Excerpted from Rabbi Aaron Goldscheider’s Torah United: Teachings on the Weekly Parasha from Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, and the Chassidic Masters, co-published by OU Press and Ktav Publishing House
Moshe’s Self-Erasure
If asked to identify what made Moshe outstanding, we might point to his intellect or prophetic ability. The common honorific Moshe Rabbeinu identifies him as our greatest teacher and the chief expositor of God’s Torah. Another good candidate is his humility, as the Torah testifies that he was “very humble, more than any other person on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). The second Sochatchover Rebbe, the Shem mi-Shemu’el, focused on what may not be our first guess: selflessness.
In praise of Moshe, the Torah calls him ne’eman (Numbers 12:7), typically translated as “faithful” or “loyal.” The rebbe quoted his maternal grandfather, the Kotzker Rebbe, who understood it to mean “selflessly devoted.” Moshe was unconcerned with himself, only thought about others, and was willing to sacrifice himself for God and the Jewish people.
The Alter of Kelm championed the virtues of selflessness and genuine concern for others, and he also cited Moshe as an exemplar of them. Moshe not only identified with and responded to the general downtrodden condition of his people (Exodus 2:11), but he demonstrated concern for individual Jews too (Exodus 2:12). He even felt the suffering experienced by non-Jews and acted on their behalf, as his actions at the well in Midian demonstrate (Exodus 2:17). The Torah tells us all of this background to demonstrate that Moshe was worthy of leading the Jewish people, as he naturally shared the burden of his fellow, he was nose be-ol chavero.
We can add to this Moshe’s lack of regard for himself in devoting every ounce of energy, “from morning until night” (Exodus 18:14), to offering advice and counsel to his people. Yitro foresaw the disastrous consequences which this self-neglect would eventually yield and exclaimed, “you cannot do this alone” (Exodus 18:18), bringing Moshe to his senses. This episode shows how far Moshe was willing to go for everyone else.
Perhaps the most remarkable example of Moshe’s selflessness can be seen in what occurred after the sin of the golden calf. For his people, who often displayed ingratitude, Moshe was willing to erase himself from this world and risk losing the next. He threw his lot in with theirs despite that he himself had no part in the sin. This was the ultimate act of dedication and devotion.
Rabbi Mosheh Lichtenstein, a rosh yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Etzion, describes Moshe’s devotion to his people, this way:
Moshe’s very existence and being are dependent on the survival of the people, and he rejects any option that will part him from them and their fate. Like a mother who throws herself in the line of fire to save her child from danger – for what would her life be without him? – so Moshe responds to the threat that hangs over his flock. He prefers to be wiped out with the Israelites rather than be alone in Paradise, although he is well aware, perhaps more than any other human being, of the doom and perdition entailed in being erased from the Book of Life, and of the price of not being inscribed in the eternal Torah. Nevertheless, he chooses to risk everything in his attempt to save his flock. It is not for naught that the Torah describesMoshe as “very humble,” that is, as one who sets no importance on his personal existence and value.
Where did Moshe learn this trait of self-effacement? Rebbe Ben-Zion Rabinowicz, the current and third Biala Rebbe, is convinced that he learned this from Pharaoh’s daughter. She risked her life to defy her own father’s evil decree and to save a Jewish child from certain death. Her disregard for her own wellbeing in saving an outsider from a different culture and religion modeled for him the ultimate self-sacrifice.
And it was appropriate that Moshe learned this lesson and implemented it in his life. Rabbi Chaim Vital wrote that Moshe was a gilgul (reincarnation) of Noach’s soul, forced to return to this world to correct a sin. Which sin? Noach did not care enough for others to pray for his generation. Moshe sacrificed himself for the sake of his people, thereby rectifying the mistake made by Noach’s soul. This is alluded to by Moshe’s statement “erase me” (מְחנֵיִ), which is an anagram of the Hebrew phrase “the waters of Noach” (מֵי נֹחַ)
Taking our cues from Moshe ultimately redounds to our own benefit. A well-known parable has it that in Gehinnom, people sit at a huge, sumptuous banquet and are given absurdly long cutlery with which they cannot eat, and so they starve. In the Garden of Eden, people sit down to the same feast, and each person feeds the person across the table with the oversized cutlery. Thus, everyone is sated. We might one day be the beneficiaries of our own kindnesses to others.
More than that, the Sochatchover Rebbe writes, emptying ourselves of selfishness benefits the entire world. We become diaphanous vessels for the abundance God sends down to the world. Moshe was the perfect treasurer for the Mishkan, because his absolute devotion to God and the Jewish people allowed the greatest blessing to flow into the building and its implements, unobstructed by any element of ego. The less space we take up, the more room there is for the divine.
