13 Jan MOSHE RABBEINU

In the parshios that we
are reading these days,
we learn about arguably
the greatest person
to ever live, Moshe
Rabbeinu. Did you ever
wonder why we call him
Moshe Rabbeinu and
not the more customary sequence, Rabbeinu
Moshe, in the same manner that we say Rebbe
Yochanan and Rav Ashi, putting the title
first? In the Sefer HaChaim, written by the
brother of the Maharal of Prague, he asks this
question and he gives a fascinating answer.
He says that this deviation reveals that Moshe
was not chosen because he was rabbeinu,
primarily because of his great intellectual
prowess (which he assuredly had). Rather, he
is identified this way because he comported
himself as a mere Moshe, a humble man.
As the verse testifies, “V’ha’ish Moshe anav
me’od mikol adam – And the man Moshe
was the most humble of all men.” Therefore,
we put the name Moshe before the honorific
Rabbeinu. The Sefer HaChaim says it’s for
a similar reason that we say Yishaya HaNavi
and Yirmiyahu HaNavi and not the reverse
HaNavi Yishaya and HaNavi Yirmiyahu.
We have another example of this phenomena
in recent times. We called the Gadol HaDor
by the title Reb, namely, Reb Moshe Feinstein,
zt”l, zy”a. The man who himself gave smicha,

rabbinic ordination to thousands of people
wasn’t ever referred to with the honorific
Rav. He was universally referred to using the
more casual Reb. I believe this carries the
same message. It wasn’t only his unparalleled
gaones, genius in Torah, his incredible
hasmada, diligence, and his remarkably pure
character. It was also his unsurpassed humility
that endeared him to all Klal Yisroel.
In general, Klal Yisroel chooses its great
people very differently than does the other
nations. Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman, zt”l,
zy”a, never ran for office. Rav Pam, zt”l, zy”a,
never strutted his credentials. To the contrary,
they ran from honor and it was that very
humility that knighted them to be the leaders
of our people.
It’s also remarkable that words ‘Moshe
Rabbeinu’ (rabbeinu spelled with a yud after
the beis) is exactly the gematria of 613,
because it would be Moshe Rabbeinu who
would give the tarya”g mitzvos, the 613
mitzvos from Hashem to Klal Yisroel. The
Sheim HaGedolim writes that there was never
a Tanna (from the period of the Mishna) or
Amora (from the period of the Gemara) who
was called Moshe, in honor of the unique
greatness of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Ramban
writes that he didn’t refer to the incredible
Rambam as Rabbeinu Moshe in deference to
Moshe Rabbeinu. On the tombstone of the
Rambam is the epitaph, “Mi’Moshe ad Moshe

lo kam k’Moshe,” that from Moshe Rabbeinu
to the Rambam, there was never anyone like
Moshe (the Rambam). It’s interesting that
later in time, in Krakow on the grave of the
Rama, Rav Moshe Isserles, the posek who
added to the Shulchan Orech the halachos of
Ashkenazi Jewry, it also says “Mi Moshe ad
Moshe lo kam k’Moshe.”
The name Moshe itself, one of 10 names that
the Medrash tells us Moshe Rabbeinu had,
was given to him by Bisya, Paroh’s daughter,
to commemorate the miracle that her hand
stretched out, telescoping 400 amos, cubits, to
retrieve him from the water of the Nile. Thus,
its explanation “Min hamayim mishisihu,” that
I was enabled to draw him from the water. It
also connotes that Moshe Rabbeinu caused all
future Jewish boys to be saved from the water
for, when he was put into the Nile, Paroh’s
stargazers told him that the future leader of
Klal Yisroel was already cast in the water. So,
in essence, Moshe Rabbeinu saved all future
Jewish boys from being drowned.
But the name Moshe (mem-shin-hei) is also so
obviously fitting for this future leader of Klal
Yisroel because it is composed with the same
letters as the Name Hashem (Hei-shin-mem).
For, as the verse tells us, “Lo rao panim el panim
k’Moshem – No man saw G-d face to face,”
like Moshe. Furthermore, there is a Medrash
that teaches when Moshe was shepherding
Yisro’s flock, one of the sheep became feverish

and sluggish. Moshe Rabbeinu lovingly lifted
it up onto his shoulders and carried it back to
the corral. Hashem announced, ‘Since this is
the way you take care of your flock, I want
you to take care of My flock.’ How incredible
that the name Moshe is the same letters as the
word miseh, from a sheep (by changing the
letter shin to the letter sin), for it was from a
sheep that Moshe was chosen to be the leader
of Klal Yisroel. The Gemara tells us shma
garim, a name foretells the destiny of a person.
How clear this is when we look at the name of
Moshe Rabbeinu.
Finally, Rabbeinu Efraim reveals that the
name Tziporah, Moshe Rabbeinu’s wonderful
wife, has a gematria of 375. This is the same
gematria as l’Moshe, meaning to Moshe,
indicating that although she lived in faraway
Midyan, and was the daughter of a former
Midyanite priest, she was Moshe Rabbeinu’s
true basherte.
When we see future events embedded in Jewish
names, it precludes the element of chance and
strengthens our emunah. In the merit of our
studying about this great man, may he be a
Meilitz Yosher, a good intercessor, that we
have long life, good health, and everything
wonderful.