In spite of all these safeguards, Moses was not yet ready to accept the
mission God wished to impose upon him. He persisted in urging his
fears, saying: "But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto
my voice, for they will say, 'The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.[]
And the Lord said unto him, "What is that in thine hand?" And he said,
"A rod." And the Lord said: "Thou deservest to be castigated with it.
If thou didst not intend to take My mission upon thyself, thou shouldst
have said so in the beginning. Instead, thou didst hold back with thy
refusal, until I revealed to thee the great secret of the Ineffable
Name, that thou mightest know it if the children of Israel should ask
thee concerning it. And now thou sayest, I will not go. Now, therefore,
if thou wilt not execute My charge to thee, it will be executed by this
rod. It was My wish to distinguish thee and make thee My instrument for
doing many miracles.[131] But thou deservest a punishment for having
suspected My children of lack of faith. The children of Israel are
believers and sons of believers, but thou wilt show thyself of little
faith in thy career, and as thou followest the example of the
slanderous serpent, so shalt thou be punished with leprosy, wherewith
the serpent was punished."
The Lord now bade Moses put his hand into his bosom and take it out
again, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white
as snow. And God bade him put his hand into his bosom again, and it
turned again as his other flesh. Beside being a chastisement for his
hasty words, the plague on his hand was to teach him that as the leper
defiles, so the Egyptians defiled Israel, and as Moses was healed of
his uncleanness, so God would cleanse the children of Israel of the
pollution the Egyptians had brought upon them.
The second wonder connected with the rod of Moses likewise conveyed a
double meaning, in that it pointed to the coming redemption of Israel,
and taught Moses a specific lesson. At the bidding of God, Moses cast
his rod on the ground, and it became a serpent, to show him that when
he traduced Israel, he was following the example of the abusive
serpent, and also to show him that the great dragon that lieth in the
midst of the rivers of Egypt, though he was now hacking into Israel
with his teeth, would be rendered harmless like the rod of wood, which
has no power to bite.
And, again, through the third miracle he was bidden to perform, God
conveyed to Moses what would happen in the latter years of his own
life. The sign He gave him was to make known to him that, before the
water came, blood would flow from the rock at Meribah, when Moses
should strike it after uttering the hasty, impatient words that were
destined to bring death down upon him.[132]
For seven days God urged Moses to undertake the mission He desired him
to execute. He resorted to persuasion, that the heathen might not say,
that He abused His power as the Ruler of the world, forcing men to do
His service against their will. But Moses remained obdurate, he could
not be won over.[133] He said: "Thou doest a wrong unto me in sending
me to Pharaoh. In the palace of the Egyptian king there are persons
that know how to speak the seventy languages of the world. No matter
what language a man may use, there is someone that understands him. If
I should come as Thy representative, and they should discover that I am
not able to converse in the seventy languages, they will mock at me,
and say, 'Behold this man, he pretends to be the ambassador of the
Creator of the world, and he cannot speak the seventy languages.' " To
this God made reply, as follows: "Adam, who was taught by none, could
give names to the beasts in the seventy languages. Was it not I that
made him to speak?"[134]
Moses was not yet satisfied, he continued to urge objections, and he
said: "O Lord of the world, Thou wouldst charge me with the task of
chastising Egypt and redeeming Israel, and I am ready to be Thy
messenger. But is it seemly that a man should execute two errands at
once? Nay, my Lord, for this two men are needed." God made answer, and
said, "Moses, I know well whom thou hast in mind with thy request, to
be thy companion in the mission I assign to thee. Know, therefore, that
the holy spirit hath already come upon thy brother Aaron, and even now
he is awaiting thee on the way of Egypt, and when his eyes rest upon
thee he will rejoice."
Furthermore God spake to Moses, saying, "When I appeared unto thee the
first time, thou wast meek, and didst hide thy face, not to see the
vision. Whence cometh now this effrontery of thine, that thou
addressest Me as a servant his master? Thou speakest too many words by
far. Perchance thou thinkest I have no messengers, hosts, seraphim,
ofanim, ministering angels, and Merkabah wheels, to send to Egypt, to
bring My children thence, that thou sayest, 'Send by the hand of him
whom Thou wilt send.' In sooth, thou deservest severe chastisement. But
what can I do, seeing that I am the Master of mercy? If thou escapest
unpunished, thou owest it to thy father Amram, who rendered great
services in behalf of the preservation of the Israelitish people in
Egypt."
