Moses' Stutter

(10) But Moses said to the LORD, “Please, O Lord, I have never been a man of words, either in times past or now that You have spoken to Your servant; I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”

(2) כבד פה SLOW OF SPEECH (lit. heavy of mouth) — I speak heavily (with difficulty); old French balbus. (English = stammerer).

(2) לא איש דברים אנכי, this verse is incomplete, and it must be understood as follows: “Please, O Lord, I have not been a man of eloquent tongue since my birth already.” By saying that he was not eloquent “yesterday, i.e. אתמול,” it follows that earlier, i.e. “the day before yesterday,” i.e. שלשום, I had been even less eloquent. I have also not become more eloquent since My Lord has seen fit to speak to me.”If we were to take the text at face value, how would we explain that Moses proceeds first backwards in time, i.e. “yesterday and the day before yesterday,” and then jumps to the present? He should have said: “I am not eloquent since You spoke to me, nor have I been eloquent the day previously, nor the day before that.”

(4) כי כבד פה ובד לשון אנכי, “for I suffer from a speech handicap.” He implies that this handicap has been his ever since he was forced to flee from Egypt. [I believe that our author feels uncomfortable with implying that Moses would have criticised G-d for having been born with this handicap. Ed.]

ויאמר משה בי אדוני, Moses responded by saying: בי אדוני, “please O Lord, etc.” Moses pointed out that he had been asked to face Pharaoh and his advisors who had command of all seventy languages, and would ridicule him when addressing him in any of these languages which he did not have any command of. They would then add: “In whose name and language do you come to speak to us?” G–d reminded him that it had been He who had enabled Adam to give the proper names in the in all the languages to all of His creatures. (Genesis 2,20) [It did not say there שם in the singular mode, but in the plural mode, i.e. that he named each animal in each of the seventy languages.] If He had been able to enable Adam to do this, Adam who had eaten from the tree of knowledge, it would require only a minor adjustment of Moses’ faculties for him to be able to do so also, and He implied that He would do so immediately, seeing that he had been selected to perform much greater deeds than had Adam. An alternate interpretation of G–d’s response: The words: מי שם פה, “Who has provided a new mouth, etc;” surely the One Who provided the first mouth in the first place at the time of creating human beings with a mouth to express their thoughts. (Attributed to Rabbi Yoseph.) Rabbi Ovadiah interpreted the answer as a rebuke to Moses, who was surely aware of G–d’s abilities, and if He had given Moses a mouth to speak with, He was surely also aware of Moses’ speech defect, and did not need a reminder from him. It is within My power to remedy this. [G–d did not say that He would remedy this, and if so when He would do so. Ed.]

ויאמר משה בי א־ד־ו־נ־י לא איש דברים אנכי, Moses said: "Please my Lord, I am not a man of words, etc." After Moses' previous arguments had been silenced, Moses now appealed to the attribute of Mercy. This is why the Torah emphasises the name of G'd Moses used here. Moses had not used that name of G'd previously. The word בי is a word of entreaty.

בי אדוני לא איש דברים אנכי, “Please, My Lord, I have never been a man of many words.” According to Shemot Rabbah 3,16 G’d tried to seduce Moses into accepting his mission for seven days. The fact that this dialogue had continued for some days is proved by Moses adding the words “since yesterday or the day before.” This already accounts for three days; he had added the word גם three times which adds another three days. Seeing that this conversation took place on the day following the previous conversation this makes seven days during which G’d waited for Moses to accept His invitation to become the leader of the Jewish people.
Concerning Moses’ additional argument that he was not suitable for this appointment as he was כבד פה וכבד לשון, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue,” we have been told in Pesikta Zutrata on this verse that while growing up in Pharaoh’s palace Moses once took the king’s crown and threw it on the ground. The king wanted to execute him on account of this misdemeanor. His astrologers used this incident to point out that Moses must be the boy of whom they had warned that he would become the redeemer of the Israelites. According to Shemot Rabbah 1,12 Pharaoh consulted with his closest advisors who included Bileam, Yitro. and Job. They offered different advice, one saying that the boy was guilty of death, the other saying that it was a youthful prank not to be taken seriously. They devised a means to test if there had been an evil intent in Moses knocking off his foster grandfather’s crown. They placed before him a bowl containing both a golden coin and a glowing coal. If Moses were to grab for the coal this would prove that he had not had any evil intention. If he were to grab for the golden coin this would be a sign that he was dangerous and he would have to be killed. Moses was about to grab the golden coin when an angel pushed his hand toward the coal and he burned his tongue when trying to taste it. According to this Midrash this is where Moses’ stammer originated. When he said כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, he meant that seeing that he had been so handicapped from his earliest youth, now that he was already eighty years old this handicap had become much more difficult for him to conquer. He implied that seeing G’d had not seen fit to cure him of this affliction this was proof that he was not the right man for the mission G’d wanted to send him on. Actually, the only reason G’d had never cured him of his stammer had been that Moses had been remiss in not praying to be cured. The reason he did not pray to be cured was so as to avoid having no excuse to refuse this mission. Rabbeinu Chananel writes that the fact that Moses mentioned two facets of his handicap separately, i.e. כבד פה and כבד לשון is proof that he had difficulty enunciating the letters ז-ש-ר-ס-ץ all of which require one’s teeth. Furthermore he mentioned the word כבד לשון to indicate that he also had difficulty with the letters involving the tongue, i.e. ק-ט-ל-נ-ת.

