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Sunday, 12 April 2009

About Moshe (Moses)

The Midrash teaches us that Moshe was born prematurely, three months before the term. His mother hid him (the Pharaoh ordered that all Hebrew male newborns be killed), and, in order not to raise suspicion, she hid the delivery by placing pillows under her clothes.

When her time "came", she took the little Moshe and she placed him in a basket. She let him go on the Nile, hoping to save his life this way.

And so it was. Moshe was found by the Pharaoh's daughter, he was than raised at the palace, while his nurse was his own mother.

The Midrash also tells us that when Moshe grew up a little, he used to play with the Pharaoh's crown by placing it on his head, thus scarring the Pharaoh's fortune tellers. They predicted him that Moshe will take his place.

To see if the prediction was true or whether the taking of the crown was just a child's game, the Pharaoh ordered to bring Moshe two trays: one filled will hot coal, the other with gold, both being of the same color. God sent an Angel that took Moshe's hand and point it towards the tray with musty coal. Moshe would than burn his hand and instinctively put it in his mouth.

The Midrash tells that later, because of this, Moshe had a speaking defect; he was stammering. God told him to take the Hebrew people out of Egypt and Aaron, his brother, was to help him by speaking with the Pharaoh.

The same Midrash recounts that Pharaoh (the Pharaoh that lived during the Exodus) affirmed that he is not like other mortal and that he is a deity and that is why he doesn't have physiologic needs…saving that in the morning, before everyone wakes up, he goes to ease himself.

That is where Aaron and Moshe went to talk to the Pharaoh the first time, thus showing him that he is like any other man… and that they know it.

Even more so, since he is a man like any other, he should acknowledge that there is someone above him and implicitly to understand the Hebrews' desire to go to the desert and pray to their God.

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