Parshas Shemos
After stretching her arm miraculously across the river and saving the life of Klal Yisroel’s future leader, Basya adopted the Jewish child whom she had drawn from the Nile. The passuk states that she named him Moshe (from the verb root MaSHA – to extract) due to the fact that “Min hamayim meshisihu – From the water I [Basya] pulled him.” Interestingly, although Chazal state that Moshe actually possessed many different names, Basya’s choice developed not only into the name by which he is widely recognized, but into the name used almost exclusively by both the Torah and Hashem.
Yet the fact that the name achieved such a degree of spiritual popularity is practically bewildering. As is well known, Chazal attach deep importance and meaning to a person’s name. A name symbolizes the very core of a person. What can this life-saving event have to do with Moshe Rabbeinu’s essence?
The Seforno, perhaps in an attempt to resolve this difficulty, delves rather deeper into Basya’s selection and explains that she utilized the root MaSHA (pulling) to symbolize that Moshe Rabbeinu was a savior who possessed the ability and drive to extract his fellow man from the bowels of distress and hardship. In accordance with this explanation, the Seforno interprets the passuk’s words “Min hamayim meshisihu – [Basya chose the name ‘Moshe’ because] from the water I [Basya] pulled him” as appropriate due to the name’s referencing of an episode which foreshadowed Moshe’s inherent nature as one who would rescue his brethren from trouble. Basya understood that if the baby was deserving of miraculously being pulled and rescued from the Nile River, he must be a person who would himself attempt, in the future, to pull others from distress.
Rav Aryeh Finkel, shlit”a, adds that the Seforno’s interpretation of Moshe’s name more strictly adheres to the word’s particular grammatical properties than does the basic understanding. Technically, the word moshe is defined as pulling out or one who pulls out. However, according to the simple explanation of Basya’s choice, which interprets the name Moshe as merely being commemorative of his personal salvation, the word cannot be labeling Moshe as one who pullsout but must refer instead to Moshe having himself been pulled out.
Regardless of the precise grammatical benefits of the Seforno’s interpretation, he certainly clarifies in what manner the name hints to Moshe’s essence. He was the moshe, the extractor and savior of Klal Yisroel. As the chosen agent of Hakadosh Baruch Hu, he released the Jewish nation from their enslavement to Pharaoh, led them through the midbar for forty years, and pleaded for Hashem’s mercy following their every misstep and iniquity.
In fact, the midrash (Shemos Raba, 2:6) states that Hakadosh Baruch Hu began appearing to Moshe – and chose him as the leader of the Jewish nation – because He saw that Moshe possessed “tza’ar liros – a pain simply from seeing the suffering of his Jewish brethren.” Indeed, even before beginning to receive prophecy he was constantly being nosei b’ol im chaveiro. While still a prince of Egypt, he would abandon the comforts of his palace to physically assist his Jewish brothers with their back-breaking labor and would not hesitate to haul the exceedingly heavy bricks with which the Jews were forced to build in order to ease the plight of his brothers. Moshe would constantly encourage them and attempt to boost their broken spirits. “How I wish Hashem would accept my life in place of yours,” he would declare sadly.
Moshe Rabbeinu experienced the pain of his brethren as though it was literally his own and was thereby zoche to the love of Hakadosh Baruch Hu. Indeed, Hashem reserves a unique love for those who go out of their way to help and feel for other Jews. The midrash (Bereishis Raba 33:3) records an episode which strongly highlights this point. During a severe drought which occurred during the time of Rabi Tanchuma, a man was observed sending money to a lady whom he had divorced. However, when the man was brought before Rabi Tanchuma on suspicion of illicit interaction with his former wife, it was clarified that the man’s intention had simply been to ease the hardship of a woman who had suddenly found herself without a husband to provide for her financial support. Immediately upon this discovery, Rabi Tanchuma raised his eyes to shamayim and begged Hashem, “Ribon Kol Ha’olamim, if a man with absolutely no obligation to provide sustenance saw his former wife in distress and was filled with compassion, should it not follow that You, Rachum V’Chanun, should become filled with mercy when the descendants of your beloved Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov are suffering? (loose translation)” Immediately, in the zechus of that one act of kindness and compassion, the drought ceased.
Rav Shach, zt”l, once related to a close talmid that he had been unable to sleep for several nights due to his heavy involvement with the shidduchim of a certain bachur. The young man, who was not even a talmid of Rav Shach’s yeshiva, had experienced great difficulty finding a match and had been growing steadily older. Finally, Rav Shach explained, a shidduch had been found. However, due to the financial negotiations decided upon by the two families and the lack of adequate funds, it was likely to fall through completely. Rav Shach had already pledged 20,000 NIS and requested that the person with whom he was speaking assist in raising the rest of the monies. Now let us pause for a moment and contemplate the stature of Rav Shach. He was the venerated rosh yeshiva of Ponovezh whose time remained constantly taxed by dealing with his talmidim, running his large yeshiva, and preparing for his shiurim. In addition, he was the undisputed leader of the Torah world – both in Israel and abroad. How did he muster the mental energy necessary to become so involved in the issues of one person so as to actually lose sleep over the matter? Yet, somehow Rav Shach made the effort not only to provide personal monetary assistance to a Jew in need, but to attempt to truly feel his brother’s pain like his own.
“Ein Hakadosh Baruch Hu oheiv elah l’mi she’oheiv es Yisroel. V’chol mah she’adam magdil ahavaso l’yisroel, gam Hakadosh Baruch Hu magdil alav – G-d does not love anyone but one who loves the members of Klal Yisroel. And in accordance with every degree that a person increases his love for the members of Klal Yisroel, so too does G-d increase His love upon the person. (Mesillas Yesharim, end of perek 19 – loose translation)”
May we grow to the level of genuinely empathizing with our brethren and thereby be zoche to the ahava of Hakadosh Baruch Hu.