God “Created” Moses

Rabbi Moshe Ben-Chaim & Dani Roth

Dani Roth: The following verses are very strange: 

Amram took as wife his father’s sister Yocheved, and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the span of Amram’s life was 137 years. (Exod. 6:20)

It is the same Aaron and Moses to whom God said, “Bring forth the Israelites from the land of Egypt, troop by troop.” It was they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to free the Israelites from the Egyptians; these are the same Moses and Aaron. (Exod. 6:26,27)

Why must we be told—and told twice—“They are the same Moses and Aaron?”  Who else would they be?! There’s only one Moses and Aaron.

Rabbi: A quick rewind of history will explain. Have you ever wondered about the need for all the details about the killing of the first borns, that Moses’ mother Yocheved had given birth to Moses three months prematurely, that she had to hide him, then build a raft-basket into which she placed her infant Moses on the river to escape, followed by Moses being found by—of all people—Pharaoh’s daughter?! Accident? No. Thats why God recorded such detail. But not just recorded, God orchestrated Moses’ life and events from his birth. And when Moses finally grew and defended a Jew by killing the Egyptian taskmaster, Pharaoh sought to kill him, but God saved him from the sword. “This” is the Moses that stood before Pharaoh means. God planned Moses existence to save the Jews. This explains why this whole lineage immediately proceeds Moses finally coming before Pharaoh. Because this entire history from Moses’ birth to his standing before Pharaoh has its objective that the great man Moses saves the Jews and teaches Egypt the fallacy of the worst sin of idolatry.

God is teaching us how He took great care to plan the Jews’ salvation through creating[1] the genius mind of Moses, and ensuring his survival, despite first born murders and Pharaoh’s wrath, and securing Moses survives by arranging that of all people, Pharaoh’s daughter be the one to find him. 

“These are the same Moses and Aaron” teaches us to appreciate it was the Moses that God created and protected so the Jewish nation would emerge.

[1] Maimonides says that God “created” Moses (Laws of Star Worship 1:3).