בי אדוני לא איש דברים אנכי, “Please, My Lord, I have never been a man of many words.” According to Shemot Rabbah 3,16 G’d tried to seduce Moses into accepting his mission for seven days. The fact that this dialogue had continued for some days is proved by Moses adding the words “since yesterday or the day before.” This already accounts for three days; he had added the word גם three times which adds another three days. Seeing that this conversation took place on the day following the previous conversation this makes seven days during which G’d waited for Moses to accept His invitation to become the leader of the Jewish people.
Concerning Moses’ additional argument that he was not suitable for this appointment as he was כבד פה וכבד לשון, “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue,” we have been told in Pesikta Zutrata on this verse that while growing up in Pharaoh’s palace Moses once took the king’s crown and threw it on the ground. The king wanted to execute him on account of this misdemeanor. His astrologers used this incident to point out that Moses must be the boy of whom they had warned that he would become the redeemer of the Israelites. According to Shemot Rabbah 1,12 Pharaoh consulted with his closest advisors who included Bileam, Yitro. and Job. They offered different advice, one saying that the boy was guilty of death, the other saying that it was a youthful prank not to be taken seriously. They devised a means to test if there had been an evil intent in Moses knocking off his foster grandfather’s crown. They placed before him a bowl containing both a golden coin and a glowing coal. If Moses were to grab for the coal this would prove that he had not had any evil intention. If he were to grab for the golden coin this would be a sign that he was dangerous and he would have to be killed. Moses was about to grab the golden coin when an angel pushed his hand toward the coal and he burned his tongue when trying to taste it. According to this Midrash this is where Moses’ stammer originated. When he said כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, he meant that seeing that he had been so handicapped from his earliest youth, now that he was already eighty years old this handicap had become much more difficult for him to conquer. He implied that seeing G’d had not seen fit to cure him of this affliction this was proof that he was not the right man for the mission G’d wanted to send him on. Actually, the only reason G’d had never cured him of his stammer had been that Moses had been remiss in not praying to be cured. The reason he did not pray to be cured was so as to avoid having no excuse to refuse this mission. Rabbeinu Chananel writes that the fact that Moses mentioned two facets of his handicap separately, i.e. כבד פה and כבד לשון is proof that he had difficulty enunciating the letters ז-ש-ר-ס-ץ all of which require one’s teeth. Furthermore he mentioned the word כבד לשון to indicate that he also had difficulty with the letters involving the tongue, i.e. ק-ט-ל-נ-ת.

כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי. The very fact that Moses mentioned both these deficiencies of his separately is a clear indication that he had difficulty in formulating certain words which are articulated with the teeth. The consonants he had difficulty with were זשרצס, and when he referred to difficulty as כבד פה, he had in mind the letters דתל'ט.

כי כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי, I am not fluent in the Egyptian spoken by the upper classes of the aristocracy. The reason is that I fled Egypt before I had completed my education there and in the meantime I am 80 years of age. We find in Ezekiel 3,4-6 that the prophet is told to address the Jewish people as opposed to addressing the local aristocracy whose tongue is described as unintelligible speech and difficult language, i.e. עמקי שפה וכבדי לשון. Is it possible that a prophet who could communicate with G’d freely, i.e. “face to face,” and who received the Torah from Him and communicated it to his people should have been afflicted with a stutter? [one could add to the author’s rejection of the commonly held view of Moses’ speech impediment that if he functioned as High Priest for a full week before his brother Aaron took over, how was that possible if he was afflicted with what would be considered a disabling mum, physical blemish for even an ordinary priest? Ed.] Nowhere in our traditional literature of Tannaim and Amoraim (Talmud) is there such a view expressed, and we certainly have no reason to accept such views when they are expressed in hagiographical writings.

