stillsmallvoice
July 23rd 2003, 10:55 AM
Hi all!
Exodus 18:2-3 reads: "And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons..." In 18:6, Jethro informs his son-in-law, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming unto you, and your wife and her two sons..." Why does Jethro refer to Moses' and Zipporah's children as "her two sons"? He does this twice, once in a direct message to Moses. Gershom and Eliezer were Moses' sons too. What gives? What is Jethro's reiterated point? Our Sages teach that Jethro was, in effect, rebuking his son-in-law for being an absentee father. Jethro was telling Moses, "Moses! For all that you've been involved in your boys' lives, they might just as well be 'her two sons' because she is basically raising them on her own & that's not good. Your responsibilities to your nation cannot and do not justify your neglecting your duties as a father."
This crisis in Moses' family shows up later, in Numbers & Judges. Judges 18:30 reads: "And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests..." Manasseh in Hebrew is Menashe, which is spelled with 4 letters M-N-SH-E. In the (original) Hebrew, the "N" in Menashe in 18:30 is written in a tiny superscript. Our Sages say that Menashe (i.e. Manasseh) should really be Moshe, i.e. MOSES & that the verse should read: "...Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses" but that when Samuel the prophet (who, as we believe, is the author of the Book of Judges) wrote this verse, he added an extra "N", transforming "Moshe" into "Menashe", so as not to embarrass & shame Moses by announcing to the world that his grandson was the priest of an idol-worshipping cult. (Perhaps it was the traumatic experience of not having a full-time Dad, that led Moses' children & grandchildren to stray so quickly from the path?)
Numbers 16 leads off with Korah's attempted coup d'etat against his cousins Moses and Aaron. We all know what happened to Korah (a real down-to-earth guy) but, as Numbers 26:11 tells us, "The sons of Korah died not," i.e. they had the good sense not to follow their father on his ruinous path. I Chronicles 18-22 informs us that none other than Samuel the prophet was one of Korah's direct descendants. There is a charming rabbinical tradition that Korah saw that whereas Moses left something to be desired as a father & that his descendants would be idolatrous priests, one of his, Korah's, descendants would be a holy prophet, i.e. Samuel. Our Sages thus depict Korah as telling his cousin Moses: "Moses! You can't even lead your own family & yet you dare think that you can lead the nation??!! What gall! You are not fit, stand aside & let someone who can, lead." Look at the flip-flop. The wicked man (Korah) had righteous descendants while the righteous man (Moses) had wicked descendants.
I just thought our TWeb family might like some (kosher, of course) food for thought.
Be well!
ssv :hi:
Exodus 18:2-3 reads: "And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after he had sent her away, and her two sons..." In 18:6, Jethro informs his son-in-law, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming unto you, and your wife and her two sons..." Why does Jethro refer to Moses' and Zipporah's children as "her two sons"? He does this twice, once in a direct message to Moses. Gershom and Eliezer were Moses' sons too. What gives? What is Jethro's reiterated point? Our Sages teach that Jethro was, in effect, rebuking his son-in-law for being an absentee father. Jethro was telling Moses, "Moses! For all that you've been involved in your boys' lives, they might just as well be 'her two sons' because she is basically raising them on her own & that's not good. Your responsibilities to your nation cannot and do not justify your neglecting your duties as a father."
This crisis in Moses' family shows up later, in Numbers & Judges. Judges 18:30 reads: "And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests..." Manasseh in Hebrew is Menashe, which is spelled with 4 letters M-N-SH-E. In the (original) Hebrew, the "N" in Menashe in 18:30 is written in a tiny superscript. Our Sages say that Menashe (i.e. Manasseh) should really be Moshe, i.e. MOSES & that the verse should read: "...Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses" but that when Samuel the prophet (who, as we believe, is the author of the Book of Judges) wrote this verse, he added an extra "N", transforming "Moshe" into "Menashe", so as not to embarrass & shame Moses by announcing to the world that his grandson was the priest of an idol-worshipping cult. (Perhaps it was the traumatic experience of not having a full-time Dad, that led Moses' children & grandchildren to stray so quickly from the path?)
Numbers 16 leads off with Korah's attempted coup d'etat against his cousins Moses and Aaron. We all know what happened to Korah (a real down-to-earth guy) but, as Numbers 26:11 tells us, "The sons of Korah died not," i.e. they had the good sense not to follow their father on his ruinous path. I Chronicles 18-22 informs us that none other than Samuel the prophet was one of Korah's direct descendants. There is a charming rabbinical tradition that Korah saw that whereas Moses left something to be desired as a father & that his descendants would be idolatrous priests, one of his, Korah's, descendants would be a holy prophet, i.e. Samuel. Our Sages thus depict Korah as telling his cousin Moses: "Moses! You can't even lead your own family & yet you dare think that you can lead the nation??!! What gall! You are not fit, stand aside & let someone who can, lead." Look at the flip-flop. The wicked man (Korah) had righteous descendants while the righteous man (Moses) had wicked descendants.
I just thought our TWeb family might like some (kosher, of course) food for thought.
Be well!
ssv :hi: