Exodus 7:9: “When Pharaoh says to you: ‘Prove yourself by working a miracle.’
It is interesting to note that the word for prove here is not nacah which means to prove. The writer is using the word Nathan. This was another vocabulary word that I found easy to remember in my first year Hebrew class. I just thought of Nathan Hale, “I have but one life to give for my country.” That old boy must have had some PR guy working for him when he came up with the name Nathan, because it is a Hebrew word meaning to give. Those in my class probably remember learning that this word was formulated to start with a Nun and end with a Nun. This shows a circular pattern. The Final Nun does not have a foot on the bottom but the line extends below the page. This shows that the first Nun, which represents faith, passes through the Taw which represents praise or prayer from the heart, goes back to another Nun (faith) but the Nun is not closed so it is given out and then, because of the circular nature of the word, it comes back to you again. The sages see two representations for the word nathan. The first is when you pray in faith the prayer comes back to you answered. The other representation is that when you give, you will receive back so that you will always have something to give.
Curiously in Exodus 7:9 nathan is followed by the word takem (to you or for you). Nathan is used as a verb here and the writer could have easily put this into a Hithpael form. The remez is why add the prepositional phrase? The answer may be found in the next word, mopheth which is rendered in many English texts as miracle. However, this is not the usual Hebrew word for miracle although it is used two times for miracle, once here. The Hebrew word for miracle is “owth. Mopheth comes from the root word yaphath. This has the idea of sign or wonder used as a form of intimidation. Quite literally what Pharaoh was telling Moses was: “Make yourself an intimidation to me.”
That is understandable. Here was the Pharaoh, he was considered a god. Here was Moses, an outcast representing the slavery class and Pharaoh was saying: “Who are you and who is this God of yours. You don’t scare me. Go ahead and try to intimidate me.” The Talmud puts it this way: “Give yourself credibility by displaying a sign.
There is a story in Jewish literature about a simple man and his wife who owned a small inn. The man would spend all his time in prayer and study of Torah. When a guest would come, the wife would call the man and he would come and prepare the meal and bed for the visitor. He was just a simple man. One day his brother in law, a very learned and well recognized rabbi was passing through and stopped to spend the night in the inn. The rabbi thought to himself how unfortunate it was that he should spend the night with this simple boring brother in law. When he arrived he began to order the brother in law around, telling to feed his horse, prepare his meal etc.
The next day was Friday and the rabbi was anxious to leave to spend the Sabbath with his learned friends, so that he might study Torah with them and discover the mysteries of God. After a hasty breakfast the rabbi prepared to leave and the rabbi’s brother in law asked if maybe the rabbi would honor them and spend the Sabbath with them. The rabbi thinking what a bore it would be to spend the Sabbath with this simple man and his sister said he had important and learned friends to spend the Sabbath with and needed to be on his way. But he had no sooner left than a wheel on his carriage broke. He returned, had it repaired and went on his way again. This time the other wheel broke. He returned had it repaired and went on his way again. The third time his harness broke. By now it was too late to travel and he was forced to spend the Sabbath with the simple, boring brother in law.
During the Sabbath dinner the brother in law expounded on a passage of Torah that the rabbi just rolled his eyes and thought what a simple understanding this man has and to himself laughed it off.
That night as the rabbi prepared for bed he saw the glow of a fire in the dinning room. He called for his sister and cried: “There is a fire in the dinning room, we must put it out. They raced to the dinning room and there the rabbi found no fire but his brother in law sitting by a candle studying Torah and his face glowed with a brilliant light. The rabbi immediately thought of the Torah passage that evening and his brother in laws explanation and knew that he had been given insight into the deep mysteries of God.
If we truly are in God’s service as Moses, God will give us the mopheth – credibility.
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