Tuesday, January 27, 2009

MOSES PUTS SPIN ON ALL G-D'S REQUESTS

Sheepthroat called attention last week, to the fact that in the story of the plagues, G-d asks Moses to kick off the plague with a wave of the hand or the passing of his staff.

But EVERY SINGLE TIME, Moses does his own thing!

12. The Lord said to Moses, "Stretch forth your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, and they will ascend over the land of Egypt, and they will eat all the vegetation of the earth, all that the hail has left over." 13. So Moses stretched forth his staff over the land of Egypt...

Okay. Major problems here. I think he did this about 5 or six times. G-d told him to raise his staff, he raises his hand - G-d says to raise his hand, Moses raises his staff.

What's more problematic is that G-d doesn't say anything to the effect of "Moses. If you don't do what I say, we're gonna have problems." We know nothing is superfluous in the Torah. So WHY IS THIS!?

1. Why does he do his own thing in the first place.
2. Why isn't he rebuked.
3. (And perhaps most importantly) Why can't we find any commentary on this fact!?

Was his hitting of the rock much later, the "straw that broke the camel's back?" At least there's some history of rebellion that G-d can point to. What's odd is that G-d doesn't, and neither do the commentators. (That we know of.)

Any ideas?

2 comments:

AmIaFrumFeminist said...

My guess is that Moshe did exactly as Hashem said and that it's just the Torah that used different words to describe what he did because Hashem already told Moshe to do the miracles with his staff.

DKLA - Now you know how to find me.

Anonymous said...

Update this blog!