I was privileged to share in the 50th wedding anniversary of my parents last Shabbat, and I presented words of Torah in honor of the occasion. Below is an expanded version of those thoughts. Perhaps others will find them edifying as well. Mazel tov to the happy young couple!

One of the unexpected conundrums of the s’neh (burning bush) incident (Shemot 3:1-4:17) is that it has very little effect on the rest of the story. We do not see Moshe relate the amazing incident to Yitro as part of his reason for leaving Midyan (4:18), or Moshe describing the sight to Aharon when they meet (4:28). The incident does not play into Moshe’s conversations with Pharaoh (5:1). In fact, the incident is never mentioned again in Tanach, unlike other early miracles which are mentioned occasionally (such as the Creation in Yishayahu 45:7, 12, and 18; Noach’s flood in Yishayahu 54:9; the Egyptian plagues in Tehillim 105; the splitting of the sea in Tehillim 106; and the Sinaitic Revelation in Devarim 5:1-18). If Hashem does not bring about a miracle without a national imperative (see Malbim to Devarim 5:22), what was the strategic importance of the s’neh beyond Moshe’s own personal prodding to fulfill Hashem’s bidding? In short, why does this incident happen at all?

More important than the details of the s’neh, the message of the burning bush likewise seems to fall by the wayside as the rest of the exodus story unfolds. Take Rashi’s explanation for why a low-growing bush was chosen for the revelation to Moshe rather than a larger and more elegant tree:

ספר שמות פרק ג פסוק ב רש”י ד”ה מתוך הסנה
מתוך הסנה. וְלֹא אִילָן אַחֵר, מִשּׁוּם “עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה” (תהילים צא טו)

From a bush, and not from a different tree, to serve as (a manifestation of the statement in Tehillim) (Perek 91 Pasuk 15): “I (Hashem) am with you (the Jews) in your pain.”

This theme is echoed in the words of the Torah itself:

ספר שמות פרק ג פסוק ז
וַיֹּאמֶר ה’ רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת־עֳנִי עַמִּי אֲשֶׁר בְּמִצְרָיִם וְאֶת־צַעֲקָתָם שָׁמַעְתִּי מִפְּנֵי נֹגְשָׂיו כִּי יָדַעְתִּי אֶת־מַכְאֹבָיו׃

Hashem said, “I have certainly seen (ראה) the impoverishment of My people in Egypt – and I have paid attention to (שמע) their cries due to their taskmasters – because I am intimately aware of (ידע) their suffering.”

The כִּי in the final statement in the Pasuk serves to qualify rather than expand upon the earlier two statements; it is not an additional fact, but the reason for the earlier two. The reason that Hashem has chosen to see (ראה) and pay attention to (שמע) the Jews’ suffering is because he is intimately aware of (ידע) the suffering itself. In other words, Hashem is personally invested in the plight of the Jewish people. He doesn’t know their pain as a dispassionate observer. He feels it personally as well, at least in a manner of speaking. Here again is an expression to the effect that עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה, I am with you in your pain, as we saw Rashi articulate it earlier.

Yet like the burning bush experience of which it is a part, Moshe does not pass along this aspect of Hashem’s message to the Jews. After Aharon relays to the elders “כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִים אֲשֶׁר־דִּבֶּר ה’ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה,” “all of the words that Hashem had spoken to Moshe” (4:30), we see what the Jews took away from the conversation:

ספר שמות פרק ד פסוק לא
וַיַּאֲמֵן הָעָם וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ כִּי־פָקַד ה’ אֶת־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְכִי רָאָה אֶת־עׇנְיָם וַיִּקְּדוּ וַיִּשְׁתַּחֲווּ׃

“The nation believed; they paid attention to the fact that Hashem had taken accounting of (פקד) the Jews, and that He saw (ראה) their impoverishment; and they kneeled and bowed down.”

The first verb denoting what the Jews believed Hashem to have done, פקד, is new for us in this story, but it parallels other instances in the Torah in which Hashem takes care of a task after a long period of waiting, such as “וַה’ פָּקַד אֶת־שָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמָר,” “Hashem called to mind (or took accounting of) Sarah, as He had said” (Bereishit 21:1). The second thing that the Jews believe, “וְכִי רָאָה אֶת־עׇנְיָם,” “that He saw their impoverishment,” very closely parallels one of Hashem’s own statements to Moshe that we saw earlier: “רָאֹה רָאִיתִי אֶת־עֳנִי עַמִּי אֲשֶׁר בְּמִצְרָיִם,” “I have certainly seen the impoverishment of My people in Egypt.” This demonstrates that an attempt is being made by Moshe to pass along Hashem’s message intact. Yet the kind of intimate involvement of Hashem in the Jews’ suffering that we saw earlier, “כִּי יָדַעְתִּי אֶת־מַכְאֹבָיו,” “because I have been intimately involved in their suffering,” is missing from what the Jews seem to hear, and presumably from what they were told by Aharon just before that, and perhaps from what Moshe told Aharon before that. While part of Hashem’s message to Moshe was that He is personally affected by the Jews’ suffering, that “עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה,” “I am with you in your pain,” it does not seem as if this part of the message made it farther than Moshe’s own ears.

