The Gold and Coals of Moshe

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There are a series of Midrashim that describe how difficult it was to redeem Klal Yisroel from Mitzrayim. They use three metaphors. The most well-known is the metaphor of birthing a sheep (or a cow). Chazal say taking Klal Yisroel out of Mitzrayim was as difficult as the shepherd reaching into the womb to pull the baby out from the mother. But two other similes are not as well-known.
One is that Klal Yisroel was like a bird in the hand of a hunter. With the slightest pressure he strangles it, and with the slightest opening, the bird will fly away. The bird is Klal Yisroel, and the hunter is Pharoah. HaShem had to gently remove Klal Yisroel without the hunter killing the bird when he realizes that the bird is escaping.
The second is described as a goldsmith who has no tongs . The gold is in the fire being purified, ` but to remove it he must extend his hand into the fire. It is worth doing but at the same time, he is burned. That is as difficult for the remover as the removed. Again, the gold is Klal Yisroel, the fire is Egypt. The goldsmith is HaShem. But we need to explain what is so difficult.
Why do we need three metaphors learned from three different Pesukim? Chazal teach us things for a purpose, and why do they need all three metaphors.
I have found three ways to explain these metaphors. The Maharal and the Netziv each explain two, each one a different set. The Ohaiv Yisroel, Rav Avrohom of Apta, explains all three.
The Maharal in Sefer Gevuros deals with two of the Midrashim . He begins by describing the basic relationship between a victor and the vanquished. There are two aspects to that relationship. There is the power of the conqueror, and the desire of the vanquished to be part of the conqueror.
He says the fire represents the power of the subjugator. Just as fire consumes what is in it, so too Egypt controlled the Jews. The power of Egypt was so great that to remove Klal Yisrael you had to reach into a fire.
The metaphor of the fetus is the desire of Klal Yisrael to be connected to Egypt . A fetus is connected to its mother and receives everything from her. To remove them from that desire, required a similar effort to that of the birthing of a calf. He does not deal with the metaphor of the bird.
The Netziv has a different approach . He also only deals with two of the examples. He says the metaphor of the bird represents the ability of Egypt to kill us if we try to leave. That is the power of the hunter that holds the bird. HaShem had to save us in a way that the Egyptians would not kill us before we could leave. The second is the parable of the fetus. Those are the people in Klal Yisroel who did not want to leave. Hashem had to forcibly extract them from within the stranglehold of Egypt. He does not deal with the goldsmith.
The Oheiv Yisrael of Apta explains all three . They represent the three groups in Klal Yisrael, Tzadikim, Reshaim, and those in the middle – the Beinonim. Each one represents a different level of Galus. The more the two parts of the metaphor are connected represents the degree of Galus and the difficulty of the Geulah.
The bird is the group of the Tzadikim. They have no innate connection with the hunter. They would prefer to not even be there. But they are trapped. Therefore, HaShem must save them.
The fetus is the group of the Beinonim. They were connected to the Egyptians, but it was a temporary connection, like a fetus in the womb. That connection is built in a way that ultimately separates. HaShem had to reach in to remove them, and it was difficult, but they were still two separate entities.
The gold represents the Reshaim. When you purify gold, the impurities are burned off or left behind. Only at the end is a small amount of pure gold left. The Reshaim wanted to stay in Egypt. They needed to be burned off. Those are the ones who perished during Darkness. That is why HaShem had to reach into the fire and remove them.
Those are various ways to explain these Midrashim. But I think that these Midrashim shed light on another well-known but misunderstood Midrash, the incident of Moshe as a child and the crown of Pharoah. As the Chovos HaLevavos writes, what we learn simply as children remains understood on a lower level. We must exert ourselves to see what Chazal are teaching us as adults. I think the key to understanding the incident with the crown lies in the Midrash about the goldsmith.
The incident of Moshe and Pharaoh’s crown is beloved by children . They picture the child Moshe sitting on his purported grandfather’s lap and throwing the crown on the floor. Pharaoh’s advisors are horrified by the scene and remember their prediction that a child will overthrow Pharaoh and lead the Jews out of Egypt. With their belief in that prophecy, they demand that Moshe be killed. Yisro, the future father-in-law of Moshe, disagrees and proposes an alternative plan. Let us place before him gold and burning coals. If the child chooses the gold, then he must be killed. But if he chooses the coals, then it was just a childish prank, and we can let him live.
The two items are placed before Moshe. Moshe reaches toward the gold. But the Malach Gavriel comes and pushes his hand to the coals and pushes Moshe’s hand with the coal in his mouth. This burns his mouth and from then on Moshe’s speech is impeded. Moshe is allowed to live, and the Geulah ultimately comes through him. But this seems to be the source of Moshe’s famous heavy mouth and heavy tongue.
With a discerning ear, you can hear the connection between the incident with the gold and coals by Moshe and the metaphor of the goldsmith removing the gold in the Exodus. To understand that we need to realize that the story with Moshe is a Midrash. Therefore, it needs to be studied as such. And through that, we can understand the connection.
