Comentário sobre Êxodo 6:10

AND THE ETERNAL SPOKE UNTO MOSES ‘LEIMOR’ (SAYING). The commentators⁴⁹R’dak in his Book of Roots, under the root amar (saying). said that throughout the entire Torah, the word leimor means “saying to Israel,” the purport thereof being that G-d said to Moses, “Say these, My words, to Israel.” Here the word leimor means “saying to Pharaoh.” But the verse stating [Laban’s words to Jacob], The G-d of your father spoke unto me yesternight ‘leimor’ (saying): Take heed to thyself that thou speak not to Jacob either good or bad,⁵⁰Genesis 31:29. does not fit in correctly with this explanation [since Laban was not commanded to relate these words to Jacob]. Similarly, there are many cases in Scripture where the term “saying” is repeated, [and it is not correct to say that it means “saying it to others”]. Thus: And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them;⁵¹Leviticus 18:1-2. And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them;⁵²Numbers 15:37-8. And they [Moses and Aaron] spoke unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, saying;⁵³Ibid., 14:7. Here the word “saying” could not mean “saying it to others,” since Moses and Aaron were already speaking directly to the people. And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: Behold we perish;⁵⁴Ibid., 17:27. And I spoke unto you at that time, saying.⁵⁵Deuteronomy 1:9. There are many other such verses. Likewise in this seder⁵⁶The portion of the Torah assigned for reading on a particular Sabbath. See Vol. I, p. 15. we find: And the Eternal spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: When Pharaoh will speak unto you, saying,⁵⁷Further, 7:8-9. and the word “saying” cannot correctly mean “saying it to others.”
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that in all places the word leimor indicates the clarification of a subject. The verse, And the Eternal spoke unto Moses, saying, means really explicitly, free from doubt or uncertainty. This is why this expression always appears in the Torah, for of Moses’ prophecy it was said, Mouth to mouth do I speak with him, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches.⁵⁸Numbers 12:8. And Laban also said to Jacob: “Yesternight G-d spoke unto me, saying⁵⁰Genesis 31:29. clearly that I should not harm you; except for that, I would have done you evil.” Similarly, the verse, And the children of Israel spoke unto Moses, saying: Behold, we perish,⁵⁴Ibid., 17:27. means that they said so explicitly to Moses and Aaron, shouting to them brazenly. [In Hebrew], the infinitive is used for clarification of a subject. Occasionally, it comes before the verb,⁵⁹Such as sachor s’charticha (I have surely hired thee), in Genesis 30:16. Here the infinitive sachor is written before the verb s’charticha. and sometimes it comes after the verb, such as: ‘omrim amor’ (they surely say) unto them that despise Me.⁶⁰Jeremiah 23:17. Here the infinitive amor is written after the verb omrim.

ויאמר…. בא דבר אל פרעה, He said:" come and speak sternly with Pharaoh, etc." Moses was to tell Pharaoh that G'd had instructed him to speak to Pharaoh and to demand that he should let the Jewish people depart from his land. The letter ו at the beginning of the word וישלח is significant because it does not make sense as a conjunctive letter; nothing else had been demanded prior to that in the conversation described. It must therefore refer to Moses telling Pharaoh that his first instruction had been to tell him that he spoke at the behest of G'd. It was quite an event that an ordinary individual should present himself at court without invitation and make demands on the Monarch. The manner in which these demands were to be made was even more astounding.

וידבר ה' אל משה לאמור, “the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, etc.” Nachmanides writes that some commentators claim that whenever the word לאמור appears in the Torah in the context of something being addressed to Israel, it means that G’d instructed Moses to address the text following to the Children of Israel, whereas in this verse there is an exception and the words of G’d were to be relayed to Pharaoh Such an approach is flawed, for when Lavan related to Yaakov that G’d had addressed him during a dream on the night before, warning him that he was not to harm Yaakov even by word of mouth, he quoted G’d as prefacing His remarks to him with the word לאמור, (Genesis 31,29). The same difficulty is obvious in all the instances when the Torah wrote וידבר ה' אל משה למור, followed by the words דבר אל בני ישראל וגו', “speak to the Children of Israel, etc.” If the wordלאמור had already meant that Moses was to relate what follows to the Israelites, why would we need the words דבר אל בני ישראל, “say to the people of Israel,” at all? He believes therefore that the word לאמור precedes the instruction to Moses to be precise in his instructions to the Children of Israel, not to leave anything in doubt, not to speak allegorically, or by hinting only. The reason why this is so is because Moses, as the only prophet on such a level, received clear and unmistakable instructions from G’d. Other prophets received what our sages call “blurred visions.” If Moses were not to relay what he had been told clearly and unmistakably, why would G’d have troubled Himself to spell His instructions out to him in the first place? This is what G’d told Aaron and Miriam in Numbers 12,6-8, when He warned them not to compare their level of prophetic insights to that of Moses, with whom G’d spoke as clearly as a man speaks to his fellow man.

V. 10. So hatte Mosche wiederum seine völlige Unzulänglichkeit erfahren. Und indem er diese Erfahrung machte, forderte ihn Gott noch einmal auf, mit seiner Sendung zu Pharao zu gehen.

Moreover, it appears that Moses was to demand not only that Pharaoh should not object if the Israelites would leave of their own accord, but he was to demand that Pharaoh actually give them a "send-off."