At the end of Parshat Shemot, we witness a moment which is surprising in what it reveals about Moshe’s character. He and Aharon have just left Pharaoh’s palace, and are accosted by שֹׁטְרֵי בְנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, Jewish officers, who accuse them of making the lives of the Jews worse by their advocacy on their behalf (5:20-21). “יֵרֶא ה’ עֲלֵיכֶם וְיִשְׁפֹּט,” “May Hashem look upon you and judge you,” the officers tell Moshe and Aharon. Moshe turns right around and uncharacteristically casts nearly the same aspersions on Hashem:

ספר שמות פרק ה פסוק כב
לָמָה הֲרֵעֹתָה לָעָם הַזֶּה, לָמָּה זֶּה שְׁלַחְתָּנִי? וּמֵאָז בָּאתִי אֶל־פַּרְעֹה לְדַבֵּר בִּשְׁמֶךָ, הֵרַע לָעָם הַזֶּה; וְהַצֵּל לֹא־הִצַּלְתָּ אֶת־עַמֶּךָ

“Why have You brought about evil for this nation, and why have You sent me? For ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, it has been bad for this nation; and you surely haven’t saved Your nation.”

This is quite a mouthful from Moshe. According to Rashi, Moshe is held accountable for his harsh words, specifically by dying before he can witness the demise of the nations in the Land of Israel. The Torah Temimah explains that although his premature death is famously brought about by his hitting the rock instead of speaking to it (see Bamidbar 20:12), Rashi here refers to Moshe’s dying before the wars which took place before the Jews entered the Land itself. Still, the Torah Temimah wonders, how could our great ma’amin shebe’ma’aminim, the believer among believers, doubt Hashem’s ability to carry out His task, especially after Hashem had already said that the salvation process would be long and difficult? This diatribe by Moshe is very hard to understand.

The Torah Temimah answers with an astonishing statement: Moshe didn’t really mean it.

רָאָה שֶׁאֵין לְיִשְׂרָאֵל עֲמִידָה, הָלַךְ וְשִׁתֵּף נַפְשׁוֹ עִמָּהֶם וְשָׁבַר אֶת הַלּוּחוֹת, וְאָמַר לְהַקָדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא, “הֵם חָטְאוּ, וַאֲנִי חָטָאתִי!” וְכוּ’, וְעָשָׂה כֵּן כְּדֵי לְהָקֵל עוֹנָם שֶׁל יִשְׂרָאֵל, אַחֲרֵי שֶׁגַּם הוּא כְּאֶחָד מֵהֶם. וְאַף הָכָא, הָיָה יָרֵא שֶׁלֹּא יַקְפִּיד הַקָדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּיוֹתֵר עַל יִשְׂרָאֵל, שֶׁשָּׁבְקוּ הֵם לְהִמְנֻתִּיָּהוּ, כְּמוֹ שֶׁכָּתוּב, “יֵרֶא ה’ עֲלֵיכֶם וְיִשְׁפֹּט אֲשֶׁר הִבְאַשְׁתֶּם אֶת רֵיחֵנוּ בְּעֵינֵי פַרְעֹה וּבְעֵינֵי עֲבָדָיו לָתֶת חֶרֶב בְּיָדָם לְהָרְגֵנוּ.” לָכֵן שִׁתֵּף גַּם נַפְשׁוֹ עִמָּהֶם כְּדֵי לְהָקֵל עוֹנָם, וְדוֹ”ק.

According to the Torah Temimah, Moshe only broke the Luchot (tablets) after the Jews worshiped the Golden Calf in order to lessen the sin of the Jews by joining with them in their recalcitrance. After all, if even he, as their leader, could be subject to a human moment of unchecked anger and disrespect, then the masses of Jews could hardly be blamed for their own poor choices along the same lines. At the end of Parshat Shemot, too, says the Torah Temimah, Moshe acted the part of the “disbelieving Jew” in order to lighten the Jews’ punishment by associating himself with them via their misbehavior. His mimicry of the officers right back to Hashem was designed to imply that if even he, as their leader, could be subject to moments of disbelief and even heresy, then the masses of Jews, represented by their officers, could hardly be blamed for similar behavior.