In the writings of the ARIZ”L Egypt and Pharaoh have a special significance. There are four exiles, Bavel, Persia, Greece, and Rome. In the Tzelem of Avoda Zara that is described in Sefer Daniel, they are the body of a person. Bavel is the head, and the others are the rest of the body. But what about Egypt? They are the original Galus, where are they?
The idea of Tzelem is the idea that man was created in the Tzelem – form – of Hashem. Our physical body is parallel to the Tzelem of Elokim. Each one of Hashem’s attributes are represented by the body. The highest level is above the head, the Keter – crown.
But there is an inverse Tzelem. That is what Nebuchadnezzar builds. That Tzelem of Nebuchadnezzar is the ‘Tzelem of Evil’. Egypt, In the words of the ARIZ”L, is the highest part of the Tzelem, he is the crown of evil. They are the source of all Galus.
With that we can understand the depth of Moshe’s removal of the crown. He is removing from Egypt the power of the crown of the Tzelem. The advisors of Pharoah were correct. Moshe was already expressing his ultimate responsibility. He was the one who would replace the crown of Evil with the crown of HaShem. The crown is the highest level of recognition of HaShem. His Tafkid was to do that. Therefore, he takes the crown of evil and turns it into the crown of Kedusha.
What is this crown? What can it do?
Chazal say that in the exile in Egypt that the ability to speak was in Galus. This means that the power of speaking the words of the Torah was in exile. What does that mean?
HaShem created the world with ten Maamaros. Those ten Maamaros are ten levels of the revelation of HaShem. The highest is revealing the crown of HaShem, Keter. But those were concealed in Egypt. Moshe comes to Pharoah years later and says, HaShem commanded you to let My people go. Pharoah responds that he does not know who HaShem is.
This is a real answer. In Pharoah’s world, he wears the crown. He is the power in the world. HaShem’s presence is completely unseen. There was no remnant of HaShem’s speech, of the ten Maamarot. This is what Chazal mean that the power of speech is in Galus. And that is the crown of Evil.
Moshe was created to reveal Hashem’s crown, that He created the world. But Pharoah was still wearing his crown. Therefore, Moshe was heavy of speech, because till he came back to Pharoah, Moshe could not speak the words of HaShem.
Only after the revelation of the ten Makos can Pharoah see the Maamros that Hashem created the world with. Only then do the Maamros speak and the word of HaShem begins to leave the Galus. That is the crown of HaShem that He is the ultimate Master and King.
But when Moshe was born, he was not heavy of speech. When and why did this happen?
The Shach on the Torah (one of the Talmidim of the ARIZ”L) explains this . Why did Moshe become hard of speech? Didn’t he touch the coals first? His hand should have been affected even more than his mouth.
He says that when the daughter of Pharoah found Moshe, she gave him to Egyptian women to nurse. Chazal say that how could the mouth that was to talk to HaShem nurse from a non-Jew? Therefore, Moshe didn’t nurse. But till they found a Jewish nurse, they would express milk and give it to Moshe. That blemish of drinking Egyptian milk already existed in a spiritual form. His ability to speak of HaShem was affected. His hands were not affected. That is why his mouth was burnt. But it was not being burnt and hurt. It was like Kashering a utensil. It needed to be cleansed and purified . That was why his mouth was burnt, to return it to purity. Pharoah thought he was hurting Moshe; he was actually making him whole again.
That caused the heavy speech, that even Moshe could not clearly speak the words of HaShem. The actual heaviness of speech was when those drops of milk entered Moshe’s mouth. The heat was the beginning of the purification process, but till Matan Torah, it was not completed. Only then was Moshe clear and light of speech. That was the complete revelation of Hashem’s mastery of the world.
If Moshe would have taken Pharoah’s crown that would have been the revelation of Hashem. But it could not happen yet. As the Netziv explained, at this point they were like the bird in the hunter. Klal Yisrael would have been destroyed by the Egyptians. Only later could Moshe begin to repair the Galus of speech. Even he was in this alus.
That is the depth of Moshe not taking the gold. The Galus that is described as removing the gold from the coals, is what happened to Moshe. When Moshe took the coals rather than the gold, that was the gold was buried in the coals. That itself was the Galus.
That was why it so hard for HaShem to extract it from the coals. Moshe could not do this, only HaShem could. Even though usually this is the responsibility of people here the depth of Egypt’s darkness was so great only HaShem could do it.
There is another depth to this. Coals are can aflame or smoldering. The word for smoldering coals is similar to the word for an Am HaaEretz . Part of Klal Yisroel was so deep in the Galus that they seemed to not be able to come out. But a smoldering coal can always be brought back to life. When you blow on it, it ignites. Even what seems to be the wrong choice can be brought to good.
To summarize: The Galus has three levels. The lowest is that we are like gold in a furnace that to remove it requires being burned. That is what happened to Moshe when he took the coals in place of the gold. That caused him to be unable to speak the words of Hashem. Only when he returned later could the speech be rectified and the world could proclaim HaShem as the King.