Eliyahu Hajun – Jewish Studies Teacher

A man of words

The book of Devarim (Deuteronomy) begins with the words: “These are the words that Moshe addressed to all Israel on the other side of Jordan”. A whole book was required to include all of Moshe’s lengthy speech!

There is quite a contrast between this verse and how Moshe had portrayed himself in the past, when God wanted to make him the leader of the Jewish People. Back then Moshe said: “I am not a man of words. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).

And so, how is it that now he’s turned into such a big talker?

The Midrash answers this contradiction with the following parable:

Once upon a time there was a man who was selling scarlet coloured wool. As the king strode past, he glanced at the man. Upon hearing his voice, the king called to the man and said: “What are you selling?” The man responded back: “Nothing”. The king said: “I heard your voice, you said scarlet wool, and now you say nothing!” The man says to the king: “My lord, it is true; to me it is scarlet wool, but to you it is nothing”.

As with the parable of the man, the same is with Moshe. Before his Lord, God, who created the mouth and speech, Moshe says: “I am not a man of words”. However, to the Israelites he is.

A Message of Peace

Later in Parashat Devarim, on their way to Israel and after being told not to attack Edom and Moab, God commands Moshe to occupy Israel from Sihon. Surprisingly, Moshe does not carry out the instruction. Instead of starting a war, he started peace negotiations. The authors of the Midrash were puzzled by Moshe’s behaviour, wondering why he disobeyed God’s command.

Rashi’s interpretation is that God’s command preceded the sending of the angels of peace. These angels were sent on the initiative of Moshe, despite that command. Not only was God not resentful of this, but on the contrary, God agreed with him.

Why did Moshe choose peace over war? Rashi explains according to the Midrash, that the meaning of the verse: “Then I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to King Sihon of Heshbon with an offer of peace” (Deuteronomy 2:26) is that from both God’s leadership and the giving of the Torah we learned to strive for peace before war. God’s leadership becomes clear during their exodus from Egypt. Even though God knew that Pharaoh would not listen, he sent Moshe to him to try to negotiate.

Here too, Moshe operates in the same way. The divine commandment, not only was unequivocal in its obligation, but it also left no room for doubt that this would indeed happen in practice. Because of this, Moshe turns and offers Sihon the most generous peace deal he could. He knew for sure that God would harden his heart. Precisely because of this, he was not afraid to offer a peace proposal that explicitly contradicted the divine command. Only when he received a negative answer from Sihon, which was accompanied by the gathering of the army and a declaration of war, he went out to fight him.

There is a great moral lesson here for many areas of life. We all have many struggles throughout our life. Some of them are terrible and unjust. There is no doubt that every person who can fight for justice is required to do so with all his might. However, before going into battle, just and necessary as it may be, he would do well to start with peace talks, even if they may have no influence.