Beha’alotkha

(Moses said to God)…Why have You dealt ill with Your servant…that you have laid the burden of all this people upon me? Did I conceive all this people, did I bear them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them upon you as a nurse carries an infant’ to the land that You have promised to their fathers?

11:11-12

You sent me, against my will, to bring this people out of Egypt…And You did this in order to place the burden of all of them upon me, as though You had no leader other than myself to at least share with me that it might benefit them…A father can lead his sons even though they disagree because they all consider him as one who loves them and who attempts with all his might to benefit them. But these people have no trust in me at all, and are suspicious of me, testing me to see what I can do for them.

Sforno (15^th Century)

No place in the Torah does it state specifically that Moses was wiser than any man, nor does it say that he was more righteous than any man, nor does it say that he was mightier than any man, even though we can deduce from events that he was wise, with the greatest comprehension of any man, and that he was righteous and mighty. But the Torah finds it proper, or necessary, to stress only one thing: that Moses was more humble than any other man. And this gives us much food for thought…for it is not natural for a person to be humble.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz (20^th Century)

The biological bond between parent and child engenders in the child a natural love, respect and trust for his parents, which will make the parents’ task of educating him considerably easier. But I am not the natural educator of this people. It was you who chose me to be their educator and, alas, Your choice fell on a man who has neither the eloquence, nor the imposing personality, nor any of the other skills needed to influence and to win the respect of a whole nation.

Samson Raphael Hirsch (19^th Century)

Here Moses uses words that apply specifically to the relationship between mother and child – conceive, birth, nursing. These words underscore Moses’ perception of the impossibility of his task, perhaps, even of the incongruity of his leadership of people who are described as members of families. Moshe is not a family man – he holds himself separate from the everyday affairs of the people, and his separateness is expressed in both this story and the next, in a second motif, the contrasting words “tent” and “camp.” For Moses, the word “tent” refers to the “tent of meeting.” For the Israelites, the word “tent” refers to their homes.

Devora Steinmetz (Contemporary)

Moses cannot withstand the complaints of the masses. He deplores their childish fantasies which transform the slave pits of Egypt into memories of delicious free food…Moses has the capacity to inspire because he is indeed in communication with the Source of All. He envisions a direction toward freedom, a promised land and a holy existence as a people. Mose is exhausted and near desperation however, because he cannot consistently inspire a similar commitment to his vision in his followers.

Shila Peltz Weinberg (Contemporary)