גם מתמול גם משלשום, “not since yesterday nor since the day before.” We learn from all this that G’d spent seven days trying to convince Moses to accept the mission voluntarily. Looking at the plain text and trying to understand the relevance of Moses’ remarks, (as if G’d were not aware of his speech defect as well as his not being an orator), Moses argued that seeing that the people know that I have had this speech defect since youth, they will be astounded that You have not first fixed this, but have sent a prophet who suffers from such a blemish. Would not Pharaoh consider it an insult to have to deal with someone like me who suffers from such a blemish? Seeing that Moses, basically, did not wish to assume the burden of leadership at all, he did not pray to G’d to heal his speech defect. He contented himself with saying that someone with a blemish such as he suffered from was not likely to be the most suitable candidate for the task proposed by G’d. G’d, for His part, did not want to heal his speech defect precisely because he had not prayed to Him to do this. He simply told him to go and fulfill his mission, and that He would come to his aid whenever required. Whatever he would be saying to Pharaoh would come out of his mouth clear without Pharaoh ever becoming aware of the fact that he suffered from any speech defect. Moses therefore experienced a double miracle in that whenever he faced Pharaoh he could suddenly speak normally, without there being even a trace of his usual handicap. Both what he said an how he said it sounded complexly normal. Some commentators attribute Moses’ speech defect to the well known story in the Midrash, according to which Moses’ life was spared on account of something which led to his speech defect. He was suspected by the astrologers of becoming the redeemer of the Jews, and when, as a two year old, he was put to the test, being given the choice of grabbing for the king’s crown or for glowing coals, he grabbed for the latter and put them to his mouth when an angel had given him a push in that direction. Seeing that his very speech defect, in a manner of speaking, had been his “life saver,” it would have been inappropriate to reverse this “defect.” Some commentators do not agree that G’d healed Moses’ speech defect at all, even when he used to stand before Pharaoh, but that G’d might have done so if Moses had not used it as an excuse not to do His bidding. As it were, G’d expressed His displeasure by not healing Moses of this defect.

15 (Numb. 27:16) “[…] Let the Lord, the God of the spirits [of all flesh], appoint”: Anyone who comes to seek the needs of the community is as if he comes forcefully. (Numb. 27:16) “Let the Lord appoint”: What reason did [Moses] have to request this need after the ordering of inheritance? It is simply that since he saw the daughters of Zelophehad inherit the properties of their father, Moses said, “See it is the time for me to claim my needs. If daughters inherit, it is [also] proper for my sons to inherit my glory.” The Holy One, blessed be He, said to him (in Prov. 27:18), “’He who tends a fig tree will enjoy its fruit.’ Your sons sat [with] their own [concerns] and were not involved with Torah [study]. [Whereas] Joshua served you much and showed you much honor. And he got up early to your house of meeting and left late. He arranged the benches and spread out the mats. Since he served you with all of his ability, he is worthy to serve Israel, so as not to lose his compensation.” (Numb. 27:18) “Take Joshua bin Nun,” in order to fulfill what is stated (in Prov. 27:18), “He who tends a fig tree will enjoy its fruit.”

When the Holy One, blessed be He, wills it, even the organs under a man’s control may be taken out of his control. How do we know this? We know it from Moses, Balaam, Jonah, Jeremiah, and Jeroboam. Where do we learn this about Moses? R. Samuel the son of Nahman said: The Holy One, blessed be He, tried for seven days to persuade Moses from the midst of the burning bush, as is said: Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh (Exod. 3:11), but Moses replied: O Lord, I am not a man of words, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto thy servant (ibid. 4:10). This verse indicates that the Holy One, blessed be He, tried for seven days to persuade him to go to Pharaoh.¹²Translated literally, Exod. 4:10 reads: O Lord, I am not a man of words, also from yesterday, also from the day before yesterday, also since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant. Yesterday and the day before yesterday indicate three days; the word also is repeated three times, implying three more days; and the day on which Moses asked God to send someone else is the seventh day. He replied: Send please, whomever you will send. The Holy One, blessed be He, rebuked him, saying: Do you believe that your feet are under your control? Thereupon, Moses went to Pharaoh against his will. In the case of Jonah, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him: Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city (Jonah 1:2). But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord; and he went down to Joppa (ibid., v. 3). Ultimately, He inflicted upon him all the terrors of the sea: The fish swallowed him, and he cried out to the Holy One, blessed be He, from the belly of the fish; and the hair of his head and beard fell out because of the heat within the fish’s belly. Finally, he went to Nineveh, even though he did not desire to do so.

