Комментарий к Шмот 4:13

ביד תשלח signifies by the hand of him whom Thou art accustomed to send; viz., Aaron (Exodus Rabbah 3:16). Another explanation is: by the hand of some other person whom Thou wilt be pleased to send — for in the end “I” shall not bring them into the land of Palestine nor shall “I” become their deliverer in the future — and You have many messengers! (Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 40)

SEND, I PRAY THEE, BY THE HAND OF HIM WHOM THOU WILT SEND. “This means by the hand of him whom You are accustomed to send, and that is Aaron. Another explanation is: by the hand of some other person whom Thou wilt be pleased to send, for in the end I will not bring them into the Land, nor am I destined to be their deliverer in the future. Thou hast many messengers.” Thus the language of Rashi. And Onkelos said: “by the hand of him who is fit to be sent.” This means: “Send by the hand of him who speaks eloquently, who will be fit and proper for an honorable mission such as this. Do not send by the hand of one who is slow of speech and of a slow tongue and be with his mouth when he speaks before Pharaoh, since it is not a matter of respect and honor that Your messenger be one of uncircumcised lips,²⁶⁸Further, 6:12. and none of the people will heed him when he speaks before the king, since this will appear to them as a defect.”
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that Moses said, “Send, I pray Thee, by the hand of anyone whom Thou wilt send, for there is not a person in the world who is not more fit for the mission than I.” The reason for all this obduracy of Moses was his great meekness, above all the men that were upon the face of the earth,²⁸¹Numbers 12:3. as he could not see himself assuming importance and speaking to the king and [taking] glory in saying, “The Eternal sent me,” nor [to speak] to Israel to bring them out from Egypt and be king²⁸²Deuteronomy 33:5. over them.

ביד תשלח, by means of anyone else You wish to entrust with this mission as long as it is not I.

שלח נא ביד תשלח. Use someone who is already naturally gifted for such an assignment, instead of someone like me whom You first have to train for the task, so that in effect You would do the talking.

בי אדני שלח נא ביד תשלח. "Please my Lord, send the one whom You usually send on missions." Moses meant that he did not hold G'd responsible for his stammer; he was well aware that G'd could cure it. If He had not done so it was clear to him that the fault must be his; therefore he recommended that G'd send someone better qualified than himself on that mission.

שלח נא ביד תשלח, “please my Lord, send through whomever You will send!” According to Onkelos, Moses referred to people whom G’d had used in the past as His messengers, and who had a record as being fit for such errands. He implies that among those there were people who were quite willing to be G’d’s spokesmen as well as being spokesmen of the people, people who also possessed the gift of oratory. He meant that even though G’d had assured him that He would be at his side every step of the way, it was not fitting for the representative of G’d to be a person who was afflicted with such a blemish as he was afflicted with. During all the time that Moses had been debating with G’d about whether to accept this assignment, he had been secretly hoping that perhaps G’d would cure him of his affliction, and this would be a sign that he would indeed be able to carry out his assignment successfully. When he had become convinced that this would not happen, he had suggested to G’d to send someone else. Nachmanides understands the words שלח נא ביד תשלח, as meaning that G’d should send anyone else in preference to himself, seeing that no one on earth could be as unsuitable for this task as he was. Moses’ refusal to accept the position of leadership was motivated exclusively by his exceptional modesty and humility. Some understand the comment by Moses, as if he told G’d: “seeing that I am not fit to deliver oral messages due to my handicap, let me present my case by letter, i.e. provide me with a written document to submit to Pharaoh, outlining our case for being released from bondage.”

בי אדו-ני שלח נא ביד תשלח, “please My Lord, send through whomever You usually send!” We have explained previously (3,13) that Moses had been appointed by the attribute of Justice which formed a minor part of the attribute of Mercy. This is the reason that he used this attribute of G’d here which reflects the attribute of Justice. The aspect of the attribute of Justice is contained in the letters אי at the beginning and the end of the word א-ד-נ-י. These two letters were “borrowed” from the names אהיה and י-ה-ו-ה- respectively. The letter י has the vowel kametz, alluding to the attribute of Mercy as explained in connection with 3,13. The words ביד תשלח are best translated as “by means of someone qualified to undertake a mission on Your behalf.” By saying this Moses wanted to make clear that he did not consider himself qualified to speak to the king. He implied further that it would not reflect honour on G’d to have to dispatch a stammering representative as if no one else better qualified was at G’d’s disposal. This is also the way Onkelos translates this verse, i.e. ביד מאן דכשר למשלח.

