Or HaChaim on Numbers 12:6/אור החיים על במדבר י״ב:ו׳

1 שמעו נא דברי, "please listen to My word, etc." Why did G'd have to preface His words with this introduction? Was it not a foregone conclusion that the people addressed would listen carefully to what G'd had to say? Furthermore, why did G'd have to add the word נא, "please?" Since when does the master address the servant by imploring him to listen to what he has to say?

2G'd wanted to make clear that when He had spoken to them in very friendly tones, i.e. ויאמר, previously, they had not been worthy to be addressed at all seeing they were still ritually impure. It was only now, after they had purified themselves, that they had become fit to be spoken to by G'd. The whole episode is a lesson to a servant to hold himself in readiness at times when his master is apt to require his services. All of this taught them why Moses had been duty bound to separate from his wife. How else was he able to keep himself in constant readiness when G'd would want to speak to him? This also provides us with an answer to the basic question why G'd did not spell out to Aaron and Miriam the reason why Moses had separated from his wife.

3We may also explain the words שמעו נא to mean that G'd announced that now they were about to be castigated and to be disciplined. In this instance G'd addressed them personally rather than that He gave them the message through Moses for two reasons. 1) Since Moses was personally involved in the matter under discussion. 2) It was in the nature of things that G'd wanted to discuss the matter with Aaron and Miriam privately, not in the presence of Moses who would have found it embarassing. G'd also wanted to make clear that Aaron and Miriam qualified for only this part of what G'd had to say, as G'd had no other way of telling them. Anything else that G'd had to say He would say only to Moses. This would show that they had been wrong in claiming that G'd spoke to them also. Our sages in Bamidbar Rabbah 14,19 state that whenever the Torah writes: "G'd spoke to Moses and to Aaron," the meaning is not that G'd addressed both Moses and Aaron simultaneously, but that Moses was to communicate to Aaron what He had said to him. This is what is hinted at here when the Torah wrote the word נא.

4The reason the Torah added the word דברי, "My words," something that appears totally superfluous, is to impress upon Miriam and Aaron that though they had prophesied on previous occasions the communication they were about to receive from G'd now was on a different level from anything they had experienced previously. G'd stresses this immediately when He refers to the nature of their prophetic insights with the words אם יהיה נביאכם השם.

5It is also possible that G'd hinted to them that this would be the last time He would communicate with them directly. The fact that they were about to receive a communication on a more direct level than ever before did not mean that they had suddenly qualified for a higher level of prophecy and that they would continue to receive communications from G'd directly.

6Still another meaning implied by the word נא is that it refers to their impurity. Normally, when one has suffered ritual impurity through contact with semen and has purified oneself, one is not fit to eat Terumah until nightfall (Leviticus 22,6). A prophet who is the recipient of Holy Spirit most certainly is not fit to receive same until after he has waited until sunset after his ritual immersion. The reason is that G'd's Holy Spirit should not be perceived as on a lower level of sanctity than the Terumah which the priest may eat. G'd said: שמעו נא דברי, "listen to My words nonetheless already now," i.e. this is an exception, an emergency; this is why I have decided to let you hear My words even though the sun has not set yet since your immersion in a ritual bath. G'd hinted that His loving concern for Moses was such that He would not wait until the morrow to rectify the mistaken impression Miriam and Aaron had of their level as prophets compared to Moses. When we find in Bereshit Rabbah 55,11 that אהבה מקלקלת השורה, this means that a loving relationship between two people is apt to interfere with accepted rules. G'd applied this principle here. He addressed Miriam and Aaron "prematurely."

7אם יהיה נביאכם, "if there be a prophet amongst you, etc;" G'd refrained from addressing Miriam and Aaron directly by saying אם תהיו נביאים, "if indeed you are prophets, etc." Seeing that Miriam and Aaron themselves had implied that there were other prophets apart from themselves (as we mentioned earlier they referred to the patriarchs) G'd was careful to include also those prophets in His remarks. Perhaps the reason G'd used the singular יהיה instead of the plural יהיו was to emphasise still further the uniqueness of Moses as a prophet.

