#moshe

וַיֹּ֨אמֶר מֹשֶׁ֣ה אֶל־יְהֹוָה֮ בִּ֣י אֲדֹנָי֒ לֹא֩ אִ֨ישׁ דְּבָרִ֜ים אָנֹ֗כִי גַּ֤ם מִתְּמוֹל֙ גַּ֣ם מִשִּׁלְשֹׁ֔ם גַּ֛ם מֵאָ֥ז דַּבֶּרְךָ֖ אֶל־עַבְדֶּ֑ךָ כִּ֧י כְבַד־פֶּ֛ה וּכְבַ֥ד לָשׁ֖וֹן אָנֹֽכִי׃

"And Moshe said to YHVH, please, my Lord, I am not a man of words, neither yesterday nor ereyesterday, neither now when You speak to Your servant, for I am of heavy mouth and heavy tongue."

[Exodus 4:10]

וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר מֹשֶׁ֔ה לִפְנֵ֥י יְהֹוָ֖ה לֵאמֹ֑ר הֵ֤ן בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ לֹֽא־שָׁמְע֣וּ אֵלַ֔י וְאֵיךְ֙ יִשְׁמָעֵ֣נִי פַרְעֹ֔ה וַאֲנִ֖י עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם׃

"And Moshe spoke before YHVH to say, "The children of Yisrael did not listen to me, and how will Pharaoh listen to me when I have uncircumcised lips?""

[Exodus 6:12]

I've been thinking for a while about the wording of "עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם" in reference to Moshe Rabbeinu. It's often translated as "tongue-tied" or something similar, but "עֲרַ֥ל" literally means "uncircumcised", which, when not used to refer to a literally uncircumcised penis, is used to refer to something that has not finished developing (the main other usage is used in reference to crops that are not yet harvested). That made me think that "עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽיִם" and " כְבַד־פֶּ֛ה וּכְבַ֥ד לָשׁ֖וֹן" are referring to actual physical differences in Moshe's mouth and not things like a stammer or an anxiety. "Tongue tie" in a medical setting actually refers to when the frenulum is shorter/tighter than usual, so it is an actual physical difference, but it has nothing to do with the lips, and Moshe says he has 'uncircumcised' lips and a heavy tongue and mouth, not an 'uncircumcised' tongue.

So, I settled on a cleft lip and palate. A cleft lip and palate is a fairly common condition, and nowadays it's usually easily corrected with access to medical care, but of course in ancient times, Moshe would not have had access to such care and thus it would feasibly have impacted his speech abilities. In having a cleft lip and palate, his lips would literally be unformed, thus, 'uncircumcised', and the anatomical differences would make him feel like his tongue and mouth are heavy due to his difficulties communicating. A cleft lip and palate can also be comorbid with congenital hearing loss, and I know many people (including myself) interpet Moshe as having had some form of healing loss, as well. Additionally, feeding as an infant would have been difficult for Moshe if he had had a cleft lip and palate, so it would also explain why Pharaoh's daughter was so anxious to find him a suitable wetnurse, because it would have taken a lot of technique and patience.

(5 minute read)

Pesach will soon be here and with it the exhortation to relive the events of the exodus at our family Seder. I was raised by a strong mother to look for the hidden stories of women in the Torah and to celebrate them. When we think of of women associated with Shemot (Exodus) we tend to think of Miriam, sister of Moshe (Moses). One of the Tanakh's 7 prophetesses, she plays a key part. But what of her mother without whom neither Miriam nor Moshe would have existed?

Being a mother to 4 children myself, tales like that of Yocheved call out to me. How could they not? Here is a young woman faced with making awful and fateful choices. Egypt, concerned that their slaves did not become powerful and fight back, decided to curtail that population in a cruel and devastating way. Jews were very fecund. How do you halt that? By killing baby males and leaving only females (where have I heard that one before?).

