Comentário sobre Êxodo 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.