8השם במראה אליו אתודע, "I, the Lord, make Myself known to him through a vision." G'd spells out to us the difference between other prophets' perceptive powers and the perceptive powers of Moses. There are three elements to prophecy. 1) the attainment of a vision. 2) The time when the prophet is granted any vision, i.e. is he able to receive transmission of G'd's word by means of a vision at any time, i.e. whenever the prophet feels the need to communicate with G'd, or is he dependent on certain times, i.e. only when G'd takes the initiative in communicating with the prophet. 3) Can the prophet attain a verbal communication from G'd at his request? (I will explain this in detail).

9G'd first speaks about the kind of communications which certain prophets receive by describing them as מראה, vision. There are three levels of recognising G'd. The highest level is one that does not require prophetic insight. It is that which Moses requested in Exodus 33,18 when He asked: "please show me Your ways." At that time the word נא meant that Moses wanted to become privy to the kind of information about G'd that is normally only granted to the soul after it has departed from the body. Moses was quite familiar with the insights which the righteous would be granted after death. G'd denied this request saying that it is impossible for a living human being to gain those insights. That level of insight is equivalent to the recipient experiencing Divine light directly. Moses' level of prophecy was restricted to aural perception, i.e. G'd spoke to him and his ears heard. His (physical) eyes did not see a communication. A second (next lower) level of communication from G'd is one in which G'd radiates some light resulting in the recipient "receiving" a picture, תמונה. This "picture" has nothing in common with the way we normally understand the term "picture." It is the kind of "picture" which no living being other than Moses can perceive with his mind's eye. This is why Moses is described as ותמונת השם יביט, "he can view a picture from G'd." A third level is one in which the recipient perceives a light which emanates from G'd and the source of which seems to be very distant. It appears to a person like a candle which seems able to provide light over a great distance. This is what the Torah referred to here as the מראה. It is this which prophets other than Moses perceived. The Torah calls this "מאמר ה׳ במראה" "a word of G'd by means of a vision seen with the eye." By contrast, Moses is described as "looking at a picture from G'd."

10Concerning the time when G'd would manifest Himself to different kinds of prophets, the Torah says אליו אתודע, that these "minor" prophets are not able to attain a vision whenever they want; they have to wait patiently until G'd is ready to reveal a communication to them." Moses, on the other hand, could receive communications at all times as described in Numbers 9,8 where he told the people that he would receive instructions from G'd as soon as he asked. Moses did not display the slightest doubt that G'd would respond to him as soon as he asked. Other prophets with whom G'd communicated on a lower level, could not even be certain that G'd would respond to them when they wanted on that lower level. Moses, on the other hand, though he expected a communication on a higher level, could be certain of receiving same whenever he desired. This is what G'd meant when He said בכל ביתי נאמן הוא, "he is trusted in all My house." Moses was at home in the celestial domain and had the run of that "house."