Imagine yourself as Yocheved. You are joyfully pregnant. Having a bump is so wonderful. This is what I'm made for. This is how I serve Hashem. Within you, you carry new life and new hope. There's a royal decree out though that all new baby boys should be drowned at birth. Just boys, not girls. When you're pregnant, you need to be positive and happy, choosing names for your new baby: One for if she's a girl, another for if he's a boy. Only now you are worried if he's a boy, because he's going to die and be cruelly murdered, in front of you. You do what any mother would do; you make plans, feverishly thinking things out. You have a mother's intuition that this is your new baby son and you are going to fight to protect him, hide him. Except you know you can't for long.

You have to give birth in secret. How do you hide a crying little baby? Hush little baby, suck, drink and let me think. Just how long can I carry on hiding you? They're drowning poor little babies in the river right now. What chance do I have? Maybe, just maybe, if I take him down to the river in his basket, people will think I'm about to drown him and leave us be. What if I line the basket so it won't sink? He will float away, I will have to say goodbye to my precious little son then go home and cry; weeping; tearing my clothes; tearing my hair, harming myself. What use is my body, my maternal feelings if I can't dare to get pregnant ever again?

How do you face saying goodbye to the tiny little boy you've just given birth to: saying goodbye to your nine months together. Hearing him cry as he floats away down the Nile?

Your little daughter Miriam watches, hiding in the reeds by the riverside. She's the one who sees him saved from being eaten or drowning; caught in the rushes by the royal palace. She sees what happens as a royal princess, coming down to bathe, hears the baby's cries and takes him to cradle in her arms. She's young and suddenly feels that rush of maternal feelings she has never felt in her life before. He's crying and hungry. He wants milk. She feels those wails as tingling in her own breasts but she has no milk to give. It makes her sad. She so want's to keep him. Much nicer than the dolls she played with as a child: so beautiful, so perfect; those darling eyes. Now here's a little girl, running up to look. "I'm his sister, I know a lady who's just lost her baby who could nurse him for you".

Now imagine being called to the Royal Palace and finding you're being offered a poorly paid job to nurse your own baby for some rich lady who now has him because she hasn't yet had a child herself. She wants something nice to do but she needs your help. She hold him out for you to take. He latches on so easily, sucks greedily as you give him the best gift of life you can. The sacred bond between you and your little boy is restored, even if you can't be acknowledged as his Mum. You gaze down in loving contentment, just happy that he is alive. You watch as his little lips seal around your nipple as he sucks, drawing you into his mouth; greedily at first then slowly as his thirst subsides. You watch the beatific look on his little face as he drifts off into contentment and peaceful sleep.

He will be safe now. He has a mother and a wet nurse. He'll grow up a royal baby; pampered and given the best food when he is weaned. Then sadly you'll lose him to this grand lady and maybe never see him again because you're just a lowly woman and he will be a Prince.

What you don't know and can't see, is what this royal prince of Egypt will become. He'll grow, mature, have crises and doubts but in the end, this is the little baby who will lead your people out from Egypt to better things, leaving a bereft and devastated country behind; plagued by problems, quite literally. This is the baby who will take your people from this narrow place to freedom.

When you sit around your Seder table, don't forget his mother. Don't forget the ordeal and amazing courage this young woman showed. Adonai chose her to conceive, give birth and protect this child who was to become a prophet and leader. She fulfilled her female destiny through pregnancy, morning sickness, the pain of birth and parting from him; the reunion and life giving milk she gave him from her body. This is what she was made for. She made history just by being a mother even if it was under terrible circumstances.

So let's remember all Mums this Pesach 2026. Let's remember their courage, their sacrifices and the love they freely give. Without us Jewish Mums, we would have had no freedom or future.

Enjoy your Seder

Now, now, I know what you think. "But Kelsier is an obvious Christ archetype! Died as a martyr and ascended to godhood!" And I get it. Kelsier is a deliberate Christ figure to a degree - though it's mostly that he himself tries to evoke this idea. He's deliberately makes himself a Christ figure in a world that never had a Christ. But in theory, he maybe could be a Moshe. And come on. I've been told often enough that a character commonly thought to be a Moshe archetype (Superman) is appropriated to be a Jesus figure. So why not do the reverse?

