פרשת שמות תשי"ט - שלושת האותות + הפטרה

And He said: ‘Cast it on the ground.’ And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

And the LORD said furthermore unto him: ‘Put now thy hand into thy bosom.’ And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as white as snow.

ויהי לנחש AND IT BECAME A SERPENT — This was an indication to him, that he had slandered the Israelites by saying (v. 1) “But, behold they will not believe me etc.”, and that he had made the serpent’s occupation (slander) his own (cf. Genesis 3:5) (Exodus Rabbah 3:12).

מצרעת כשלג LEPROUS AS SNOW — It is the nature of leprosy to be white, and thus we read in reference to a leper, (Leviticus 13:4) “If the bright spot be white [in the skin of his flesh]”. By this sign, too, he indicated that he had made a slanderous statement when he said, (v. 1) “But, behold, they will not believe me”. Therefore He smote him with leprosy (Exodus Rabbah 3:13) even as Miriam was so smitten for the slander she had spoken (cf. Shabbat 97a).

..I did not understand why Hashem had to do miracles for Moshe, because Moshe trusted that it was Hashem speaking to him, (why did he have to prove himself.) It would have been appropriate to say, the stick that you are holding in your hand, throw down in front of them and it will become a snake. So too for the second sign, it should have been done the way it was done in the third: take the water when youre in front of them. And therefore the rabbi say that the first one was a sign that he was speaking gossip and the second one was to punish him for it. And that is the reason Moshe ran away from the snake because he was scared that he might be punished and the snake would bit him, and most people run away from things that are harmful to them. Even though, he knew that if he will be in G-d's favor he will not need to be saved. And maybe, even though Hashem the creator of the world came to him, Hashem wanted to show these symbols in the change of nature. In order to strengthen the matter and the belief in Moshe's heart. And he should know truthfully that only via G-d's hand that new things will happen in this world. And it was enough for Moshe to just show him two things and there was no water there, so therefore he commanded that the sign should be done when theres water, in the eyes of the Jewish people.

And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.’