Va'eira: 5784 - Rabbi Shimon Zonnenfeld on the weekly parsha: Moshe Rabbeinu says to Hashem, "The children of Israel have not listened to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me". And why does he add "and I am of uncircumcised…

00:00 Speaker 1 Please.

00:02 Speaker 2 In the weekly parsha, the Torah tells us: “Moshe spoke before Hashem: ‘The Children of Israel did not listen to me, so how will Pharaoh listen to me?’” Rashi says this is one of the ten examples of a kal vachomer in the Torah. If Pharaoh didn’t... if the Children of Israel didn’t listen to me, how will Pharaoh listen to me? But then the verse continues: “And my lips are impaired.” What does that add? We already have a kal vachomer. What does “my lips are impaired” add? Some ask why Hashem made Moshe Rabbeinu’s speech impaired in the first place. When Moshe Rabbeinu was born, the entire house filled with light. Moshe Rabbeinu was the pinnacle of humanity, perfect in body and soul. How and why did Hashem make his speech impaired? The same question applies down through the generations, to the Moshe of every generation. The Rebbe once related that the professor who treated the Frierdiker Rebbe toward the end asked the Rebbe himself: How could the Frierdiker Rebbe, whose entire work and mission was spreading Torah and Yiddishkeit—something done primarily through speech—not be able to speak? The professor asked the Rebbe himself how such a thing could be. Similarly, why did Hashem make Moshe Rabbeinu’s speech impaired? He had to receive the Torah and lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt. He was perfect in every way. There is the story of how he came to have a speech impediment, because of what happened when he was with Pharaoh. But again, Hashem brought all those events about. So why did Hashem cause his speech to be impaired? I saw a very beautiful explanation. Before Yosef passed away, he told his brothers and the Children of Israel: “Know that G-d will surely remember you.” Hashem will take you out of Egypt; there will be a Geulah. And whoever

02:17 Speaker 2 comes using that expression, “He will surely remember you,” you will know it is true, that Hashem sent him to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt. They had this tradition from Yosef. Now Moshe Rabbeinu comes to the Children of Israel to redeem them, and he uses that expression, “He will surely remember you.” But there was a concern that the Children of Israel would think: Who says Hashem really sent him? Maybe it’s, as we say today, fake? He also knows that the expression “He will surely remember you” is a sign of the Geulah, but perhaps he made it up. Who says it’s true that Hashem really sent him now to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt? And so they wouldn’t believe him. What did Hashem do so that the Children of Israel would believe Moshe had truly come on Hashem’s mission? Hashem gave him a speech impediment. When someone has an impediment involving his lips, his main difficulty is with the letters formed by the lips: B, M, V, and P. He cannot pronounce them. And when he needs to say “pakod yifkod”—“He will surely remember you”—it is hard for him to pronounce, because of his impaired speech. Hashem made Moshe Rabbeinu’s speech impaired, and yet, when he came to the Children of Israel, he said it clearly. His speech was impaired, but still, he said “pakod yifkod” without any difficulty. In other words, it was a miracle. So the Children of Israel should have believed him; that is why Hashem made his speech impaired. But even so, when he came to the Children of Israel, they did not listen to me, because of their shortness of spirit and hard labor. So Moshe Rabbeinu came before Hashem with a complaint: If the Children of Israel did not listen to me, how will Pharaoh listen to me?

04:13 Speaker 2 And then what is left? “And my lips are impaired”—I have been left with a speech impediment for no reason. Why? Why has my speech remained impaired? After all, the whole point was for the Children of Israel to believe. But if the Children of Israel did not listen to me, and Pharaoh certainly will not listen, why is my speech impaired? Again, good news and Shabbos shalom.