(The following might be more of a stream of thought, so it's plausible my conclusion will differ from the title.)

Kelsier, as you may remember, is a half-Skaa half-noble from the Final Empire, where halfbloods like him are killed. He is raised as a noble, however, due to a deception by his mother. So, we have a member of a nation of slaves who was supposed to be killed at birth but was raised by the ruling class instead. Sounds like anyone familiar? True, he wasn't hidden in the reeds and found by the king's daughter who recognised him as a member of the slave nation, but still. He even has an older (I think) brother who's involved in his mission and becomes a member of the priesthood! No sister, though. A pity.

He runs away and, at some point, meets his wife. Now, he didn't save her and her sisters from shepherds who prevented them from getting water for their sheep or correct another injustice, nor did he flee because he killed a man who was too harsh to his slave. I mean, he did eventually do that, but he and his brother fled because their status as crossbreeds was discovered.

This is where this falls apart, though. Because the only other equivalent between Moshe and Kelsier from here on is him freeing the Skaa from their bondage with the help of his brother (and his thieving crew). Moshe doesn't have anything I can think of that can be the equivalent of becoming a leader of a thieving crew, trying to rob the Lord Ruler, being thrown to the Pits of Hathsin (Yosef and Daniel are the ones who get pits and prisons), snapping there and freeing himself (the Burning Bush has a similar role in Moshe's life, but it's hard to consider those equivalents), learning Allomancy from Gemel and discovering the 11th metal and then the whole death and pretended resurrection thing. I'm not sure which of the events of the Final Empire itself should be included - killing an Inquisitor, perhaps. Regardless, they don't have a good equivalent for Moshe.

But that's the fun part! Maybe, just maybe, I can try to imagine a situation where Kelsier is trying to evoke the Moshe story. Like, sure, he's unlikely to be a lawgiver. That's not really his type of thing. But the leader who grew in a palace and returned to his people to free them? That's an idea. Though he definitely didn't get to go through the actually leading part like Moshe had, with caring for about a million men, women and children in a journey through the desert.

Your father is Godchosen. He supervises the sacrifices and runs the temple and gives counsel to leaders, sun up to sun down. Your mother smiles at you with sad eyes when you ask to see your father. “Your father is Godchosen” she tells you. 

You grow and start caring for sheep. The life of a shepherd is a simple one, a rewarding one. Wandering the land with your sisters as the sheep graze, tilting your face up to the sun to feel its rays. 

Your sisters bring home an Egyptian man who saved them from brigands at a watering hole. He looks lost and scared and alone, like a wayward sheep who has lost his herd. Your father pulls him aside after dinner; an hour later, he comes to you. “This is Moses. He will be staying with us. We can always use more shepherds, hm?”

And so Moses becomes a shepherd. Sometimes you see him tilt his face up to the sun and you know that this man loves shepherding like you do, revels in the simplicity of it. During the lambing, you work together on several difficult births, and you decide: this man is going to be yours. 

The week before you marry, Moses comes to you in the evening. “There is something I must tell you” he says. “I was once a prince of Egypt.” You listen to his tale, holding him as he describes the slavery and the day he could not restrain himself anymore. “Do you want to go back?” you ask. “No,” he says “I have everything I could want here. ”

Some of your people never warm to Moses, but you don’t care. You have your husband and your children and your sheep and it is all you have ever wanted. 

Your children grow up and build families of their own. Moses’ hair whitens, his face wrinkles, and he is just as handsome as when you married him. You dote on your grandchildren and watch the sheep with your husband and life is good. 

And then Moses comes home from the sheep, and the look in his eyes is different. “I have” his voice cracks “I have been chosen. The God of the Hebrews has come to me; I am to lead them out of Egypt. ” You rock him in your arms as he cries. “I love being a shepherd. ” he whispers, and tears run down your cheeks. 

dovlipman