Dry and High

Finding Moshe

The Gemara at the end of Maseches Chullin has a most interesting discussion where it seeks to find allusions in the Torah to four key personalities in Jewish history.[1] Interestingly, three of these personalities are from the Book of Esther, namely, Esther herself, Haman, and Mordechai. The Gemara identifies where an allusion to each of these three can be found in the Torah. The Gemara’s fourth inquiry is a little more challenging:

משה מן התורה מנין? "בשגם הוא בשר".

Where can Moshe be found in the Torah? [In the words] “With that he is but flesh.”[2]

The verse referenced by the Gemara appears at the end of parashas Bereishis as part of the Torah’s description of the alarming moral decline which took place in the ten generations between Adam and Noach. Within the context of Hashem “contemplating” bringing retribution on mankind, He says, “My spirit shall not contend evermore with Man, with that he is but flesh, his days shall be a 120 years,” thus granting Man the period of 120 years to better his ways. The Gemara notes that the gematria (numerical value) of the word בשגם is equal to that of משה — 345, and thus we find Moshe in the Torah.

Needless to say, this fourth question is somewhat baffling, to say the least. If someone were to ask us where he might find Moshe in the Torah, we would probably recommend that he read it! What can the Gemara possibly mean by searching for a person whose name appears in the Torah in virtually every parashah in the Torah (following his birth)? With all due respect to the numerical value of Moshe’s name, surely it cannot supersede the presence of Moshe himself!

Drawn Up from the Water

The background to the name “Moshe,” as stated in the Torah, lies in the fact that he was “drawn up from the water.”[3] On the face of it, this name does not seem to do full justice to Moshe. After all, a person’s name is meant to represent their essence. Considering everything that Moshe achieved — leading the Jewish People out of Egypt through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai, transmitting the Torah to them, being the one in whose merit the manna fell for forty years, and achieving a level of prophecy unparalleled in history either before his time or afterward — is the only thing we can say about him that he was drawn up from the water?

According to the Maharal, Moshe being “drawn up from the water” actually encompasses all the above achievements.[4] In order to understand how this is so, we need to consider the concept of water.

Water represents formlessness. It has no form of its own and, moreover, can wear away the form of other things with which it comes into contact. The most dramatic expression of this formless quality of water can be seen in the Flood at the time of Noach. The Hebrew word for flood is “מבול.” One of the interpretations offered by Rashi for this word is that it relates to the word “מבלה — to wear away.”[5] Indeed, the waters of the Flood wore away the form of everything that was in the world at that time. It is worthwhile pondering why, of all things, the method of punishment Hashem chose for that wicked generation came in the form of a flood of water, for we know that Hashem’s punishments are middah keneged middah — measure for measure.

If we reflect on the appalling moral decline into which that generation had sunk, we could sum it up by saying that they had lost their form and distinction; they had abandoned their Divinely-oriented qualities and characteristics known as Tzelem Elokim — the Divine Image. All the sins which are associated with that time — robbery, violence, being steeped in immorality and vice — speak of a generation who acted no differently than animals. Therefore, having abdicated their distinctly human form, they were punished by a flood of water which erased the form of the face of the entire world.

It is most interesting to note in this regard that one of the first things which Hashem communicated to Noach upon leaving the Ark was the permission to eat from the meat of animals, something that was forbidden prior to the Flood. What changed now? Apparently, the prohibition against eating the meat of animals was misinterpreted as saying that animals are equal to human beings in every sense; an equation which, if stated backward, means that human beings are no different than animals. This error contributed to the climate which enabled the Generation of the Flood to sink to the depths that it did. Hence, the first message they received upon leaving the Ark to start anew was: Man is not an animal!

We can now appreciate the significance of Moshe’s name referring to him being “drawn up from the water.” We asked earlier that it doesn’t seem to tell us much about Moshe, but in fact, explains the Maharal, it says everything! Everything that Moshe achieved was a product of the fact that he removed himself to the greatest degree humanly possible from the formlessness represented by water, attaining instead the ultimate level of Tzelem Elokim — the Divine Image — in all that he did.

And now, we can return to the Gemara’s “search for Moshe” in the Torah. As we noted, the question itself sounds totally baffling. Why are we looking for an allusion to someone whose actual name appears countless times in the Torah?

The answer is, all the mentions of Moshe’s name occur from the beginning of Chumash Shemos, the time he was born and onward. What the Gemara is seeking to find is an allusion to him in Chumash Bereishis, for that is the Book of Creation, where all the primary components necessary for world history are introduced. Given Moshe’s central role in the story of the Jewish People, the Gemara wonders, where can he be “found” in the formative Book of Bereishis? To this, the Gemara answers that he can be found in the words stated by Hashem prior to the Flood, a point where man appeared to be downward-spiraling into absolute formlessness. At that time, Hashem said He would give man a stay of justice, “בשגם — with that (he is flesh),” i.e., although he is flesh, he can nevertheless do better and reverse his course away from that formlessness. In that word בשגם we find an allusion to Moshe, for he represented the ultimate degree to which man can be “drawn up from the water” and develop his Tzelem Elokim — “with that he is flesh!”

Floods, and the formlessness that they represent, can take many forms. They can take the form of water and they can take the form of words and ideas, wearing away definitions and values until what remains is a nebulous and meaningless murk. While we may not be able to attain the ultimate level to which Moshe raised himself up from the water, we can certainly look to him as a role model in terms of the direction in which we wish to be headed — and the distinction we wish to attain.

[1] Chullin 139b.

[2] Bereishis 6:3.

[3] Shemos 2:10.

[4] Gevuros Hashem ibid.

[5] Bereishis 6:17.