Parasha: Shemot · Aliyah: Sixth (Yesod)

אלכה נא, "I wish to go, etc." According to the agreement between Moses and Yitro reported in Shemot Rabbah 1,29, Yitro had made Moses swear an oath not to take Tzipporah away. Moses now had to ask Yitro to release him from that oath.

ואראה העודם חיים, "and I want to see if they are still alive, etc." He did not tell Yitro a word about the mission G'd had asked him to undertake, seeing that G'd had not used the word לאמור when He had appointed Moses. We have repeatedly quoted Yuma 4 to the effect that one must not reveal information received privately unless authorised to do so.

לך לשלום, "go and be well!" Yitro forgave him his oath. We learn from this that no formal annulment is necessary if the second party to the oath himself expresses his agreement that it be invalidated.

אל משה במדין, to Moses in Midian. The reason that the Torah stresses that this communication from G'd to Moses took place in Midian is to praise Moses who was not afraid of his adversaries in Egypt at the time he argued against acceptance of the mission. All that concerned him was his own inadequacy for the gigantic task G'd wanted to charge him with. The Torah had to mention where the conversation took place as otherwise we would have assumed that the argument which swayed Moses was G'd's assurance that all the people who had tried to kill him had already died. Moses had already asked Yitro to release him from his oath before G'd mentioned that his pursuers were dead.

כה אמד ה׳ בני בכורי ישראל. Thus said the Lord: "Israel is My firstborn son." Why is this prophecy- i.e. that the Jewish firstborn would not be killed- recorded out of context, i.e. a long time before Moses would announce it to Pharaoh? We need to know also why, apparently, Moses was not to mention this to Pharaoh on their first encounter?

It appears that G'd in His wisdom provided Moses with some information which would temper his disappointment at the long drawn-out process of the often broken promises by Pharaoh. There was a danger that when Moses observed that Pharaoh remained obstinate month after month despite the plagues G'd inflicted upon him and his people, he would become fed up with his mission. G'd therefore informed him of something that would not happen until the end of the process. As long as the plague of killing the firstborn Egyptians had not occurred, Moses had no reason to believe that G'd's timetable had been upset. The synopsis of the prophecy was: "be aware that I will make Pharaoh's heart obstinate; he will suffer many plagues without collapsing; in the end you will announce to him that G'd will kill all the firstborn Egyptians, etc."

G'd was also clever in announcing to Moses in this fashion that it would be the plague of killing the firstborn which would prompt Pharaoh to dismiss the people. Moses would eventually realise that the redemption was close at hand when G'd did not mention to him anymore that He would harden the heart of Pharaoh. When Pharaoh told him in 10,28: "do not come to see me anymore," Moses realised that the time to fulfil the instruction given in our verse had arrived. This is why he announced that plague the moment Pharaoh told him not to come and see him again. While it is true that the Torah reports many additional instructions G'd gave to Moses at that time, G'd may have mentioned them already at this time while recording them at an appropriate moment. When we look at matters in that light we do not need all the Midrashim which try to determine when precisely G'd had made this announcement. G'd did not worry that Moses would misunderstand and reveal this prophecy too soon. He knew that Moses would report back to Him any response from Pharaoh. As soon as G'd would then instruct Moses to bring on another plague, Moses would know that the time had not yet arrived for that final plague. Once Pharaoh told Moses not to come and see him again, Moses realised he did not have time to consult with G'd outside the limits of the city as he was in the habit of doing. This is why he himself announced the plague of the killing of the firstborn without awaiting specific instructions from G'd. Perhaps Moses simply used the words "I will make Pharaoh's heart hard" as his guidelines. He did not know beforehand how long this process of hardening Pharaoh's heart would continue; when he noticed that G'd did not mention this anymore after the plague of darkness, he took his cue from that and warned Pharaoh of the final plague.

It is also possible that G'd indicated that Pharaoh had three choices. If he were to release the Israelites he would be spared any plagues. If he were to deny the Israelites their freedom without at the same time insulting G'd, G'd would bring on the plague of the killing of the firstborn immediately; this would bring about the Exodus. If, however, Pharaoh were to deny the Israelites their freedom and at the same time insult the honour of G'd, he would have to endure the entire range of plagues, as did in fact happen. G'd told him through Moses in 9,16 that He had decided to let Pharaoh experience the full extent of His power.

ויבקש המיתו, He tried to kill him. The reason that the Torah describes G'd as only "trying" to kill Moses may be that the fact that Moses was on the way to carry out a commandment by G'd. This acted as partial protection based on Pessachim 8 that "people engaged in the process of carrying out a מצוה do not suffer harm either on their way to or from carrying out that מצוה." The מצוה which Moses was occupied with at that time acquired one heavenly advocate for him; this advocate was his companion at the time and prevented the destructive forces poised against him from approaching him too closely. Perhaps the Torah's description of all this happening בדרך במלון is to inform us that at the time Moses was not so much involved with his primary mission but with private matters; this is what provoked the destructive forces to attack him. Nonetheless he still enjoyed some protection seeing that he had not abandoned his mission. While the positive and negative forces were confronting each other, Tziporah removed the impediment to saving Moses' life by circumcising her son.

לך לקראת משה, "go towards Moses, etc!" Although we have heard G'd say to Moses already in 4,14 that his brother Aaron was on his way to meet him, the actual instruction to Aaron came from G'd while Aaron was still in Egypt. There is no question that the prophecy in this verse was adressed directly to Aaron even though we learned in Torat Kohanim 1 that wherever the Torah writes: "G'd spoke to Moses and Aaron," that the directive was spoken to Moses only and he in turn was to convey it to Aaron, this does not apply here. Even according to the view of Rabbi Yossi Haglili who excludes Aaron from receiving a communication from G'd directly even while both were in Egypt, he referred only to communications which concerned an independent mission to outsiders. There is no reason to believe that G'd did not speak to Aaron directly concerning what Aaron himself was to do. Our verse proves that Aaron was a prophet in his own right.