It’s been a tough few weeks for us. First the death of my brother Mel and second because of the war in Israel, where as most of you know - my son Dan and Penny and my grandchildren live.
But this week things changed for the better. There’s a truce and maybe it’ll hold. To show the Israeli attitude my granddaughter Adina just sent us a picture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza sucking on a Disneyland lollipop. In addition yesterday was the last day of my shloshim (the 30 days of mourning for my brother) and Thursday was the 59th anniversary of my marriage to my wonderful wife Shuli And finally Wednesday we got a new president, an African American, no less, and he has to be better than the last one. Based on all good news this I decided not to do a serious drosha. Maybe a semi-serious drosha. Maybe even a little levity is in order.
But before I go on, if we only had a kosher teleprompter it would make giving a drosha so much easier.
I’m going to give an overview of Moses life. Moses fulfilled many roles in his long life. His first role was that of a sailor, marooned in the reed bank of the Nile in his little basket boat. His second role, after he was adopted, was as an Egyptian prince. When after killing an Egyptian overseer of the Hebrew slaves he flees to the desert, God drafts him and he becomes both a priest and a prophet. Next he’s a magician when he pleads before pharaoh for the Israelites.
Leaving Egypt he becomes the spiritual and military leader of the Hebrew people and most important the lawgiver, as in torat Moshe or you can even think of him as a successful negotiator with God.
But there’s one more role that Moses fulfills and I hesitate to say it, but that of complainer. And I’m going to concentrate on that. You can already see that in a number of instances. The typical sequence is: The people complain to Moses. Moses in turn complains to God of the burden on him, and then God solves the problem. But I’ll only mention one complaint. In BaMidbar Chapter 20 verse 10 when the people, after reminiscing of the “good life” in Egypt, cry out for meat, Moses is so disgusted and discouraged with the people that he bitterly complains to God and says ‘Kill me, I beg of you, yes, kill me and let me see no more of my unhappiness’ Fortunately God doesn’t oblige.
I’d like you to use your imagination – and imagine that I’m Moses giving voice (though in a not entirely serious manner) from the Great Beyond to a number of complaints. Occasionally I’ll step out of that role. Now if I only looked or sounded like Charlton Heston you’d know exactly when I’m speaking as Moses and when I’m just me, Menachem. But I’ll do my best.
Of course Moses first and most intense complaint is the failure to enter the Promised Land. After leading and suffering for all these long years, he can’t achieve his most desired goal - to enter the Promised Land. Instead he’s being replaced by a younger, more able, more competent leader. I can just imagine him saying to himself “Why did I ever choose Sarah Palin as my running mate”. Oh I’m sorry! My mind in this Inauguration Time just drifted to another leader who also didn’t enter their promised land. Back to Moses
And why couldn’t I, Moses enter the Promised Land – because I was supposed to have hit a rock. I didn’t hit the rock. I just tripped and fell against it accidentally! Well that was the first time when I hit it. But even if I did hit it intentionally the second time, was that so terrible! So I forgot for a second that God said ‘speak to the rock’. He didn’t say ‘hit it!’ After all I was almost 120 years old (incidentally I can understand forgetting something that you just heard and I’m much younger than 120) Does that really count after more than 40 years as a faithful servant to God and leader of Am Yisroal? I never claimed to be a saint, I’m only human!
And I said to God “I pray you, just let me just cross over the Jordan and see the land on the other side” and the Big Guy answered me “Enough already, never speak to me of this again” Was this fair? In fact the Midrash ( based on the numerical value of Va-Et’chanan (meaning I pleaded) in Devarim) says that I prayed 515 times for reversal of this judgement. Well I prayed a lot but that may be a slight exaggeration!
Practically the last words of the Torah say that I Moses was 120 years old when I died, and that to quote ‘his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated.’ I wrote most of the Torah, but I can assure you I didn’t write that! And if I was in such good condition why was I replaced? No, that was just a sop to make me feel better. (As an aside I’m much younger than 120 and I can’t say my vigor is unabated.)
My 2nd complaint is why isn’t our religion named after me. After all I’m the key and most important figure in the foundation of Judaism. Buddhism is named for the Buddha, and Zoroastrianism for Zoroaster, Christianity is named for Christ. And their scriptures deal extensively with their life, like the Torah deals with mine. So why couldn’t our religion be called for instance, the Mosaic creed. The first Buddhist was Buddha, the first Christian was Christ, the first Zoroastrian was Zoroaster. But I wasn’t the first Jew. Abraham was. Well it least our religion wasn’t named for Abraham.
However when Napoleon reestablished the Sanhedrin in 1807 many French Jews suddenly were “Frenchmen of the Mosaic persuasion”. But unfortunately it didn’t last. But there is a conservative synagogue in Sacramento called Mosaic Law. I know Chazal (the rabbis) wouldn’t approve.
My 3rd complaint. How could the rabbis write the Hagadah – the story of the exodus from Egypt, and omit my part in it. I was the leader of the people, and gave them the courage to go on. Instead the rabbis are all over the Hagada text, commenting on how to observe the holiday and giving midrashic interpretations, while omitting me from the holiday that I was instrumental in creating. What chutzpah!
And I don’t buy the argument that the rabbis were afraid the people would make a man- god out of me, and that’s why I wasn’t mentioned. I never claimed to be a god, as I said before I’m only human and anyway, the Jewish people are too smart to accept a human god.
My 4th complaint is how minor is my place in the Prayer Book. Sure I’m mentioned in a number of places. And I get my best due in the Song of Sea (or Song of the Moses) in the Pesukei Zimrah, but half the Library Minyan people haven’t even arrived yet at services. And the portion of my receiving the Tablets of the Law that the shaliach tzibor recites in the repetition of the Shabbat Shachrit Amidah service, that’s the favorite time for the members of the congregation to start talking to their friends.
How can this compare to the first bracha of the Amidah with “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob” which is said 3 times everyday, 4 times on Shabbat and holidays not not even considering repetitions in public prayers. It just doesn’t compare.
My 5th and final complaint. Here in the Library Minyan you say “Act like Abraham”. Why not “meditate with Moses.” Abraham hears voices and he’s ready to slit the throat of his favorite son Isaac. What kind of father is that? I’m the hero in 4 of the 5 books of the Torah. Abraham occupies just 3 parshot of the 12 parshot in the single book of Braisheet. I’m the Lawgiver and the leader of the people for over 40 years. There’s no comparison between us,
Some of you may be thinking, “but according to the Torah Moses was the most humble of men. Why is he complaining so now and seeking individual glory?” “Was” is the significant word. I was humble when I started out, but the Hebrew people cured me of that. With all their grumbling, their challenging, their complaints, their rebellions I just got so angry. I had to cease being humble or just go under.
I’d like to conclude in a more serious vein and in my own voice not Moses’s, I really can understand why we can relate more to Father Abraham than to Lawgiver Moses. Moses is just as too austere, too commanding, too punishing, too remote, too wrathful as compared to the grandfatherly Abraham. His family is too unclear and too mysterious, versus the family life of Abraham. We can just relate individually easier to Abraham than to Moses
And finally I’d like to thank my dear wife Shuli, who resisted looking at my drosha notes even though I left them lying around and is hearing this for the first time, I hope this drosha meets with your approval.