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Redemption: Mosheand Bris Milah

Isaiah Cox Joseph Cox

The Gemara in Shabbos (133b)makes a direct link between theexpression in Az Yashir (“This ismy G-d and I will beautify him”)and bris milah. Chazal hold thata mohel, when doing a bris onShabbos, must be careful to doa beautiful job, to leave no extrastrips of skin hanging off oranything unsightly for even ashort time. Indeed, even if themitzvah has been done, and thebrachos said, etc. – andsomeone notices that the jobwas not aesthetic, then somehold that the mohel is obligatedto tidy up even though it is aseparate act, and it is done onShabbos Kodesh. In this case,beautifying a mitzvah trumpsShabbos itself. That same pasukcontinues with “elokei avi,va'arom'menhu” – an explicitlink between bris milah,Shabbos, beautifying a mitzvah,and a promise by Moshe that hewill exalt the G-d of his father. The linkage is, as usual, notcoincidental.Shabbos is a direct mitzvah of Hashem, symbolizing thecompletion of Hashem’screation. Bris, on the other

(With input from Bruce Greene, andthanks to Arnold Cohen for teaching methe Gemara in Shabbos)

hand, is a mitzvah of the 8

day,the first day of man’s work tocomplete Hashem’s work inbriyas haolam. If every person isthe equal of the entire world,then the bris is man’s first act tomatch Hashem, to, in the wordsof Abba Shaul, change “ze keliv’anveyhu” to “ze keli ve ani vehu” – this is my G-d, and I will belike him; I will seek to emulateHashem in all that I do. And thefirst step is milah, to improveupon the raw human body bydedicating its reproductiveorgan to the service of Hashem.Such an act trumps Shabbos.Hashem’s choice of phrase, “theG-d of my father,” appears insefer Shemos only 3 places –and it is an odd phrase to beginwith, since it does not name anyother forebears, as Yaakov haddone. Hashem never uses thephrase with anyone else. In ourtefillah we refer to the G-d of ourfathers, and not the G-d of ourfather. The formulation seems tobe unique to Moshe – why?What was between Moshe andhis father?We know from the Midrash (Ex.Rabb III:1) that Hashem usedMoshe’s father’s voice tointroduce himself – and theMidrash suggests that Moshewas happy to hear that hisfather was mentioned byHashem; it meant that Moshe’sfather was important. But whatkind of grown son worries aboutwhether his father is important? The answer of course, is onewho cannot be sure. Moshe was

not raised in his father’s house,and did not have, by any stretchof the imagination, a normalchildhood or relationship withhis biological family.If one sees Moshe as someonewho was the ultimate Baal Teshuvah, identifying with hisfather was his way of growingroots to his own people. Moshewas not raised in the midst of Jewish history; it is Hashem whoexplains to Moshe that talkingabout Avraham, Isaac, and Jacobwill resonate with the people,that these are the names andfigures that hearken back to awonderful time of connectionwith Hashem. For Moshe, thelink is not really a nationalaffinity – but he is aware of hisfather. This connectionmattered, which is why Hashem,in attracting Moshe to his cause,invokes Moshe’s father, and hedoes so by his title and not hisname. The name of Moshe’sfather was not as important ashis relation, so he is identifiednot by name but by reference tohis son.So “the G-d of my father” isMoshe’s special name forHashem. Hashem invokes it thefirst time: at the burning bush,G-d identifies himself to Moshe,“I am the G-d of your father.”But the following times it isMoshe that uses the phrase: inAz Yashir, when Moshe says“this is the G-d of my father andI will exalt him.” And the third isin Parshas Yisro, when theexplanation for Eliezer’s name isgiven: “The G-d of my fathercame to my aid.” These are all connected, andthey are connected through theentire story of Moshe’s secondson, and his bris.In the middle of this is theincident with Eliezer. Gershom,the older brother, was bornbefore the burning bush. Eliezer,it seems, was born at almostexactly the same time as theburning bush. We know thisbecause his bris was supposedto happen within 3 days of traveling to Mitzrayim, andMoshe puts off the bris forsafety reasons.When Moshe and Zipporah andtheir sons get to an inn nearEgypt, an angel comes, furiousthat the bris has not yetoccurred. At that point, Rashitells us, they were close enoughto Egypt that the danger to lifefrom traveling would have beenmitigated, and Moshe shouldhave acted more rapidly to fulfillthe mitzvah.So Zipporah does the bris, witha stone. And then they meetAharon. Rashi tells us thatAharon asks Moshe why he isbringing a wife and children intoEgypt when it is going to bedifficult enough to get everyoneelse out! Moshe promptly turnshis family around and sendsthem back to his father-in-law.Note that there is no mentionthat Moshe has given his secondson a name. And note that the

bris was not done beautifully;Zipporah (who, as the mother,did not have the directobligation in the first place) wasin a hurry, used a stone, and herwords to Moshe clearly showthat all in all, she was not happy.We can easily guess why;without consulting with her (as Yaakov had done with his wives)Moshe had quickly taken her outof her father’s house when shewas either very pregnant or had just had a newborn; so when itcame, Aharon’s suggestion thatZipporah go back to her fatherwas not unwelcome advice toeither Moshe or Zipporah.Interestingly, Moshe did noteven perform the bris himself –which may be a parallel toMoshe and his father; Moshewas born without a foreskin, soeven if Amram performed thebloodletting, Moshe did not geta “normal” bris. And now thesecond son (Eliezer) of thesecond son (Moshe) had missedthe opportunity to establish thisfundamental link in Judaismbetween a father and his son. Jump forward to the Exodus.Moshe leads the people in Az Yashir, and he says: “This is myG-d and I will glorify him, the G-d of my father, and I will exalthim.” [emphasis added] Mosheis not using the commonexpression, through which all of Israel refer to G-d as the G-d of our fathers, Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is a reference toMoshe’s father, and to theburning bush itself. Moshe ismaking a promise to G-d tocorrect his oversights in thepast, to beautify his relationshipwith G-d, and to make amendsfor the events surroundingEliezer’s bris. Eliezer apparently is not namedat the bris, and there was notime to name him afterward,since Aharon meets them andthe family is sent packing backto Yisro. I posit that it is onlywhen Yisro brings the familyback to Moshe that Moshenames his second son Eliezer“for the G-d of my father cameto my aid.” Moshe takes thisopportunity to name his son, todo it in direct praise of Hashemfor saving him from Pharoah’ssword. Moshe uses the specialphrase “G-d of my father” toacknowledge that he is fulfillingthe promise Moshe made at thesinging of Az Yashir, that Moshewill exalt Hashem (in this case,by naming his son “G-d is myhelper”).And we see why Shabbos is suchan important link within thewhole story. When Hashem tellsMoshe to assume a leadershiprole, change history for all time,and liberate the Jewish people,the state of his family is, notsurprisingly, not at the top of his“to-do” list. Surely bris milahcan wait a little. But we learnhere that this is not thehalachah. The most importantcommandments from Hashem(like Shabbos, and perhaps evenleading the Jews from Egypt)pale before the mitzvah of bris

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