Fourth Reading: Moses’ First Revelation at the Burning Bush
“An Angel of God appeared to him in the heart of a blazing fire from the midst of a bush...”
God’s first revelation to Moses was made at the Burning Bush. The word “bush” and “Sinai”—the place where the Almighty revealed Himself through Moses to all of Israel at the Giving of the Torah—are linguistically connected. Moreover, the sages expound that linguistically, both the bush and Sinai, relate to lowliness.
In the description of the revelation at the Burning Bush, we find the “bush” mentioned 5 times. The midrash provides the following explanation for this phenomenon:
Rabbi Nachman, the son of Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman, says all trees have either one leaf, two, or three. The myrtle produces three and is called “a thick tree.” But the sneh has five leaves. The Holy, Blessed One said to Moses: “Israel is redeemed only by the merit of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and by your merit and Aaron’s.”
That is to say, the revelation at the Sneh was meant to convince Moses that he must participate in the redemption of Israel, for without him, one part of the five would be missing. God revealed Himself to him at the bush because in this tree where its leaves emerge, they emerge five at a time, hinting to Moses the need for the merits of the five mentioned figures.
Let’s explain further: It is known that Moses was reluctant to accept the role imposed upon him by Divine Providence and tried to reject it with various arguments. After seven days of refusals, Moses presented his final argument: “Please send the one whom you usually send.” The sages explain that Moses was referring to the Messiah, but the plain meaning of his reference—that he meant his brother Aaron—can be inferred from God’s response.
Thus, Moses thought that a more suitable emissary than himself was Aaron, who was in Egypt at the time and likely, like Amram his father, was among the generation’s leaders. The bush being pentafoliate emphasized that without Moses’ leadership, Aaron’s leadership would not be complete. Only through the merit of all five—the three Patriarchs, Aaron, and Moses—would the mission to liberate the children of Israel from Egypt succeed. Indeed, the Torah is named solely after Moses—“Remember the Torah of My servant Moses,” yet Moses and Aaron (and Miriam) together redeemed the people from Egypt.
The midrash quoted earlier goes on to describe five reasons why God revealed Himself to Moses in the sneh and associates them with the five instances of the word sneh. Let us now identify each of these reasons with one of the five figures whose merit led to the liberation from Egypt. Additionally, since the five figures correspond to the sefirot from loving-kindness (chesed) to acknowledgment (hod), we will also draw the correspondence with these sefirot.
There is Nowhere Devoid of the Divine Presence
“From within the bush”: A non-Jew asked Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha: Why did the Holy, Blessed One choose to speak with Moses from within the bush? He replied: If He had spoken from a carob or sycamore tree, would you not have asked me this question [since these are “important” trees]? Still, I cannot ignore your question. Why from a bush? To teach you that there is nowhere devoid of the Divine Presence, even a bush.
To reveal that there is nowhere devoid of the Divine Presence was Abraham’s mission. Abraham began to illuminate with God’s attribute of loving-kindness, which like the Divine Presence and Abraham, reaches everywhere.
The Midrash continues: Rabbi Eliezer says: Just as the bush is the lowliest of all the trees in the world, so were Israel lowly and downtrodden in Egypt. To teach you that even the lowliest of all lowly individuals were part of Abraham’s plan to reveal that “there is nowhere empty of Him.”
For I Have Known Their Sorrows
Rabbi Yosi says: Just as the sneh is tougher than all other trees and any bird that enters the sneh cannot emerge unharmed, so the Egyptian bondage was harsher before God than all others in the world, as it is said, “Havayah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people.” Thus, the pain and servitude of Israel were openly known to Him who spoke, and the world was created, as it says, “For I have known their pain.”
The attribute of Isaac our father, might (gevurah), is characterized by its power of contraction. The sages expounded about the Almighty, that although we might initially think that God is not connected with the world, even more so that he does not feel or share in His creatures’ pain, Rabbi Yochanan said: “Wherever you find His greatness, you find His humility.” God’s greatness is in His ability to contract, to lessen Himself as it were, to immerse Himself and experience, along with the creature, its pain.
Thorns and Roses
Just as the sneh grows both in a [watered] garden and by a river, so Israel are both in this world and in the World to Come. Alternately: Just as the sneh produces both thorns and roses, so Israel produces both righteous and wicked people.
Beauty (tiferet), Jacob’s attribute, is situated at the center of these five attributes and its special quality is the ability to sustain contrasting elements. The appeal of beauty is the in-gathering of different shades into a single whole. Likewise, the sneh can sustain opposites. It produces both thorns and roses (flowers), it grows both where there is no water—in a garden—and where water is plentiful—by a river. The Nation of Israel also sustains paradoxes within it forming a complex and beautiful single congregation that contains both righteous and wicked people.
We can now take this model of the five characteristics of the sneh and relate them to the five measures of might (gevurot) that originate from the sefirah of knowledge (da’at) and extend from loving-kindness to acknowledgment.
Each of the five traits of Divinity revealed through the sneh had to be “made available” to Moses so that he would agree to accept his mission. The Midrash also mentions that Moses took five steps to approach the sneh and these also correspond to these five traits of Divinity that strengthened him.
(from Einayich Berechot BeCheshbon, Shemot)
