{"id":49300,"date":"2019-02-12T20:14:45","date_gmt":"2019-02-12T18:14:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=49300"},"modified":"2022-09-07T06:43:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T03:43:24","slug":"sudden-eloquence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/sudden-eloquence\/","title":{"rendered":"Sudden Eloquence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[798,397,729],"acf":{"old_id":"49300","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34004,"related_cahpter":"154","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Like a spring bursting forth in the wilderness, Moses discovers a primal genius for language","content":"

In Jewish tradition, Moses is known as Moses our Teacher\u2014Moshe rabbenu. The irony is that, from the beginning of the narrative, Moses questions his own ability to transmit God\u2019s messages. When he describes himself as \u201cheavy of mouth, and heavy of tongue,\u201d as \u201cof uncircumcised lips,\u201d he reveals a profoundly personal dimension of his life. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the book of Deuteronomy, he speaks in a new way, reaching out to his listeners \u2014and to his future readers\u2014in the mode of <\/span>teaching<\/span><\/em>. Skeptical of his power to affect them, Moses stages for his students new teaching possibilities that are generated, I suggest, precisely by his inhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n

The opening to language originates in the wilderness: “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on the other side of the Jordan, in the wilderness….” In fact, says the midrash, it is the wilderness that generates the explosion of language that he experiences in the last months of his life:<\/span><\/p>\n

“These are the words…\u201d: […] Forty years after leaving Egypt, Moses began to interpret the Torah in seventy languages\u2014”He explained this Torah” (Deut. 1:5). The mouth that had said, “I am not a man of words,” now spoke “these [are] the words.” And the prophet cried out: “Then shall the lame leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute shall sing aloud!” (Isa. 35:6) Why? \u201cFor waters should burst forth in the desert, streams <\/span>in the wilderness<\/span><\/em>…” \u00a0(Tanchuma <\/span>Devarim<\/span><\/i> 2) <\/span><\/p>\n

Suddenly, it seems, Moses gains that access to language that was so long withheld from him. He can talk to everyone in his own language; he translates God’s word into the terms of each human encounter. He discovers a primal genius for language; unprompted, like a spring in the desert, his voice resounds in the many words of Deuteronomy. <\/span><\/p>\n

The mysterious force of the analogy\u2014language bursting forth like water in the wilderness\u2014becomes more poignant when we consider the context and purpose of many of Moses’ final speeches in Deuteronomy. Many of the passages repeat earlier stories or laws; other passages contain new material. But these speeches, which occupy a large portion of the book, are understood, even by some of the traditional commentaries, as bearing an unprecedentedly personal stamp. They are not simply mechanical transmissions of God’s words, but the creation, to some extent, of the man Moses in the final months of his life. This assumption lies behind the midrash we have just quoted: the people are quizzically amazed at Moses’ sudden eloquence, at the fertility of symbolic resonance that he now generates. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpted from: Bewilderments,<\/em> Schocken Books, 2017, p. <\/span>284-286 <\/span><\/p>\n

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