Redemption: Moshe
the first day of man’s work to
and Bris Milah
Isaiah Cox
Joseph Cox1
The Gemara in Shabbos (133b)
makes a direct link between the
expression in Az Yashir (“This is
my G-d and I will beautify him”)
and bris milah. Chazal hold that
a mohel, when doing a bris on
Shabbos, must be careful to do
a beautiful job, to leave no extra
strips of skin hanging off or
anything unsightly for even a
short time. Indeed, even if the
mitzvah has been done, and the
brachos said, etc. – and
someone notices that the job
was not aesthetic, then some
hold that the mohel is obligated
to tidy up even though it is a
separate act, and it is done on
Shabbos Kodesh. In this case,
beautifying a mitzvah trumps
Shabbos itself. That same pasuk
continues with “elokei avi,
va'arom'menhu” – an explicit
link between bris milah,
Shabbos, beautifying a mitzvah,
and a promise by Moshe that he
will exalt the G-d of his father.
The linkage is, as usual, not
coincidental.
Shabbos is a direct mitzvah of
Hashem, symbolizing the
completion of Hashem’s
creation. Bris, on the other
1
 (With input from Bruce Greene, and  whether his father is important?
thanks to Arnold Cohen for teaching me  The answer of course, is one
the Gemara in Shabbos)
hand, is a mitzvah of the 8th day,
complete Hashem’s work in
briyas haolam. If every person is
the equal of the entire world,
then the bris is man’s first act to
match Hashem, to, in the words
of Abba Shaul, change “ze keli
v’anveyhu” to “ze keli ve ani ve
hu” – this is my G-d, and I will be
like him; I will seek to emulate
Hashem in all that I do. And the
first step is milah, to improve
upon the raw human body by
dedicating its reproductive
organ to the service of Hashem.
Such an act trumps Shabbos.
Hashem’s choice of phrase, “the
G-d of my father,” appears in
sefer Shemos only 3 places –
and it is an odd phrase to begin
with, since it does not name any
other forebears, as Yaakov had
done. Hashem never uses the
phrase with anyone else. In our
tefillah we refer to the G-d of our
fathers, and not the G-d of our
father. The formulation seems to
be unique to Moshe – why?
What was between Moshe and
his father?
We know from the Midrash (Ex.
Rabb III:1) that Hashem used
Moshe’s father’s voice to
introduce himself – and the
Midrash suggests that Moshe
was happy to hear that his
father was mentioned by
Hashem; it meant that Moshe’s
father was important. But what
kind of grown son worries about
who cannot be sure. Moshe was
not raised in his father’s house,
and did not have, by any stretch
of the imagination, a normal
childhood or relationship with
his biological family.
If one sees Moshe as someone
who was the ultimate Baal
Teshuvah, identifying with his
father was his way of growing
roots to his own people. Moshe
was not raised in the midst of
Jewish history; it is Hashem who
explains to Moshe that talking
about Avraham, Isaac, and Jacob
will resonate with the people,
that these are the names and
figures that hearken back to a
wonderful time of connection
with Hashem. For Moshe, the
link is not really a national
affinity – but he is aware of his
father. This connection
mattered, which is why Hashem,
in attracting Moshe to his cause,
invokes Moshe’s father, and he
does so by his title and not his
name. The name of Moshe’s
father was not as important as
his relation, so he is identified
not by name but by reference to
his son.
So “the G-d of my father” is
Moshe’s special name for
Hashem. Hashem invokes it the
first time: at the burning bush,
G-d identifies himself to Moshe,
“I am the G-d of your father.”
But the following times it is
Moshe that uses the phrase: in
Az Yashir, when Moshe says
“this is the G-d of my father and
I will exalt him.” And the third is
in Parshas Yisro, when the
explanation for Eliezer’s name is
given: “The G-d of my father
came to my aid.”
These are all connected, and
they are connected through the
entire story of Moshe’s second
son, and his bris.
In the middle of this is the
incident with Eliezer. Gershom,
the older brother, was born
before the burning bush. Eliezer,
it seems, was born at almost
exactly the same time as the
burning bush. We know this
because his bris was supposed
to happen within 3 days of
traveling to Mitzrayim, and
Moshe puts off the bris for
safety reasons.
When Moshe and Zipporah and
their sons get to an inn near
Egypt, an angel comes, furious
that the bris has not yet
occurred. At that point, Rashi
tells us, they were close enough
to Egypt that the danger to life
from traveling would have been
mitigated, and Moshe should
have acted more rapidly to fulfill
the mitzvah.
So Zipporah does the bris, with
a stone. And then they meet
Aharon. Rashi tells us that
Aharon asks Moshe why he is
bringing a wife and children into
Egypt when it is going to be
difficult enough to get everyone
else out! Moshe promptly turns
his family around and sends
them back to his father-in-law.
Note that there is no mention
that Moshe has given his second
son a name. And note that the
bris was not done beautifully;
Zipporah (who, as the mother,
did not have the direct
obligation in the first place) was
in a hurry, used a stone, and her
words to Moshe clearly show
that all in all, she was not happy.
We can easily guess why;
without consulting with her (as
Yaakov had done with his wives)
Moshe had quickly taken her out
of her father’s house when she
was either very pregnant or had
just had a newborn; so when it
came, Aharon’s suggestion that
Zipporah go back to her father
was not unwelcome advice to
either Moshe or Zipporah.
Interestingly, Moshe did not
even perform the bris himself –
which may be a parallel to
Moshe and his father; Moshe
was born without a foreskin, so
even if Amram performed the
bloodletting, Moshe did not get
a “normal” bris. And now the
second son (Eliezer) of the
second son (Moshe) had missed
the opportunity to establish this
fundamental link in Judaism
between a father and his son.
Jump forward to the Exodus.
Moshe leads the people in Az
Yashir, and he says: “This is my
G-d and I will glorify him, the G-
d of my father, and I will exalt
him.” [emphasis added] Moshe
is not using the common
expression, through which all of
Israel refer to G-d as the G-d of
our fathers, Avraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. This is a reference to
Moshe’s father, and to the
burning bush itself. Moshe is
making a promise to G-d to
correct his oversights in the
past, to beautify his relationship
with G-d, and to make amends
for the events surrounding
Eliezer’s bris.
Eliezer apparently is not named
at the bris, and there was no
time to name him afterward,
since Aharon meets them and
the family is sent packing back
to Yisro. I posit that it is only
when Yisro brings the family
back to Moshe that Moshe
names his second son Eliezer
“for the G-d of my father came
to my aid.” Moshe takes this
opportunity to name his son, to
do it in direct praise of Hashem
for saving him from Pharoah’s
sword. Moshe uses the special
phrase “G-d of my father” to
acknowledge that he is fulfilling
the promise Moshe made at the
singing of Az Yashir, that Moshe
will exalt Hashem (in this case,
by naming his son “G-d is my
helper”).
And we see why Shabbos is such
an important link within the
whole story. When Hashem tells
Moshe to assume a leadership
role, change history for all time,
and liberate the Jewish people,
the state of his family is, not
surprisingly, not at the top of his
“to-do” list. Surely bris milah
can wait a little. But we learn
here that this is not the
halachah. The most important
commandments from Hashem
(like Shabbos, and perhaps even
leading the Jews from Egypt)
pale before the mitzvah of bris
milah. Moshe understands this –
afterward. And he makes up for
it by dedicating his son to
Hashem: “G-d is my helper”.
And in so doing, I think Moshe
also is healing the connection
across the generations: from
Moshe’s father to Moshe, to
Eliezer.