Parashat Shemot - Tzipporah's Night of Blood

(21) And the Eternal said to Moses, “When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the marvels that I have put within your power. I, however, will stiffen his heart so that he will not let the people go. (22) Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Eternal: Israel is My first-born. (23) I have said to you, “Let My son go, that he may worship Me,” yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your first-born.’”

(24) At a night encampment on the way, the Eternal encountered him and sought to kill him. (25) So Tzipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, “You are truly a bridegroom/in-law of blood to me!”

(26) And when he/He let him alone, she added, “A bridegroom/in-law of blood because of the circumcision.”

(27) The Eternal said to Aaron, “Go to meet Moses in the wilderness.” He went and met him at the mountain of God, and he kissed him.

AND HE SOUGHT TO PUT TO DEATH — the angel sought Moses, because he had not circumcised his son Eliezer; and because he had showed himself remiss in this, he brought upon himself the punishment of death. It has been taught (Nedarim 31b): Rabbi Yosei said: God forbid that this was so; Moses had not been remiss in this duty; but he thought, “If I circumcise him and immediately proceed on the journey, the child’s life will be in danger for three days. If, on the other hand, I circumcise him and wait three days — the Holy Blessed One has commanded me, “Go return to Egypt!” Why, then, was he punished? Because he busied himself with the affairs of the lodging place first. In Nedarim — The angel became a kind of serpent and swallowed him from his head to his thigh, spued him forth, and then again swallowed him from his legs to 'that place'. Tzipporah thus understood that this had happened on account of the circumcision (Nedarim 32a; cf. Exodus Rabbah 5:8).

ויהי בדרך במלון ויפגשהו ה' ויבקש המיתו; Moses was not present at the inn. The Torah had written prior to this that Moses had taken his wife and his sons and let them ride on the donkey. (verse 20) The meaning of the verse is that he sent his family ahead of him. Immediately afterwards we are told that Moses himself returned to Egypt. If the Torah reports sequentially, Moses could not have been at the inn at the time Tzipporah had this encounter. ויבקש המיתו, the person under threat of death was the boy, seeing that the angel had assumed the form of a serpent about to swallow the little boy. This serpent then spit out the boy and began to devour him from the opposite end, swallowing up to the part where the circumcision was to be performed. At that point, ותקח צפורה צור, Tzipporah understood what the problem was, i.e. that they were being punished for being tardy in performing the boy’s circumcision so that she herself performed it with a sharp flint.

Rabbi Yehuda bar Bizna taught: At the time that Moses our teacher was negligent about the circumcision, the destructive angels named Af, meaning anger, and Cheima, meaning wrath, came and swallowed him, and only his legs were left outside. Immediately, “Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son” (Exodus 4:25), and immediately “He let him alone” (Exodus 4:26). At that moment, Moses our teacher wanted to kill them, as it is stated: “Cease from anger [af ] and forsake wrath [cheima]” (Psalms 37:8), which indicates that he wanted to harm them. And there are those who say: He killed the angel named Cheima, as it is stated: “Wrath is not in me” (Isaiah 27:4). But isn’t it written that Moses himself said much later: “For I was in dread of the anger and wrath” (Deuteronomy 9:19)? The Gemara answers: There are two types of wrath. And if you wish, say that the army of Cheima remained but not the angel itself.

Because Moses was lazy for circumcision, the angel tried to kill kim. That is what is written: “The Eternal met him and wanted to kill him.” Rebbi Yose said, far be the thought that Moses was lazy for circumcision but he argued on his own: To perform circumcision and leave would be dangerous. To wait, the Holy Blessed One told him: “Go, return to Egypt.” But because he was lazy in preparing for the overnight stay before circumcision; that is what is written: “It was on the way, at the overnight stay.” Rabban Simeon ben Gamliel said, far be the thought that the angel wanted to kill Moses; it was the baby. Come and see, who is called ḥātān? Moses or the baby? There are Tannaïm who state that Moses is called ḥātān. There are Tannaïm who state that the baby is called ḥātān. He who said that Moses is called ḥātān: Ḥātān, blood is required from you. And he said that the baby is called ḥātān: Ḥātān, in blood you are preserved for me. “Ṣippora took a flintstone and cut her son’s prepuce and touched his feet.” Rebbi Jehudah, Rebbi Neḥemiah, and the rabbis. One said, Moses’s feet. Another said, the angel’s feet. Another said, the baby’s feet. He who said Moses’s feet: Here I cut your obligation for you. He who said, the angel’s feet: Here your mission was accomplished. He who said the baby’s feet, she touched the baby’s body.

(12) For that night I will go through the land of Egypt and strike down every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and I will mete out punishments to all the gods of Egypt, I the Eternal. (13) And the blood on the houses where you are staying shall be a sign for you: when I see the blood I will pass over you, so that no plague will destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

(2) At that time the Eternal said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and proceed with a second circumcision of the Israelites.” (3) So Joshua had flint knives made, and the Israelites were circumcised at Gibeath-haaraloth. (4) This is the reason why Joshua had the circumcision performed: All the people who had come out of Egypt, all the males of military age, had died during the desert wanderings after leaving Egypt. (5) Now, whereas all the people who came out of Egypt had been circumcised, none of the people born after the exodus, during the desert wanderings, had been circumcised. (6) For the Israelites had traveled in the wilderness forty years, until the entire nation—the men of military age who had left Egypt—had perished; because they had not obeyed the Eternal, and the Eternal had sworn never to let them see the land that the Eternal had sworn to their fathers to assign to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. (7) But had raised up their sons in their stead; and it was these that Joshua circumcised, for they were uncircumcised, not having been circumcised on the way. (8) After the circumcising of the whole nation was completed, they remained where they were, in the camp, until they recovered.