Maghen Abraham - Thoughts From Mayer Sasson

Why did the Torah list the ancestry of Moshe and Aharon only in the Parsha of Va'era and not in the Parsha of Shmot when they were first mentioned?

"And G-d spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them concerning the Children of Israel and concerning Pharoah... to bring the Children of Israel out of Egypt. These are the heads of their fathers' houses the sons of Reuven the firstborn of Israel Chanoch and Paullu Chezron and Carmi...."( Shmot 6, 13-14).  "And Amram took his aunt Yocheved as his wife and she bore him Aharon and Moshe ..." (Shmot 6, 20)

We see that at the beginning the Torah mentioned that G-d spoke to Moshe and Aharon and commanded them to take Israel out of Egypt but then the Torah went over to describe the lineage of Moshe and Aharon, beginning with the Tribe of Reuven and ending with the Tribe of Levi, the Tribe and lineage of Moshe and Aharon. One can ask - Why didn't the Torah continue to immediately describe the Redemption of Israel and the Ten Plagues but rather stopped to describe the ancestry of Moshe and Aharon?    Another difficult point – Why didn't the Torah list the lineage of Moshe and Aharon at the beginning of the Parsha of Shmot where they were first mentioned?

Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch ob'm explained: Up to the stage in our Parsha, the mission of Moshe and Aharon had not succeeded. Here, when their mission began to succeed then the Torah first introduces their lineage to teach us an important lesson: Moshe and Aharon were regular people like those in their generation; they had parents and an extended family that were known by all and all the signs and omens that were done by them were done by G-d's powers. This is in contrast to other religions that treat their leaders as gods who are separated from human nature. This is what Rav Shimson Refael Hirsch wrote: "Until now the efforts of Moshe and Aharon had totally failed and there was no need for a precise list of their lineage and family relations, if not for the events that would subsequently take place.  Now their victorious mission was beginning, a mission that no man before them had ever fulfilled nor would ever fulfill after them.

Therefore, there was now great importance for the precise listing of their lineage and their relatives in order to testify thereby to all generations to come that their origin was regular and human and their natures were also regular and human etc. Our Moshe was a person; he remained a person and will always be only a person, even when the skin of his face shone after having seen what one may from G-d's Image, and when he brought down the Torah from Heaven, led the nation through the wilderness amidst miracles and wrought G-d's victories for them. G-d commanded him to present his lineage at that point and to thereby confirm that on the day that G-d spoke to Moshe in the Land of Egypt, which was the first day He spoke to him, everyone knew his parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and all his cousins. They knew his entire ancestry and all his relatives for the last eighty years; they knew him as a person of flesh and blood who was open to all the failures, weaknesses, worries and needs of human nature; a person like any other person who was born amongst them and grew up – "These are the Aharon and Moshe", "These are they which spoke to Paroah", "These are that Moshe and Aharon". They were flesh and blood like all other people and G-d chose them to be His vessels to perform His great deeds. They were flesh and blood like all other people and they executed G-d's great deeds. This testimony of lineage was meant to negate in advance and forever any erroneous making of a person into a god and any false idea of godliness being brought into mankind. It was made to uphold this Truth. Moshe, the greatest man of all times, was only a person and the status he reached towards G-d was not beyond the reach of a mortal man." (Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch)

Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch added that the detailed order of the lineage of Moshe and Aharon comes to teach us that they were not chosen by chance or lottery. They were special high-quality people who were worthy of their roles. G-d chose them specifically because they were the most-worthy of their roles because they were the most qualified for that, as he wrote: "In truth Moshe and Aharon were people and nothing more but they were chosen people. Had G-d wished simply to pick the first comer, tribes other than Levy stood at His disposal and in Levy other branches than Kehat, and amongst the families of Kehat, other households besides Amram, and among Amram's children there was the older Aharon, who like Moshe was a worthy candidate. However, G-d chooses the noblest and most suitable to serve as a model and be His messengers who perform His will. Before he receives his call from G-d the person must reach the heights of a man.... A person is chosen only if he developed with his own strengths until he became worthy of being chosen." (Rabbi Shimshon Refael Hirsch)

SHABBAT SHALOM!!!