If anyone doubted the extent of Moses’ intimacy with God, it is put to rest in this week’s Torah portion. In response to the complaining of Aaron and Miriam, the L-RD declares Moses the most humble man who had ever lived, the sole faithful servant in all His house, and even says words to the effect that “I appear to prophets” in glimpses and riddles, but that Moses “knows my form; I speak to him clearly and without riddles.”
That’s an amazing level of intimacy between the L-RD and Moses, right there. To paraphrase Peter, Moses “was a man, just like you and me.” He was an ordinary man in the sense of being human and fallen, but extraordinary in his level of obedience to the L-RD.
Most of us like to imagine intimacy with God any time we pray for longer than 10 minutes; that’s not real intimacy with God, however. Real intimacy is having God speak to you directly in this way, to not have to have the barrier of riddles and obscurity clouding communication.
Who wouldn’t want that with the L-RD?
Umm… apparently, everyone at the mountain of the L-RD when the commands were given; God stated His desire to speak to us all directly, yet after our very first taste of that, we opted for Moses as mediator rather than hearing from God directly.
Tags: B'ha'alotcha