ספר שמות

An alternate way of understanding the introductory words: ‎ואתה תצוה את בני ישראל‎, “and you are to command the ‎Children of Israel, etc.” When G’d told Moses in Exodus 3,10: ‎לכה ‏ואשלחך אל פרעה‎, “go and I will send you to Pharaoh,” the Ari ‎z’al finds it strange that G’d had to spell out to Moses that He ‎appointed him as His messenger. Every child reading this ‎paragraph would have understood this without being told that ‎Moses was the messenger. However, we have a rule that anything ‎negative never originates directly from G’d. G’d does not even ‎directly associate His holy name with something destructive, ‎negative. It is even difficult for G’d to directly bring harm on ‎those of His creatures who worship idols. Therefore, when the ‎Torah introduces a chapter that introduces the harm that will ‎befall Pharaoh and his people, G’d wishes to employ a ‎‎“messenger” to be the harbinger of such news. The word ‎לכה‎ ‎therefore is not to be understood as derived from ‎לך‎, meaning: ‎‎“please go,” but as derived from the word ‎לך‎, “for you.” In other ‎words, the primary purpose of Pharaoh’s punishment if and when ‎it will occur, is “for your benefit,” it is not the destruction that ‎is part of the Exodus which is G’d’s primary purpose in what will ‎follow. The secondary meaning is that the destruction when it ‎does occur, will be attributed to Moses who had warned Pharaoh ‎about it, i.e. ‎לכה‎, it will be perceived by him as originating with ‎Moses. Moreover being punished by one of G’d’s creatures, Moses, ‎instead of by the Creator Himself, is demeaning for a great King ‎such as Pharaoh.‎The considerations that we discussed right now, help us ‎explain a statement in the Talmud that in the distant future, the ‎time of the Messiah, the entire Jewish nation will be worthy to ‎perform the service in the Temple which at this time only the ‎priests are worthy to perform. If G’d has difficulty in bringing ‎harm on any of His creatures however much they may have ‎deserved this, how much more so does He have reservations ‎about initiating what may be perceived as harm for a great part of ‎His people. When Moses is commanded to single out the priests ‎for service in the Temple, the priestly garments, etc., this too He ‎prefers to do through a messenger rather than to exclude the ‎other 99% of the people from such a distinction Himself.‎