If the Torah Temimah is correct, then this is a truly pivotal moment in the story, because this is where Moshe has an עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה moment of his own. Until now, Moshe found it hard to comprehend or pass along Hashem’s message of יָדַעְתִּי אֶת־מַכְאֹבָיו, of His personal investment in the Jews’ pain. Now Moshe has an experience which mirrors Hashem’s own behavior, sacrificing his own personal comfort, even earning a significant punishment, for the sake of joining with the Jews in the punishment which he could see they had just earned. Although, as the adopted child of the king of Egypt, Moshe could never truly join with the Jews in their physical suffering and enslavement, he is here taking a step toward signifying his unification with them in their collective spiritual malaise, in order to identify with their recalcitrance and lessen the punishment they would all receive in the process. Now Moshe has discovered עִמּוֹ אָנֹכִי בְצָרָה – shared emotional space – in his own lived experience with his brothers which he could not previously articulate Hashem having with the Jewish people.

It is thus perhaps not surprising that the next Parsha, Va’era, begins with two more instances of Hashem’s expressing a level of ידיעה, intimate knowledge, of the Jewish people and their suffering:

ספר שמות פרק ו פסוק ג
וָאֵרָא אֶל־אַבְרָהָם אֶל־יִצְחָק וְאֶל־יַעֲקֹב בְּאֵל שַׁדָּי וּשְׁמִי ה’ (י-ה-ו-ה) לֹא נוֹדַעְתִּי לָהֶם׃

I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzchak, and to Ya’akov by the name of Kel Shakai, but by My name of Hashem (expressing eternality) I was not intimately known to them.

ספר שמות פרק ו פסוק ז
וְלָקַחְתִּי אֶתְכֶם לִי לְעָם וְהָיִיתִי לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים וִידַעְתֶּם כִּי אֲנִי ה’ אֱלֹהֵיכֶם הַמּוֹצִיא אֶתְכֶם מִתַּחַת סִבְלוֹת מִצְרָיִם׃

I will take you (pl.) to Me as a nation, and I will be for you (pl.) as a G-d, and you (pl.) will have an intimate knowledge of the fact that I am Hashem, Your G-d, Who took you out of the bondage of Egypt.

Here Hashem expresses that He will display a level of intimacy at the time of the exodus which has never been seen or felt before, even to our saintly forefathers. This parallels a similar promise made to Moshe before (3:7), as we discussed earlier. This time, however, it seems that Moshe passes along this message to the Jews, or at least he tries:

ספר שמות פרק ו פסוק ט
וַיְדַבֵּר מֹשֶׁה כֵּן אֶל־בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלֹא שָׁמְעוּ אֶל־מֹשֶׁה מִקֹּצֶר רוּחַ וּמֵעֲבֹדָה קָשָׁה׃

Moshe related this to the Jewish people, but they could not pay attention to Moshe due to their shortness of breath and hard work.

Coming after many statements and promises immediately before this (6:2-8), it is difficult to understand what is referred to by “this,” “כן.” Rashi seems to help us out:

ולא שמעו אל משה. לֹא קִבְּלוּ תַנְחוּמִין:

They could not pay attention to Moshe. They could not accept consolation.

Out of all the things that Hashem had told Moshe to tell the Jews, the one which represents consolation is the notion that they will surpass their forefathers in the level of intimacy which Hashem will bestow on them, as we discussed above. Thus, it would seem that unlike earlier, when Moshe did not seem to pass along the message of Hashem’s personal involvement in the Jews’ struggles, perhaps this time he did. And as we saw from the Torah Temimah, Moshe’s own moment of feeling the Jews’ anguish personally may have been the bridge between his earlier hesitation to express this notion to the Jews and his later willingness to do so.

As Rashi points out in his commentary to Bamidbar 20:29 (ד”ה כל בית ישראל), it was Aharon – not Moshe – who was known for his emotional intelligence, and for whom interpersonal skills came more naturally. Yet Moshe could not lead the people without having achieved a measure of these skills as well. Moshe began his leadership journey not being able to convey the message of Hashem’s personal investment with the Jews’ troubles, because he did not understand it. At this stage, Moshe could not comprehend how a distant G-d could feel the Jews’ pain, since Moshe likewise did not feel the pain of the Jews from his point of distance from their problems. It is after a moment of symbiotically sharing in their pain, even gaining a significant punishment for that involvement, that he is able to pass along a message of G-d’s investment as well.

May we all merit to feel the guiding hand of G-d in our own lives and in the unfolding of our national story, even at times when that hand may feel too distant to be real. And may we merit to work on the aspects of our religious devotion which are most challenging for us, as Moshe did, to achieve our ultimate religious potential.