing with fire, and then he saw that it was not burnt, and he said: 'Let me turn aside to see' why this bush is not burning. The root b.'.r. in Qal is an active verb, and its meaning is the flames of fire and also the burning of the object which is on fire, since it is customary in the world that there is no separation between the flames and the burning, but here the bush was on fire, but was not burnt.

והנה הסנה בוער, “and lo, the bush continued burning.” The word בוער is equivalent to the expression דולק באש, “is in flames.” As to the Torah describing Moses as wanting to investigate why the bush did not turn into ash,מדוע לא יבער הסנה הסנה, he marveled at the phenomenon, seeing that flax in similar circumstances would have disintegrated into ash without delay. It is also possible to understand the word יבער as a form of בעור, destruction, elimination, as in ובערת הרע מקרבך, “you must eliminate evil from your midst.” (Deut. 13,6 and 8 other times in the Torah) Some commentators follow a forced approach to the words אסורה נא ואראה, understanding these words as an introduction to the statement that Moses wanted to find out why this bush would not be consumed by the flames. [I suppose the reason why our author describes this interpretation as “forced,” is that the Torah had already described Moses as having observed the phenomenon. He had not remained at a safe distance. Ed.]

An angel of Hashem appeared. Moshe’s prophecy was unique and unlike that of the other prophets in the following ways: 1) Other prophets received Hashem’s word in a dream, and Moshe prophesized while fully conscious. 2) The other prophets fell into a trance and trembling and lost control of their body, whereas Moshe was upright and in control of his faculties. 3) The other prophets saw visions influenced by their imagination, but Moshe received prophecy directly to his intellect without interference from the imagination, thus, he saw no visions. 4) The others prophesized in riddles and metaphors that lack clarity, but Moshe prophesized in complete clarity. 5) Other prophets received Hashem’s word by means of an angel, but Moshe spoke to Hashem face to face. However, the vision in this verse demonstrates that Moshe also began his prophecy as the other prophets. For in this first prophecy Hashem spoke to him by means of “an angel;” secondly, he saw a vision influenced by the imagination, for the angel appeared to him as “a blaze of fire from amid the bush;” thirdly, the prophecy was a riddle and a metaphor, for “the bush was burning in the fire but the bush was not consumed”.

מתוך הסנה, some commentators explain that seeing that an angel is a completely disembodied “intelligence,” has no physical aspect at all, he could not be presented as if it had emanated from something etched into stone or painted onto something.

אֻכָּל means DEVOURED, eaten. It is of the same grammatical form as, (Deuteronomy 21:3) “which hath not been wrought with (עֻבַּד)”; (Genesis 3:23) “whence he was taken (לֻקַח):

"Consumed": Passive pa'al, see my grammar, sections 374, 422.

והסנה איננו אוכל, “but the bush was not being consumed by the fire.” This was a symbol for both Israel and the Egyptians. The Israelites’ enemy, Egypt, is portrayed as an all consuming fire, while his prey, Israel, is supposed to be represented by the bush that refuses to be consumed by the fire. (Sh’mot Rabbah 2,5)