Parshat Vaira — uncircumcised lips are Moshe’s impediment
D'var Torah

Parshat Vaira — uncircumcised lips are Moshe’s impediment

At the end of the first parsha of Sefer Shmot (the Book of Exodus) Moshe Rabbeinu undergoes a life-changing experience.

From earlier pesukim (sentences) in the same parsha, we already know of the inadequacy that he feels in being chosen byG-d as the One who will lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage to freedom.

But a most unusual incident takes place. Moshe, now a man with a mission, is going back to Mitzrayim at G-d’s behest, with his wife Tzipporah and newborn son (according to the medieval French commentator Rashi) Gershom, so named we are told by our Sages, by Moshe’s exclamation at his birth, “I was a stranger ger — shom there (referring to Midian.)

Prior to what is about to take place, when Moshe refers to why he should not be spokesman for the Israelites he claims, “Ki khvad peh u’khvad lashon — Anokhi!” [Shmot 4:11] “Because heavy of mouth and heavy of language — am I” usually translated as “Because slow of speech and slow of tongue — am I!”

Now what happens to change all that? In Parshat Shmot of Shmot, Perek Dalet, Pasuk Khaf, we are told that “Moshe took his wife and sons, he set them upon a donkey, and he returned to Mitzrayim; Moshe took the rod of G-d in his hand.”

All of a sudden by the time we reach Pasuk 24, just a few Pesukim later, with the entire Mishpakha on the journey perhaps planning to rest at an inn along the way, G-d meets Moshe. And G-d, “requests his death! — va’y’vakesh hamito!” Ma yesh? Ma kara? What have we here? What happened?

The narrative tells us that “Tzippora took a piece of flint, and she cut off the foreskin of her son.” She throws the foreskin at (Moshe’s or Gershom’s) feet! Tzippora then exclaims, “A bridegroom of blood are you to me!” Now G-d leaves Moshe alone, Moshe is out of harm’s way. Then Tzippora continues, “A bridegroom of blood are you with respect to the circumcision!”

Then the narrative continues as if this near execution of Moshe had not even occurred! Our Sages have long dealt with trying to fathom the meaning of the “bridegroom of blood” speech — to whom is it directed and why is the almost exact phrase repeated?

But that is beyond the scope of our discussion here. I am far more interested now in how Moshe comes to see himself in the light of the incident just described.

Moshe is on the road. He has left the land of his own personal exile to join his brethren in the land of their collective exile. The time has come for him to circumcise his son, Gershom.

Our Sages speculate, perhaps Moshe did not want to perform this delicate surgery on the road or even at the inn. Perhaps he should have busied himself immediately with preparations to perform the Brit Milah, and asked Tzippora to check them all in at the inn. We can only guess.

Moshe, of whom we are told at the conclusion of the Torah (Devarim 34:10) “V’Lo kam Navi owd b’Yisrael k’Moshe — Never again did there arise in Israel a Prophet like Moshe!” — does not see what Tzippora sees — an angel at G-d’s request is at the ready to slay him!

And Tzippora even knows why — Moshe has not attended to the circumcision of his son in the timely fashion that G-d expected. And from this we learn an important lesson — that being a public figure and leader does not excuse a person from the importance of taking care of his/her immediate family and performing the requisite Mitzvot incumbent upon him/her.

But this is still a digression from the main thrust of our Dvar Torah. In the light of all this, how does Moshe now view himself as the leader chosen by G-d? The answer lies in the Torah portion immediately following Shmot of Shmot. The answer lies in Parshat Vaeira (which, interestingly enough, is my bar mitzvah Parsha) Perek 6, Pesukim 10–12.

Basically G-d tells Moshe once he is back in Mitzrayim, “Go and tell Pharoah, King of Egypt, to let the Israelites depart from this land.” Moshe again complains of his inadequacy but with words we have never heard until now, “The Israelites would not listen to me; how then should Pharoah heed me, a man of impeded speech (literally — uncircumcised lips).” What, we may well ask, are uncircumcised lips?

I believe the answer lies in the Brit Milah Ceremony itself. All of us who are dads undoubtedly know that we are responsible for performing the Brit Milah Ceremony. In fact, as part of the ceremony, we are formally asked and give our consent to the mohel, who is doing it at our behest.

An important part of the Ceremony is the Dam Brit, Blood of the Covenant. Nowadays it is not uncommon for gauze to be wrapped around the member to show the blood after the foreskin has been removed. Some Mohelim use a glass suction tube that the Mohel places on the newly cut member and the Mohel gently sucks with his mouth. But the original method of Dam Brit, done to this day in Fundamentalist Orthodox Jewish Communities, and most likely done by Avraham Avinu and Moshe and many in between and since — is for the mohel to place his mouth on the cut member and gently suck, showing a ring of blood on his mouth and lips.

The word for this drawing out of the blood is Metzitzah. Which shares the same sharesh (root) as what word? Yetziat, as in Yetziat Mitzrayim, the going out from Egypt.

Here we have Moshe Rabbenu. He already feels not up to the tasks that G-d has placed upon him. He is supposed to be the Greatest Prophet of them all, have this unbelievable potential for a connection to G-d and his people, yet does not see the angel ready to slay him, his wife Tzippora sees it.

He will be G-d’s Agent to accomplish Yetziat Mitzrayim, drawing out the Israelites from Egypt, yet he himself does not perform the Brit Milah; drawing out the blood (Metzitzah) for his own son Gershom in the Dam Brit Ceremony.

Are we surprised given this, that he was the humblest of all men? That he knew more than anybody that anything he was to accomplish was only because G-d enabled him to do so? Are we surprised in the light of all this of his continuing feelings of inadequacy?

In Parshat Vaeira, Perek 6, Pasuk 30 — Moshe again makes a final plea to G-d regarding what he has come to see as his unmerited chosenness, “See, I am of impeded speech (literally — uncircumcised lips); how then should Pharoah heed me!”

It is indeed Moshe’s humility that makes him the most fit to be the Israelites’ leader. It is why unlike leaders of today, he (almost) does not need a system of checks and balances.

He is his own system of checks and balances. His lack of hubris enables him to put himself in the hands of a Higher Power.

He has the wisdom to know what he does not know and the humility to ask what he needs to know from G-d in order to lead successfully.

His fear of uncircumcised lips is that he does not want whatever inadequacies he may personally have as a leader and as a person, to be the downfall of the Israelites in their mission to leave Egypt, enter Eretz Yisrael, and become a moral beacon to the world!

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