Комментарий к Шмот 6:30

ויאמר משה לפני ה׳ AND MOSES SAID BEFORE THE LORD — This is the statement which he made above, (v. 12), “Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me”. Scripture repeats it here, because it broke off the narrative for the reason already given. So is the method of the historian — just as a person who says, “let us return to the previous subject”.

ואיך ישמע אלי פרעה?, This paragraph is a repeat of what we had in verse 12 where Moses had raised the same question. At that point the Torah had only presented a summary of the answer, in order to reach the chapter detailing the genealogies after which the reader would be familiar with all the personages that played leading roles.

הן אני ערל שפתים ואיך ישמע אלי פרעה, ”here I am (still) of sealed lips. How could Pharaoh listen to me?” When G’d had commanded Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh earlier in our chapter Moses had remained silent. He assumed that the instructions had been intended for Aaron. When, at this point, he alone was addressed by G’d i.e. “all that I am saying to you,” he repeated his previous argument that his speech defect made him unfit to serve as G’d’s vessel and that even the people did not listen to him. At this point G’d explained to him (ויאמר ה’) in a friendly fashion how He would deal with that problem.

This is the same statement. . . Rashi is referring to “. . .I whose lips are covered” (6:12), which comes after “Behold the B’nei Yisrael have not listened to me. . .” (ad loc) which is the first statement in that section. And it [“. . .I whose lips are covered”] is repeated here, in the second section. Rashi is not referring to “Behold the B’nei Yisrael have not listened. . .” as this [statement] is not repeated in the second section. (Re’m) But I say that Rashi is referring to everything stated [in this verse] in the first section. Although “Behold the B’nei Yisrael have not listened to me. . .” is not repeated in the second section [in an express way], it is alluded to nevertheless. For a question arises: Why does the verse reverse [the order] that appeared before? In the first section it said, “How then will Pharaoh listen to me — I whose lips are covered?” Yet here it says, “Behold, I have covered lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?” The answer must be that our verse [needs to be filled in and] is saying as follows: “Behold, the B’nei Yisrael have not listened to me. Even though my mission is for their benefit, nevertheless they have not listened to me, for the reason that I have covered lips. If so, how will Pharaoh listen to me?” And this is the same a fortiori inference that was said in the first section.

?ואיך ישמעני פרעה, “what is the likelihood of Pharaoh listening to me (when my own people do not)? This paragraph is a continuation of the previous paragraph in which Moses complained about the people not listening to him. (verse 12) [Moses attributes the reason both times to his lack of eloquence or his stammer.] The only difference between the two occasions is that earlier he was very brief, as the Torah wished to insert the passage of the ancestry of some of the principal characters in the hierarchy. The Torah takes up the thread that had been interrupted so that the reader is reminded of where it was interrupted. In this way the lines of ואני ערל שפתים, and ואהרן אחיך יהיה נביאך, “I am afflicted with a speech defect,” and “your brother Aaron will be your spokesman,” have been joined together.