Monday, January 18, 2010

why Pharoh should have listened to Moshe

In the previous post I mentioned R' Shteinman's question as to why Pharoah should have been obligated to listen to Moshe -- the commandment to listen to a Navi is among the 613 mitzvos we are bound by, but not one of the 7 mitzvos bnei noach. R' Shteinman suggested that since it was obvious that Moshe was acting as the messenger of Hashem, Pharoah should have listened. In other words, as a comment put it, this is an extension of the basic mitzvah of emunah.

It occurred to me that one could answer the question based on an idea R' Elchanan elaborates on in Kuntres Divrei Sofrim which we discussed a few times in the past (see here). R' Elchanan suggested that the ratzon Hashem is its own mechayeiv -- that is, knowing what G-d wants, even if one is not explicitly commanded to act on that knowledge, demands a response. Bilam was punished for following the messenger's of Balak because he knew that G-d did not want him to curse the Jewish people, regardless of whether there was a formal command for him to desist from going. The Ramban maintains that we are bound to follow dinim derabbanan not because (as the Rambam writes) there is a command of "lo tasur", but simply because a din derabbanan is an expression of G-d's will. Here too in our case, it is not because a formal mitzvah to listen to a navi which obligated Pharoah to obey Moshe, but rather because Pharoah should have understood that Moshe's direction was the ratzon Hashem.

5 comments:

  1. The question is, what does the concept of mitzva add?

    It seems to be a law vs a direct command from the King

    pc :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not sure what you mean -- you mean dif. between mitzvah vs. ratzon Hashem?

    ReplyDelete
  3. > R' Shteinman suggested that since it was obvious that Moshe was acting as the messenger of Hashem, Pharoah should have listened.

    One could suggest that was Rav Shteinman meant was "When God speaks it is obvious that you must listen" irregardless of whether or not it's written down somewhere you should.


    Besides, you know that there might have been an obligation for him to listen, and Moshe knew there might have been an obligation for him to listen but Pharoah probably didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  4. >>>When God speaks

    But he didn't hear G-d speaking, he heard Moshe telling him secondhand what G-d said. That's the problem.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Which is an even better reason not to listen, yes?

    ReplyDelete