By Rabbi Yerachmiel D. Fried

Dear Rabbi Fried,

I was reading the weekly portion for this coming Shabbat and was bothered by the famous story of the burning bush. Why would G-d reveal himself to Moses for the first time in a lowly bush, rather than something more fitting for His honor, like a tree or a mountain?

Thanks, Shoshana W.

Dear Shoshana,

Your question is right on — the Midrash relates that a Gentile scholar posed your question to R’ Yehushua ben Korcha. The answer is that G-d wanted to illustrate to Moshe, from their very first encounter, that He would stick by the Jews even in their lowest times. The classical commentary Rashi comments on that verse: “G-d spoke from a bush and not from another tree, to show that ‘I am with them in their times of pain.’” G-d’s love for the Jews will take Him to the worst places in our exiles and will not totally forsake us even when we have sunk to the lowest spiritual levels, similar to the lowly bush. The point of the encounter was, as the verses relate, to let Moshe know that G-d has heard the Jews’ crying and has seen and felt their pain in their servitude to Egypt.

What did Moshe do to merit this revelation? The answer lies in a previous verse: “It happened in those days (of slavery) that Moshe grew up and went out to his brethren and observed their burdens….” Although Moshe was living in the palace and his Jewish identity was not known by Pharaoh, Moshe knew who he was, a Jew, and went out to feel the pain of his brethren. Rashi comments that young Moshe “directed his eyes and heart to feel their pain.” He put his shoulders to the plow and helped the Jews in their slave labor. During that incident he killed an Egyptian who was striking a Jew, necessitating Moshe to flee for his own life.

Later, as a shepherd for Jethro, Moshe was chasing an escaped sheep and came across the burning bush. The Midrash explains, that since Moshe had “gone down” or descended from his lofty place in the palace to care about the suffering of his fellow Jews, he merited the vision of the bush where G-d reveals that He, too, descends from His lofty place in Heaven to be with the Jews. It was precisely the job of a shepherd, like the forefathers before him, that helped train Moshe in his mission to care about every individual Jew, like the shepherd cares for every sheep. This is the hallmark of a truly great leader, to sincerely care about each individual, not just about the entire klal, or nation, as a whole. In the merit of Moshe’s caring for each Jew as well as the entire Jewish nation as a whole, he was chosen as our historic, eternal leader.

This caring would remain Moshe’s trademark for the next 40 years of his leadership, casting aside his own honor and going down to the people. Time and time again, when the Jews performed their most heinous crimes, Moshe was there for them, falling on his face before the Al-mighty in prayer and beseeching their forgiveness, at times at great personal cost to himself. Moshe’s feeling for the pain of his fellow Jews was manifest in the war with the Amalekites. Moshe stood on the mountain to pray for the Jews fighting in the valley until he became tired of standing and requested a rock to sit upon to continue his prayers. The Talmud is shocked; Moshe was the king of the Jews — couldn’t they bring him a chair to sit upon?

The reason, explains the Talmud, is that Moshe refused to sit on a comfortable chair as long as his fellow Jews were in the trenches at war. He was “with them in their troubles.” If they were at war, then he, too, was at war together with them. This trait of Moshe is one of the cornerstones of the Mussar Movement, based upon the Mishnaic statement of “Hanosei b’ol im chaveiro — Carrying the yoke with your friend,” making his burden into your own burden. We must put ourselves in our fellow Jew’s shoes and feel their pain, doing whatever we can to alleviate the suffering of another as if it were our own close family member.  This is also an important lesson to remember when our brethren in Tzahal, the Israel Defense Forces, are in the trenches fighting to protect the Jewish state and Jewish people. We need to “put our eyes and hearts” to “be with them in their troubles,” offering them our prayers and any other way we can to assist them.

May we merit a true and lasting peace in Israel and throughout the world.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Yerachmiel Fried

Rabbi Yerachmiel D. Fried is dean of DATA-Dallas Area Torah Association.