Turn Around You Might Meet God
Moshe’s royal upbringing may have foreshadowed a presumption of greatness, but his return to his Israelite roots, his challenge to power, his subsequent flight from Egypt and settlement in Midian, would seem to have dashed these claims. In Midian, he married and took on the life of a simple shepherd, but one day, while pasturing his sheep, his life changed radically:
And Moshe was herding the flock of Yitro his father-in-law, priest of Midian, and he drove the flock into the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, to Horev. And the Lord’s messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush, and he saw, and look, the bush was burning with fire and the bush was not consumed. And Moshe thought: “Let me, pray, turn aside that I may see this great sight, why the bush does not burn up.” And the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush and said: Moshe, Moshe. And he said: “Here I am.” (Exodus 3:1-5)
Moshe was taken up by a “miraculous” event which prompted him to respond. Yet, to my mind, the true “miracle” was Moshe’s reaction. Like most people, he could easily have ignored what he saw, but, instead, he turned back to see the bizarre phenomena, thereby, initiating a divine-human interaction. This turn of events, recorded laconically in Scripture, inspired a number of sages to thrash out what to their minds actually transpired:
And Moshe thought: “Let me, pray, turn aside that I may see.” Rabbi Yoḥanan said: Moses took five steps at that moment, as it is stated: “I will turn [asura – alef samekh resh hey] now and see.” [The “hey” in “asura” being superfluous has a numerical value of five] Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish said: He turned aside [stood afar out of fear and awe] and looked, as it is stated: “The Lord saw that he had turned aside to see” (Exodus 3:4). Once he looked at it, the Holy One blessed be He said: ‘He is suitable to shepherd Israel.’ Rabbi Yitzḥak said: What is “that he had turned [sar] to see?” The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘This one is depressed and upset [sar veza’ef] over seeing Israel’s suffering in Egypt; therefore, he is suitable to be their shepherd. Immediately, “God called to him from the midst of the bush.” (Shemot Rabbah 2:6, Shinan ed. pp. 116)
What we see in these three interpretations of Moshe’s response to the miraculous bush represent three different approaches to what might inspire an intimate relationship with God. For Rabbi Yohanan, Moshe’s relationship with God was kindled out of a sense of curiosity – a quest for radical awareness; for Rabbi Yohanan’s foil, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, the catalyst was Moshe’s awe of God inspired by the divine experience; while for Rabbi Yitzhak, Moshe’s relationship with God was initiated by Moshe’s profound sense of empathy for others, making him uniquely qualified for the role God had designated for him.
Moshe, obviously, was exceptional. He was not the “everyman”. Nevertheless, these three models offer paradigms or prompts for how any of us might approach developing a sense of divine- human intimacy. For it is not for Moshe alone that the bush is ever aflame.