Through the one You usually send, namely, Aharon. This raises a difficulty: Why did Moshe not expressly say: “Send Aharon”? Thus Rashi offers the alternate explanation. And the alternate explanation raises a difficulty: It is not plausible that Moshe would himself utter this bad matter. Thus the first explanation is needed, too. (Maharshal)

V. 13. Ich fühle mich nicht brav, nicht weise, nicht tüchtig genug, bin nicht der dazu geeignete Mensch; die Sendung wird jedenfalls ausgeführt werden, aber durch mich zuerst misslingen, und wirst du dann doch einen andern, bessern, tüchtigern schicken: schicke diesen andern lieber gleich. Diese Verzweiflung an sich selbst ist das lebendigste Zeugnis der Göttlichkeit alles dessen, was durch Mosche ausgeführt und gesprochen worden, das lebendigste Zeugnis dafür, dass die תורה wohl durch Mosche, aber nicht aus oder von Mosche ist, für die Wahrheit, die ungedeutelte Wahrheit des Fundamentalsatzes: וידבר ד׳ אל משה. Man ist ferner in gewissen Kreisen so gerne geneigt, die Prophetie der נביאי ד׳, auf deren Sendung das ganze Judentum beruht, in das Gebiet der Ekstase, einer Ent- und Verzückung zu verweisen, wo der Mensch willenlos wird und Dinge sieht, hört, spricht und übt, von denen er nachher nichts weiß. Dem entgegengesetzt sehen wir hier vollständig, wie Mosche Gott gegenüber nicht nur das vollständigste Bewusstsein, sondern auch die vollste selbständige Willenskraft bewahrt und äußert, und noch im letzten Augenblicke seine weigernde Bitte ausspricht. Es dokumentiert dies die vollste Freiheit des Bewusstseins, der Besinnung, der Überlegung und der Willensentschließung, mit einem Worte: des nüchternsten, klarsten Geistes- und Gemütszustandes unseres Nabi in dem höchsten Momente seines Lebens. Wenn die Weisen das bedeutsame Wort ausgesprochen: מעולם לא ירדה שכינה למטה מעשרה, und darin wohl auch die Wahrheit bezeugt sein dürfte, dass das Göttliche nie in das Gebiet des Menschlichen also hinübergegriffen, daß damit das Menschliche im Menschen völlig aufgegangen und zum unfreien, willenlosen Werkzeug des Göttlichen geworden: so spricht sich ja schon der Name שכינה als ein Moment aus, das dem Menschlichen שכן wird, in die nächste Nähe zum Menschen tritt, keineswegs aber ihn überwältigend absorbiert. So vermessen es wäre, über das, was נבואה und רוח הקדש ist, etwas Positives aussagen zu wollen, da נבואה eine Tatsache ist, die man als נביא erfahren haben müsste, um aussprechen zu können, was sie sei: so berechtigt, ja pflichtgeboten dürfte gewiss eine jede Erwägung sein, die aus dem von Gott Mitgeteilten wenigstens klar zu machen strebt, was נבואה, was wahre Prophetie nicht sei, damit der Begriff dieser Fundamental-Tatsache rein gehalten werde von allem jenem Krankhaften und Fremdartigen, womit man sie "aufräumend" so gerne zu verquicken bestrebt ist.

שלח נא ביד תשלח, “please entrust this mission to someone Whom You have been in the habit of entrusting such missions to.” Moses implied that just as those messengers of G–d had been provided with a mouth without impediment, he too would be prepared to accept the mission if his speech impediment were to be remedied first.

ויאמר בי אדוני, the word adonay is again the name of G-d spelled with אד.