Torah Portion
Obstacles In Life
Shape Our Character
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Learning during Lunch
lived an uncommon
life. From early
childhood he was special,
perhaps even favored. Moses,
whose name means, accor-
ding to the biblical narrator,
"to draw out," was rescued
from the river by Pharaoh's
daughter. He would become a
prophet and a leader, even-
tually "drawing out" the
Israelites from their captivity
in Egypt. His story is the
greatest told because it
became the foundation of
Judaism.
According to parashah
Va'era, God told Moses to
speak to Pharaoh and per-
suade him to free the
Israelites. But the reluctant
servant, humbled by God's re-
quest, answered saying, "The
Israelites would not listen to
me, how then should Pharaoh
heed me, a man of uncircum-
cised lips." In other words,
with my condition, how can I
be convincing to the Israelites
and to Pharaoh. Although
destined to be a great leader,
Moses lacked an expected
tquality of leadership — the
7 „,oility to speak effectively.
Most traditional commen-
tators explain that Moses had
either a speech defect, lack of
confidence or a deficiency
:with the Egyptian language.
VWhatever his human weak-
ness was, it became part of
God's master plan to free an
oppressed group of slaves and
gave them a leader like Moses
that could take them to the
Promised Land of their
ancestors.
Why would God choose a
man unable to speak effec-
tively for a job that required
persuasion? Perhaps because
God had knowledge about the
power of rhetoric as a means
of discovering the best way to
persuade. The laconic, but
humble communication style
of Moses was exactly what
God wanted. This is the
rhetoric of Moses.
To fully understand the
rhetoric of Moses we begin by
relegating his human weak-
ness to nothing more than a
challenge. Then we can
replace the weakness with an
alternative method for
achieving goals. This is rhet-
-
The Kids in .E.F .V . ate busy.,
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oses was born a
common man but
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oric. It is through a rhetorical
understanding of Moses that
his greatness is recognized.
Obstacles in life help shape
our character. The life of
Moses was filled with ob-
stacles. When Pharaoh de-
creed that all Israelite male
babies be killed, Moses
fortunate to be rescued b-:?•
Pharaoh's daughter. Howeve:1',
his knowledge about God and
the sacred traditions of Israel
were taught to him presum-
ably by his birth mother. A-?'.
an adopted child of a prince&,..
Moses received the bes
education Egypt had to offer,
but his moral passion and in
stability to tolerate injustice
remained loyal to his origiri.
He never forgot he was at
Israelite first.
The Egyptian court gave
Moses the training needed to
be a leader of human being
but did not prepare him folz
Shabbat Va'era:
Exodus 6:2-9:35
Numbers 28:9-15
Isaiah 66:1-24.
the task God would ask him
to accomplish. Moses did not
see himself capable of per-
suading Pharaoh because he
was not a man of words (Ex-
odus 4:10). Why then was he
so successful?
According to Aristotle,
rhetoric is a method of
discovering an availabl
means of persuasion. Aristo-
tle explains there are three
basic appeals an effective per-
suader must have: ethos,
pathos and logos. Ethos refers
to the credibility and
character of the persuader.
Pathos is the ability of the
persuader to empathize with
the audience. Logos means a
persuader must have a struc-
ture or plan the audience
follows to present his/her
ideas. Moses utilized all these
things.
The ethos of Moses was
established throughout the
years he spent in the Egyp-
tian court. He was known for
the strength of his convictions
and was even banished for
support of the Israelites.
Moses had more than com-
passion for the Israelites. He
was one of them and em-
pathized with their plight.
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