11Concerning the matter of a verbal communication from G'd to a prophet, G'd told Miriam and Aaron that whereas all prophets other than Moses received such communications only in a dream, not so Moses. He was fully awake, his mind was clear when he received such verbal communications from G'd. He did not have to reassure himself if he had correctly understood what he heard while dreaming. Secondly, whatever G'd relates to a prophet in a dream is not to be understood literally, but is in the nature of a parable, or image. The Torah has told us of numerous dreams which were prophetic communications to the person dreaming them and all of which required an expert to interpret them. [Jacob needed G'd to tell him over 20 years after the event that what he had dreamt about the ladder had been a prophecy and not merely a dream (compare Rabbi Yitzchak Arama on the subject). Ed.] The prophets other than Moses were mentally overwhelmed when they experienced such prophetic dreams. When G'd speaks about appearing to prophets בחלום, this does not mean that they actually dream; rather, it describes the impact of G'd's communications to such prophets being similar to that of people who experience a dream while asleep. G'd always communicated with His prophets while the latter were awake. Only Moses was able to maintain his regular posture when G'd communicated with him; he did not prostrate himself or go into convulsions as did other prophets. Neither did he receive such communications in the form of a riddle or parable. Every communication Moses received from G'd was crystal clear, requiring no further elaboration. This is what the Torah means when it describes such communication as פה אל פה אדבר בו, "I speak with him mouth to mouth." All the Israelites saw that all the 53 times the Torah reports G'd as speaking to Moses (and to communicate what He said to them) the message was crystal clear and could be understood by anyone with a command of the Hebrew language. The same applies to all the wealth of wisdom contained in the written Torah. Anyone who immerses himself in that part of the Torah will find that he can understand it. This contrasts with the writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah many of which are extremely obscure, full of parables and enigmas. What did Ezekiel mean by the "great eagle" in chapter 17, for instance? The prophecies of the so-called minor prophets such as Zachariah are even harder to unravel so that none of us can be certain of the events to which these prophecies relate.

12We need to examine why the prophecies given to Moses were all so clear whereas those granted to the afore-mentioned prophets appear so confused. Kabbalists explain that the phenomenon of man being a composite of body and spirit is bound to prevent him from being able to receive undiluted spiritual input. Any attempt to subject man to such additional spiritual input upsets the fragile equilibrium between the forces of body and spirit which constitute a human being. After all, we observe in nature that such opposites as fire and water cannot coexist peacefully except in heaven seeing that the Creator Himself has arranged it so in His domain. It is only natural, therefore, that when a human being is called upon by G'd his body will tremble, be subject to convulsions, etc. The only human being able to retain his composure when thus addressed by G'd is one who has succeeded in transforming the material part of himself into a צורה, into the perfect state G'd has created it in, as we have described on numerous occasions. Once man has achieved this, his body is no longer a hindrance to his receiving communications from G'd and he will be able to do so as a matter of course. When there are no people around who meet these specifications and G'd has found Israel worthy to receive prophetic communications, He has no choice but to choose someone to whom He transmits His word in a manner which upsets the body and mind of the recipient. As a result the world abounded with prophets who had to receive their messages in the form of parables and riddles so that the equilibrium of their bodies and minds would not be permanently upset. The reason that we find that Zachariah's prophecies were even more enigmatic than those of his predecessors is that he was the last of the prophets. Subsequent generations did not create an environment in which G'd saw fit to communicate His word to prophets anymore.

13When G'd spoke about His communications to Moses being "mouth to mouth," He meant that His word did not have to travel through the airwaves or some other part of the atmosphere which diluted it (and therefore made it unclear) in order to make it accessible to less than perfect man. When G'd emphasises that His word did appear to Moses as a מראה, a clear vision, this means that Moses did not have to go into convulsions, etc., when he received communications from G'd. He, G'd, could show Moses a clear vision and Moses could behold it and understand it without it being distorted.

14When the Torah adds: ולא בחידות, "not by means of riddles," this is an elaboration of how G'd's word reached Moses. The Torah is careful not to say פה אל אזן, that G'd's word travelled from G'd's mouth to Moses' ear, but פה אל פה, "mouth to mouth." Solomon (Kings I 3,9) asked G'd to grant him לב שומע, "a listening heart" to enable him to divine the truth behind the claims of litigants, etc. He aspired to the highest level of prophecy. The Torah speaks of G'd communicating with Moses as אדבר בו, "I speak within him" instead of the customary אדבר אתו, "I speak with him." This formulation also means that no one else was privy to the fact that G'd spoke to Moses. [This is in contrast to our tradition that all prophets who lived at a particular time received the same communication at the same time as the prophet whom G'd commanded to transmit the prophecy to the people or to the king. Ed.]