{"id":40779,"date":"2018-09-23T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-23T15:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=40779"},"modified":"2022-04-17T23:37:16","modified_gmt":"2022-04-17T20:37:16","slug":"what-to-do-when-there-is-no-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-to-do-when-there-is-no-one\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Do When There is No One"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cHe (Moses) turned this way and that, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A number of medieval commentators explain that Moses, in his prophetic wisdom, saw that no \u05d0\u05d9\u05e9, no person of significance, or import would ever stem in the future from the Egyptian before him. This interpretation is concluded from the word choice of \u05d0\u05d9\u05e9, person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Makes sense. Until you re-read the previous verse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome time after that when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinfolk and witnessed their labors. He saw an Egyptian [person] beating a Hebrew [person], one of his kinsmen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wait a minute. There was another player in this story who is characterized with the same descriptor \u05d0\u05d9\u05e9, person. It is quite a stretch then to claim that the Egyptian was not a person, given that the same exact language describes him as that of Moses\u2019 kinsmen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps, with the enormous caveat that I am not condoning nor promulgating punishment without trial, Moses simply saw that nobody was going to do anything. Here was an Egyptian man powerfully beating a Jewish man. It would seem odd that this was happening in complete isolation. Moses looked around to see if anyone was ready to save the Jewish slave\u2019s life. Not was there anyone of significance or importance but was there someone, anyone, willing to DO something of importance, that is, of saving someone\u2019s life.<\/span><\/p>\n

The manner in which this story plays out makes sense given what we know about Moses. He doesn\u2019t want to be a leader. He declines his position multiple times directly to God\u2019s face. Moses looks desperately around for someone to do the right thing. To save this helpless slave. When he realizes that if he does not exercise leadership, nobody will, he moves forward with this damning act which leads to his exile.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are two important outcomes here. First, there is a message of humility. Being aware that we should scan the crowd to determine if, when, and most importantly, who is available to step up to the plate. It is only in the absence of other candidates, coupled with the heightened element of danger and risk, that Moses moves forward as he does. <\/span><\/p>\n

Second, the Egyptian task master is described as a person of significance. Moses buries him, even after he ended up killing him in his attempt to intervene. Respect of all people, even those who committed terrible wrongs, must always persevere.<\/span><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"What To Do When There is No One","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Moses takes his first halting steps towards leadership","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":40792,"id":40792,"title":"Ex2-Scnorr","filename":"Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/moses-killing-the-egyptian-in-art\/ex2-scnorr\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ex2-scnorr","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":40790,"date":"2018-09-24 22:10:11","modified":"2018-09-24 22:12:54","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":708,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr-300x254.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":254,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","medium_large-width":708,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","large-width":708,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","1536x1536-width":708,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","2048x2048-width":708,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr.jpg","post_full_size-width":708,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Ex2-Scnorr-496x420.jpg","home_baner-width":496,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40779"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40779"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104128,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40779\/revisions\/104128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}