The Voice From the Burning Bush
Exodus Rabbah 45:5
砖诪讜转 专讘讛 (讜讬诇谞讗) 驻专砖讛 诪讛
讗”专 讬讛讜讚讛 讘专 谞讞诪讬讛 讟讬专讜谉 讛讬讛 诪砖讛 诇谞讘讜讗讛, 讗诪专 讛拽讘”讛 讗诐 谞讙诇讛 讗谞讬 注诇讬讜 讘拽讜诇 讙讘讜讛 讗谞讬 诪讘注转讜, 讜讗诐 讘拽讜诇 谞诪讜讱 讘讜住专 讛讜讗 注诇 讛谞讘讜讗讛, 诪讛 注砖讛 讛拽讘”讛 谞讙诇讛 注诇讬讜 讘拽讜诇讜 砖诇 讗讘讬讜…
“And he said, 鈥極h, let me behold Your Presence!’ Rabbi Judah ben Nehemiah said: since Moses, was a novice in prophecy, God said鈥攊f I reveal Myself unto him with a loud voice, I will frighten him, and if in a low voice, he will think lightly of the prophecy. So what did the Holy One, blessed be He, do? He revealed himself to him in the voice of his father.”
Years ago, I taught first graders at a local synagogue school. We frequently acted out scenes from the Torah and, when it came to God’s speaking parts, the students had a very good question: what does God’s voice sound like and how do we know what God is saying to us?
The more famous midrash is the one from Brachot: “With what voice did God speak to Moses? With Moses’s voice” [45a]. This is the one that came to mind in that moment, and as I heard myself telling the children this understanding of God’s voice, I saw their eyes light up. Moses heard God’s voice as his own; each of us hears God’s voice as our own, hearing what we need to hear from the thunderous words of revelation that are each of ours and yet so difficult to discern.
Our midrash above, however, has a different take: Moses heard the voice of his father. A voice of love, authority, of earliest connection. Or do we question that, and wonder what Moses’s relationship with his father was? After all, he was raised in Pharaoh’s palace; we have little information about his interaction with his biological father or a royal stepfather. What does the midrash mean in suggesting that Moses heard God’s voice as the voice of his father?
There was one little girl in that first-grade class who was not satisfied with my answer-rooted-in-midrash. As soon as I saw her hand go up, my heart sank, for I knew my answer to the class’s question was lost on her. She had been born deaf, and with the help of a recently implanted cochlear device could hear. “What about the people who can’t hear?” she asked. “How do they hear God’s voice?” I hesitated, and then my answer came to me: “They hear God’s voice as the voice in their head.” The voice in our heads鈥攁n echo of our father’s voice, and mother’s, and of so many teachers and life experiences and emotions; the voice of conscience, the one that whispers to us night and day. This is the voice with which God spoke to Moses, and with which God speaks to each of us.
As the midrash plays with the voice Moses heard鈥攚hen God speaks with him at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, at the Burning Bush, at the top of the mountain鈥攚e carry the questions those first graders put so well: what does God’s voice sound like, and how do we know what God is saying to us?
