Va’era 5780 – Vaydaber Hashem el Moshe Laimor

Vay’daber Hashem el Moshe Laimor. This recurring passuk first appears in our parsha. It’s often glossed over. Assuming it’s just a simple introductory passuk, we mentally skip it – which prevents us from hearing the tochen within it.

What does it mean? We have a couple different approaches in the Rishonim. The Radak explains it k’pshuto – Hashem told Moshe to say to either Klal Yisroel, or in this case Paroah.¹

The Ramban says it means Hashem told to something to Moshe clearly and emphatically. The double-usage of speech is emphasizing that Hashem’s words were definitive, there was no vaguery in HKBH’s communication to Moshe.

The Gra has different mehalech. It’s a Gra is on the passuk in Mishlei.²

בְּנִי לִדְבָרַי הַקְשִׁיבָה לַאֲמָרַי הַט אָזְנֶךָ: “Listen to my dibbur, lend an ear to my amira.” So this passuk also differentiates between dibbur and amira, and the Gra says the following:

“Dibbur hu divrei Torah atzma – v’amira hi pnimius haTorah im kavanseha.”

Dibur is the words of Torah. Amira is the pnimi’us. And he says this is pshat in Vaydaber Hashem el moshe Laimor. Moshe just needed Dibur, and he was able hear the pnimus on his own. But Klal Yisroel needed to be taught about Amira.

The Ga’on is saying that our passuk is teaching us about two aspects contained within the words of Torah, and I want to unpack this idea.

There’s another similar instance of this, we find in the passuk כֹּה תֹאמַר לְבֵית יַעֲקֹב וְתַגֵּיד לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל. Rashi brings Mechilta:³⁴

לבית יעקב. אֱמֹר בְּלָשׁוֹן רַכָּה רָאשֵׁי הַדְּבָרִים לַנָּשִׁים: ותגיד לבני ישראל. עונשין ודקדוקין פירש לזכרים

Rashi, Shemos 19:3

So we always understand this to mean that the women are softer, so speak to them about softer topics. And the men are more rugged, so you can speak to them about about harsher topics, like gehennim and stuff like that.

I understand that, but listen to the words. For women we teach them Roshei Hadvarim – the broad perspective, the 10,000-foot view. This doesn’t just sound like soft fluffy language. And the guys we teach “dikdukim.” This doesn’t sound so harsh. Yes, Onshim is harsh. But dikdukim means the details of halachos. What’s so harsh about that?

The havana’s like this:

When a person speaks they have an inner world they are trying to express – their ideas, ideals, emotions. These are vast concepts which have a richness in the inner world of the person, but because they are so vast, they are hard to concretize and share with others.

Then the person speaks. They give it finite form, that package it and make it tangible, and now it can be shared and received by another. It’s yadu’ah that the word dibbur is the same shoresh as davar, because my thoughts need to crystalize into a tangible thing in order to be given over.

So, my dibbur enables me to convey something from my inner world, but there’s a downside. By putting into concrete form, I truncate the richness and it loses its vastness. The listener may not be able to detect my inner world just from my dibburim.

This is where Amira comes in. Amira is where my words can transport the listener beyond the exact letter of the law, beyond the literal translation of my dibburim, and can help them detect my inner world.

There’s another Rashi that is pretty much conveying this idea. The passuk says: וַיהוָֹה פָּקַד אֶת שָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר אָמָר וַיַּעַשׂ יְהֹוָה לְשָׂרָה כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֵּר: Again, the distinction between ka’asher Amar and ka’asher diber.⁵

Rashi says: כאשר אמר. בהריון: כאשר דבר. בלידה. The Amira was the pregnancy. The Dibur was the actual child.

L’chora, Sara wanted a child. So, why do we care about the pregnancy? Just say Hashem gave her the child that she wanted?

The answer is that Sara didn’t just want a child to have and hold and satisfy her stam maternal drive. She wanted a child that would convey her inner ratzon for a klal Yisroel. She wanted the final product, but she also wanted the capacity within which shapes and codifies her vast inner world and transmits it to the child. HKBH gave her both – a pregnancy which codifies her inner world, and he also gave her the final product, the child.

And the layers of parallelism are b’diyuk! Dibbur parallels the concrete output. Amira parallels the vast inner world which has more to offer. The illustration is also b’diyuk! Speech and Birth parallel each other. The process of speech is akin to the process of bringing child into the world. It starts with Amira, the vast inner idealism, and concludes with dibbur, the definitive, concrete output.

This is also true when HKBH communicates. HKBH communicates with Amira & with Dibbur. He created the world with asara maamaros. That means that within the world there’s HKBH’s Ratzon. The world we encounter has a depth behind the surface. Unfortunately, when we see that world we have no clue what to do with it. It’s there. But what’s the point of it? We don’t know what’s being communicated. So HKBH’s communicates the aseres hadibros. These are the l’ma’aseh, tangible aspects of HKBH’s words. HKBH’s dibburim give us something concrete, and tell us what we need to do.

However, we need to make sure our preoccupation with dibburim doesn’t prevent us from hearing His ma’maros.

L’mashal: Imagine a person shares they have a dream for a big house. And the person says, “okay, how many square feet do you want in the kitchen closet?” You’ll look at him as if he’s clearly not hearing you. I’m talking big picture. I have a desire for a big house.

But when you’re l’maasah starting to build, you need to know every square inch, down to the number of screws.

This is the Amira & Dibbur by the women and men. The women are taught “roshei hadvarim” the broad perspective of HKBH’s inner ratzon. Women are given the perspective of the ideal, the big picture of HKBH’s Ratzon.

But, the idealism needs to land on the l’ma’aseh. The men are taught the dikdukim and the onshin. The dikdukim is the l’maseh. In concrete terms, how big is the kitchen closet, down to the exact square foot.

The men are also taught Onshim. The pshat is that Men are given torah as a reality, not as an ideal. An Onesh is a fact of the metzius. For example – If you stick your finger in a socket, you get zapped. It’s not a harsh reality. It’s simply reality. Dibburim are not the things you ought to do, or ought to not do. If it’s only something you ought to do, then it’s lacking the tokef of a metzius. Instead it’s an ideal. With the women, it starts as an inviting, welcoming ideal. With the men, it starts as a concrete metzius.

In Yeshiva, there’s a often an over-emphasis on the dibburim. The dikdukim, the onshim. There’s a focus on learning skills, how many blatt, a very defined output. And of course this is important. But the dibbur is not meant to block our access to the inner amira. HKBH told Moshe “laimor” give them the dibbur, but enable them to detect the amira within. Sensitize them to hear the deeper messages, too.

Our ears need to be tuned in. Not just limited to muttar vs assur. You can always find something which is technically within bounds, but a tuned-in person can feel whether it really is or isn’t the ratzon Hashem.

A spiritually alive person is not just someone who is makpid on halacha. Again, it’s important, but much more important is to have shaychus to the vast world beyond the words. A spiritually alive person is dialed into the inner Amira of Torah.

B”ezH, we’ll hear the Vaydaber Moshe, but also be zoche to hear the laimor.

Good Shabbos!