Musings on the Torah

God reveals Himself to Moshe at the burning bush and tells Moshe that he's being tasked with becoming Israel's redeemer.  Moshe pushes back with various issues that he feels need to be addressed for the mission to be successful. After God addresses them all Moshe ends with the plaintive "Send anyone but me!" continuing his resistance even after starting the mission (large swaths of Shemos 3:11-7:2).  In middle of it all Moshe tells HaShem that he can't imagine that Pharaoh will pay him any attention given that the Israelites hadn't acknowledged him because of his speech trouble (6:12).  The issue is that the Torah clearly spells out that the reason that the Israelites hadn't paid him attention was due to their shortness of breath and debilitating burden—not Moshe's speech impediment (6:9)?  A possible explanation may be that people tend to hyperfocus on their flaws and they loom large in their own vision.  People are often hesitant to take on something...

A true leader is one that is not only bothered by injustice but also acts quickly and boldly to remedy it.  Before Moshe is chosen we are told that he goes out to see how his brothers are doing and 1) defends a persecuted Israelite from an egyptian taskmaster; not only is he concerned about his own brethren vs others but also 2) intervenes to protect one Israelite from being assaulted by a fellow Israelite; not only that but he is even bothered by injustice where no Israelite is being victimized at all and 3) helps the defenseless daughters of Kohen Midyan from being driven away from the well.   (R Avraham ben HaRambam notes how this 3rd case demonstrates just how much injustice rankled him: התבונן בקנאותו ע"ה על העושק איך לא סרה ממנו ולא נסוג אחור ממנה אע״פ שלא ברח ממצרים אלא בגלל דבר כזה ואע״פ שהיה גר בארץ ולא נדכאה נפשו היקרה בגלות ולא נשתנתה נטיתו החשובה)  He was very sensitive to injustice and did all that was in his power to remedy it. The foregoing is what we ...