Numbers 12 again shows the Hebrews in a bad light. This time it’s a family affair. Moses’ siblings, Aaron
and Miriam miserably misspoke, hurling reckless charges against the prophet. “And Miriam and Aaron
spoke against Moses” introduces a nasty tirade that threatened to rock the family, had the Creator not
come to Moses’ defense – to set the record straight. In his inimitable style, Abravanel rattles off a raft of
questions in order to better understand the siblings’ rancorous discontent.
“And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite
woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.”
- Aaron’s and Miriam’s outburst came from left field. What prompted it?
- Moses’ wife was Zipporah. Why isn’t her name mentioned in our chapter?
- Zipporah is called a Cushite, a description heretofore omitted. Why is the information shared
here?
For Abravanel, those questions are only the half of it. Talmudic sages and Biblical commentators suggest
that Moses’ siblings hit close to home as they meddled in the prophet’s and Zipporah’s spousal
relations. This particularly riled Abravanel and led him to wag his finger and bellow: “Who asked Aaron
and Miriam to be the custodians of Moses’ bedroom? Who appointed them sheriff over their brother’s
most intimate and private business, inner sanctum, and to barge in, so to speak?”
Abravanel’s World discusses these queries, and others, at length. We shall address one salient takeaway
here: How does the quality of Moses’ prophecy vastly differ from that of Aaron’s and Miriam’s? That
qualitative difference lies at the heart of the matter.
“And He said: "Hear now My words: if there be a prophet among you, I, God do make Myself known unto
him in a vision. I do speak with him in a dream.” God explains that among the prophets, the method by
which they heard the Creator and picked up divine communication had been via impaired or filtered
messaging broadcasts. In Torah parlance, “I, God, do make Myself known unto him in a vision.” Visions
are filtered through a man’s senses, and not pure intellect.
Additionally, the Maker might have communicated to the prophet “in a dream.” Dreams, of course,
carry rich or even fantastic imagery. Thus, when God appears to a seer in his sleep, still and all, the
communication leans heavily on a prophet’s imaginative powers. Imagination, too, rates lower than
pure intellect.
These limitations to perfectly lucid prophecies are the rule for ALL prophets, except Moses. When the
Creator reached out to Moses, no barrier blurred the conversation; messaging was pristine,
unadulterated. That’s what the Torah means when it says: “My servant Moses is not so; he is trusted in
all My house. With him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches.”
To sum up: Moses’ prophecy was of a fundamentally different caliber than Aaron’s and Miriam’s.
Because Moses availed himself to hear God 24/7, it meant, among other things, that he spent time in
quiet solitude, apart from family. As an expedient, the prophet had separated from Zipporah.
But Moses’ and Zipporah’s love life was nobody’s business, not even Aaron’s and Miriam’s, though both
were prophets. When they blurted out, God let them have it: “Wherefore then were you not afraid to
speak against My servant, against Moses? And God’s anger was kindled against them…”
In closing, Abravanel shows us that what began as a catty invasion of Moses’ and Zipporah’s personal
life would rapidly develop into an invaluable lesson on the subject of prophets and prophesy.