But Moses replied: "O Lord of the world, I a prophet and the son of a
prophet obeyed Thy words only after much hesitation, and I cannot
expect Pharaoh, a wicked man and the son of a wicked man, and the
Egyptians, a disobedient people and the sons of a disobedient people,
to give ear to my words. O Lord of the world, Thou dost send me to
Egypt to redeem sixty myriads of Thy people from the oppression of the
Egyptians. If it were a question of delivering a couple of hundred men,
it were a sufficiently difficult enterprise. How much severer is the
task of freeing sixty myriads from the dominion of Pharaoh! If Thou
hadst called upon the Egyptians to give up their evil ways soon after
they began to enslave Israel, they might have heeded Thy admonitions.
But if I should go and speak to them now, after they have been ruling
over Israel these two hundred and ten years, Pharaoh would say, 'If a
slave has served his master for ten years, and no protest has made
itself heard from any quarter, how can a man conceive the idea suddenly
of having him set at liberty?' Verily, O Lord of the world, the task
Thou puttest upon me is too heavy for my strength."[135]
Moses said furthermore: "I am not an eloquent man, nor can I see of
what avail words can be in this matter. Thou art sending me to one that
is himself a slave, to Pharaoh of the tribe of Ham, and a slave will
not be corrected by words. I consent to go on Thy errand only if Thou
wilt invest me with the power of chastising Pharaoh with brute force."
To these words spoken by Moses, God made reply: "Let it not fret thee
that thou art not an eloquent speaker. It is I that made the mouth of
all that speak, and I that made men dumb. One I make to see, another I
make blind; one I make to hear, another I make deaf. Had I willed it
so, thou hadst been a man of ready speech. But I desired to show a
wonder through thee. Whenever I will it, the words I cast into thy
mouth shall come forth without hesitation. But what thou sayest about a
slave, that he cannot be corrected by words, is true, and therefore I
give thee My rod for Pharaoh's castigation."
But Moses still stood his ground. He raised other objections. "His
grandchild," he said, "is closer to a man than his nephew. Nevertheless
when Lot was taken captive, Thou didst send angels to the aid of
Abraham's nephew. But now, when the life of sixty myriads of Abraham's
lineal descendants is at stake, Thou sendest me, and not the angels.
When the Egyptian bondwoman Hagar was in distress, Thou didst dispatch
five angels to stand by her, and to redeem sixty myriads of the
children of Sarah Thou dost dispatch me.[136] O Lord, send, I pray
Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send in days to come." To this
God answered, saying, "I said not that I would send thee to Israel, but
to Pharaoh, and that one whom thou madest mention of, I will send to
Israel at the end of days—Elijah will appear to them before the great
and terrible day."[137]
If Moses refused to do the errand of the Lord, there was a reason. God
had revealed to him the treasures of the Torah, of wisdom, and of
knowledge, and the whole world's future. Now he beheld in the inner
chamber of God rows of scholars and judges interpreting the Torah in
forty- nine different ways as they sat in the court of hewn stones; and
he saw, besides, Rabbi Akiba explaining the meaning of the crowns upon
the letters. Then said Moses: "I do not care to be God's messenger. Let
Him rather send one of these great scholars." Then God ordered the
Angel of Wisdom to carry Moses to a place of myriads of scholars, all
interpreting the Torah, and all making use of the formula: This is a
Halakah revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai. Now Moses recognized that
even the greatest scholars of future generations would be dependent
upon him, and then, at last, he was ready to execute the mission God
desired to lay upon him.[138]
But Moses had to pay dear for having hesitated in the execution of the
Divine bidding. God said to him: "It was appointed that thou shouldst
be priest, and Aaron should be the Levite. Because thou hast refused to
execute My will, thou shalt be the Levite, and Aaron shall be
priest,"—a punishment that did not fall upon Moses personally, but only
upon his descendants, all of whom are Levites. As for himself, he
performed a priest's service in the Tabernacle.[139]
Moses had said to God, "Thou hast been speaking to me now these many
days, nevertheless I am still slow of speech and of a slow tongue." For
this he received another punishment. God said to him: "I might change
thee into a new man, and heal thee of thy imperfect speech, but because
thou hast uttered such words, I refrain from curing thee."[140]