(Exod. 4:10:) THEN MOSES SAID UNTO THE LORD: PRAY (bi), LORD. You are doing me wrong (biyah).⁷⁴Gk.: bia. For this interpretation of the verse, see below, Tanh. (Buber), Lev. 3:5. <When> my brother Aaron is older than I, are you sending me? (Ibid.:) <THIS DOES ME > WRONG (bi), LORD, I AM NOT A MAN OF WORDS. The Holy One said to him (in Exod. 4:11): WHO HAS MADE THE HUMAN MOUTH?⁷⁵Exod. R. 3:15.

And Zipporah walked in the way of the women of Jacob; she never failed in the least from the ‎righteousness of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah. And Zipporah conceived and bare a son, ‎and he called his name Gershom, for he said: I have been a stranger in a strange land. But ‎Moses did not circumcise him, at the command of Reuel, his father-in-law. And she conceived ‎again and bare a son, whom he did circumcise, and he called his name Eliezer, saying: The God ‎of my father was my helper, and he delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh, ‎the king of Egypt, continued to increase the labor of the children of Israel, and to make his ‎yoke heavier upon them in those days, and he ordered it to be proclaimed throughout all ‎Egypt, saying: Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as hereto fore; let them ‎go and gather straw for themselves. And the tale of bricks which they did make heretofore, ye ‎shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish aught thereof, for they are negligent in their work. ‎And when the children of Israel heard this, they mourned and sighed, and they cried unto the ‎Lord in the bitterness of their souls. And the Lord became jealous of his people and of his ‎inheritance, and he heard their voice, and he decided to bring them forth from the affliction of ‎Egypt, and to give unto them the land of Canaan for a possession. And in those days Moses ‎was feeding the sheep of his father-in-law, Reuel, the Midianite, beyond the wilder ness of ‎Zin, and the rod which he took from his father in-law he had with him. And one day a kid of the ‎goats ran astray from the flock, and Moses searched for it and pursued it, until he came to the ‎mountain of God, to Horeb. And when he came to Horeb the Lord appeared unto him in the ‎bush, and he saw the bush burning with fire, but the fire could not prevail over the bush to ‎consume it. And Moses was greatly astonished at the sight, and he wondered why the bush ‎was not consumed; and he drew nigh to examine that awful thing. And the Lord called unto ‎Moses from the midst of the fire, and he commanded him to go down to Pharaoh, king of ‎Egypt, to release the children of Israel from bondage. And the Lord said unto Moses: Go thou ‎and return to Egypt, for all those men are dead who sought thy life, and speak unto Pharaoh, ‎that he send forth the children of Israel from his land. And the Lord showed unto him how to ‎perform signs and wonders in Egypt before the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, so that they ‎might believe that the Lord had sent him; and Moses hearkened to all that the Lord ‎commanded unto him, and Moses returned to his father in-law and informed him of this thing, ‎and Reuel said: Go in peace.‎

This is why you will find Shmuel say (to G-d) "And Shmuel said, "How shall I go? For, if Saul hears, he will kill me." And the L-ord said, "You shall take a heifer with you, and you shall say, 'I have come to slaughter (a sacrifice) to the L-ord.'" (Shmuel I 16:2). And this was not considered a lack of trust in the Al-mighty, and the answer from G-d to him shows that his zeal in this was appropriate (since G-d does not do public miracles without great necessity - TL), and He answered him "You shall take a heifer with you, and you shall say, 'I have come to bring an offering to the L-ord.'" (Shmuel I 16:2), and if this were considered a lack of trust G-d would have answered him "I cause death and grant life. I strike, and I heal" (Devarim 32:39), or something similar, as He answered Moshe when Moshe claimed "But I am slow of speech and slow of tongue" (Shmos 4:10), answering him "Who has made a man's mouth? Who makes a man mute or deaf, seeing or blind". And if Shmuel, with his perfect righteousness did not find it a light matter to put himself to a slight risk of danger, and even though he would be doing so by the command of G-d, as He commanded him "Fill your horn with oil, and go, I shall send you to Jesse, the Bethlehemite, for I have seen for Myself a king among his sons" (Shmuel I 16:1), all the more so for someone not commanded by G-d, that this would be considered reprehensible.