של נעליך, “remove your shoes.” Shmos 3,5
According to the plain meaning of the text the angel warned Moses to remove his shoes on account of the holiness of the site. This was to serve as a warning not to be disrespectful, i.e., nonchalant, when he would be addressed by the שכינה, “G’d’s Presence” (compare Berachot 54). We find something similar in Exodus 23,12 where G’d tells Moses to be on his guard in the presence of the angel as G’d’s name was within him.
A rational approach to our verse: the term של נעליך is not to be confused with the term חלוץ נעליך. Whereas the latter means: ”take off your shoes,” similar to the expression שלוף נעליך, in Ruth 4,7 “taking off a sandal,” or to Deut. 25,9, “she will strip off his shoe,” the word של is related to שלילה, something negative and means that there was no need for Moses to wear shoes in such a place. He was warned to strip off what the shoe represented, i.e. material concerns. The act of removing his shoes was a mental preparation to ready him to become G’d’s vessel, His prophet. The lesson was that just as a man can take off his shoe at will, so he can divest himself of material concerns and concentrate on spiritual concerns. Instead of remaining attached to the עור, the leather of his shoe, he should become attached to the enlightening properties of his illuminating intellect, his אור השכל. When Joshua received a similar command in Joshua 4,15 he was told של נעלך, “remove your shoe (singular).” The difference between Moses and Joshua was that Moses had separated from his wife and was thus able to divorce himself more easily from earthly concerns. Joshua had not. G’d had told Moses in Deut. 5,28: “you- stay here with Me,” something which had enabled him to remain closer to G’d and to holiness.
A Kabbalistic approach: the words של נעליך suggest that the Shechinah was revealed to Moses on two levels, in two colours, i.e. “white” fire and “black” fire. These two “colors” symbolized the two attributes, the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy respectively. The words אל תקרב הלום של, “do not come closer, remove!” meant that the reverence Moses was to display for G’d’s Majesty as well as for the sacredness of the site should stop his attempt to inspect the phenomenon more closely. Another thing which was hinted to Moses at this time was that the Torah which would be written in black fire on white fire would be given at this site. This is the reason that G’d used the expression של, i.e., the two letters of this word are the first two letters of שחור and לבן “black and white,” respectively.
The plain meaning of the words “what is His name?” is: “what is the proof of His existence?” Shmos 3,15
Moses wanted to know how to convince the people that G’d exercised supervision both of the universe and the fate of His people, something which had been sorely absent for so many years. He wanted that G’d reveal to him an attribute which would be adequate to convince the leaders of the people that He was real and took a real interest in them. This is the reason G‘d replied א-היה אשר א-היה, “I shall be whoever I shall be”, i.e. that He was the only true existence of this universe, that all other phenomena in this world are transient, bound to expire sooner or later. G’d meant for Moses to explain this concept to the elders of the people.
כבד פה וכבד לשון אנכי “I am slow of speech and slow of tongue,” Shmos 4,10
Moshe meant that seeing that he had been so handicapped from his earliest youth, now that he was already eighty years old this handicap had become much more difficult for him to conquer. He implied that seeing G’d had not seen fit to cure him of this affliction this was proof that he was not the right man for the mission G’d wanted to send him on. Actually, the only reason G’d had never cured him of his stammer had been that Moses had been remiss in not praying to be cured. The reason he did not pray to be cured was so as to avoid having no excuse to refuse this mission.
Rabbeinu Chananel writes that the fact that Moses mentioned two facets of his handicap separately, i.e., כבד פה and כבד לשון is proof that he had difficulty enunciating the letters ז-ש-ר-ס-ץ all of which require one’s teeth. Furthermore, he mentioned the word כבד לשון to indicate that he also had difficulty with the letters involving the tongue, i.e., ק-ט-ל -נ -ת.
