The Midrash (Shemot Rabba 1:26) tells us that when Moshe was a toddler, he was a favorite grandson to Pharaoh, who would kiss and hug him and play games with him. One of baby Moshe’s favorite games was to snatch the crown from Pharaoh’s head and place it on his own head. When Pharaoh’s advisers saw this, they foresaw that Moshe would grow to overthrow Pharaoh, so they advised Pharaoh to kill him. One of the advisers, Yitro, suggested giving Moshe a test instead. Two bowls were offered to baby Moshe, one filled with gold and the second with glowing, hot coals. If Moshe would reach for the gold, they would kill him. Moshe indeed began to reach for the gold, but the angel Gavriel diverted his hand to the bowl with the hot coals. Moshe burnt his hand on the coals and then instinctively put his hand in his mouth and burned his tongue. From this point on, Moshe had a speech impediment.
When Hashem appeared to Moshe in the Burning Bush and commanded him to return to Egypt to redeem Am Yisrael, Moshe refused on the pretext that he was not an orator, due to his speech impediment, and a savior must be able to speak. When Moshe refused to back down, Hashem eventually told Moshe to join up with his brother Aharon, who would speak for Moshe and be his voice.
From this, one might get the impression that Aharon was the “big talker” and not Moshe. However, a numerical analysis of the text reveals that this is not the case. If you count the number of verses that begin with the words, “And Moshe said,” you will find there are 70 such verses. In contrast, there are only four verses that begin with “And Aharon said.”
What characterizes Aharon is not his speaking but rather his silence. When his two, sons Nadav and Avihu, perish after offering an untimely Ketoret offering, the verse says, “Aharon was silent” (Vayikra 10:3). The only times Aharon speaks in the text is to announce that he has followed Hashem’s orders in relating Hashem’s words to Am Yisrael in Egypt (Shemot 4:30), and to confirm that he has eaten the chatat sin offering (Vayikra 10:19). The only time Aharon initiates speech of his own volition is when he pleads with Moshe to daven for Miriam to cure her of leprosy for speaking lashon hara against Moshe (Bamidbar 12:11).
Moshe, on the other hand, is not as shy. When Am Yisrael sin with the Golden Calf and with the Ten Spies, Moshe repeatedly initiates conversation and pleads with Hashem to forgive them.
According to some opinions (Zohar, Va’eira 25b), Moshe was cured of his speech impediment, along with the rest of Am Yisrael who were cured of their ailments, before Matan Torah. According to other opinions (Shem Mi’Shmuel, Va’eira) Moshe was only cured at the end of his life, just before he wrote the book of Devarim.
From the statistical analysis above, it is clear that a speech impediment was not reflective of the ability to speak, neither for Moshe nor Aharon. The reason that Moshe “speaks” more in the Torah than Aharon is because of their different roles in Am Yisrael.
Although Aharon was also a prophet, the true prophet was Moshe; he reached the highest degree of prophecy. Moshe was also the king, but he was not Kohen Gadol material. Aharon was Kohen Gadol material, but not king and true prophet material.
To be a king and a prophet, you need to talk. David HaMelech spoke – a lot! Think of sefer Tehillim. A huge chunk of our tefillot are the words of David HaMelech. A king and a prophet need to intercede on behalf of their people, to rebuke them if necessary. The worst character trait for a king or prophet is to be silent. They need to examine, question, judge, rebuke and rule.
To be a Kohen Gadol, you need to be the opposite – you need to talk very little. You need to not question! Hashem tells you to jump – you jump.
If you analyze the Avodah in the Beit HaMikdash you also notice an interesting pattern. There is very little talking. Most of the Avodah consists of actions – immersion in the mikveh, washing hands/feet in the kiyor, shechita, offering the korbanot on the mizbeach, fixing the lights of the menorah (five, two), offering the ketoret, switching the Lechem Hapanim on the shulchan, etc. Yes, together with all these are their associated blessings; the singing of the Levi’im, the tefillah of the Kohen Gadol on Yom Kippur, the Vidui, etc. but the emphasis is overwhelmingly more on action than on words. Intention and action – these are the key features of the Avodah, as Hashem intended.
Today, since we do not have the Mikdash, we compensate with tefillah. It is a poor substitute – all words, very little action. We can approximate (even duplicate) the intention and the praise; however, true sacrifice, which is primarily action-related, is difficult to replace entirely with words. We can enhance it by physical sacrifice, like getting up earlier to daven, being at shul earlier to say korbanot, and staying longer afterward to say all the addendums, but we cannot entirely replace the Avodah today. We cannot truly duplicate the physical, multisensory experience of seeing the animal being sacrificed and understanding that by rights it should be us up there on the mizbeach, for the sin we committed. We must constantly remind ourselves that what we have today is only second best and continue to yearn deeply for the rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash and a return to the true Avodah.
Parshat HaShavua Trivia Question: Shifra and Pu’ah were only the nicknames of the chief midwives. What were their real names?
Answer to Last Week’s Trivia Question: Yaakov, in his blessing to Shimon and Levi, chastises them for their anger and says that they will be divided and dispersed in Israel. How was this applied when Yehoshua conquered the land? Neither Shimon nor Levi got their own consecutive inheritance in Eretz Yisrael. Shimon’s inheritance was completely surrounded by Yehuda, and Levi was scattered in different Levite cities throughout the land.
