There are few more common words in the Torah then “Vayomer Moshe; And Moshe said.” It isn’t a phrase that stands out, and it is rarely a set of words that draws commentary. This is why, perhaps, there did not seem to be much written about Shemos 3:3’s beginning: “And Moshe said: ‘I must turn aside to look…’”
To understand why one might look for commentary on Vayomer Moshe, it is important to know the verses that come beforehand, or else one might think Moshe is in the middle of a dialogue with someone (which would make the question moot): “Now Moshe was shepherding the sheep of Yisro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he drove the flock into the wilderness, and he came to Horeb, the Mountain of God. An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. And Moshe said, ‘I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?’”
So who is Moshe talking to? He is alone on a mountain with a bunch of sheep. And we know he is alone because the Midrash famously explains that one of the reasons Moshe was chosen for leadership was that he went up onto this mountain chasing after a stray lamb, going out of his way to ensure the safety of the entire flock. So once again, to whom was he so politely explaining his decision to go look at the strange burning bush?
One could, perhaps, jump back to verse 3:2 and point to the presence of another sentient being. It clearly states that the angel of the Lord appeared to him. And yet, it seems, Moshe did not see this angel. Just because the angel appeared, just because the angel made itself visible, does not mean that it was seen. This is supported by the second half of verse 3:2, when the Torah appears to be narrating Moshe noticing and processing that there is a bush that was burning without being consumed.
This brings us back to the original question. Why isn’t verse 3:3 written in a more removed style? It might, perhaps, have made more sense had the verse been written: And Moshe turned to look at this great sight and wondered why the bush did not burn. Perhaps in this question we discover the true significance of the miracle at the sneh, the burning bush, that here we see how Moshe’s balance of neshama and goof, of spiritual and physical, was unique.
When Moshe says “I must turn aside to look…,” he is talking to himself. His intellect, the part of his brain tied to olam hazeh, is seeing a bush that refuses to burn. His neshama, his soul, is seeing the angel of Hashem. Moshe’s declaration of intent is, perhaps, a transcription of him going through the process of the neshama leading the goof (the spirit over the body). “And Moshe said…” Moshe’s spiritual side was actively guiding his physical self. It is perhaps telling that there is an etnachta, a trope that infers punctuation, at the end of the phrase “And I will go and see this great thing.” This etnachta separates the two sentences that are within the same verse: “Why doesn’t the bush burn up?” Perhaps the etnachta break is a means of indicating that the great thing was not the burning bush, but the angel of the Lord. Moshe’s brain could not yet process this, so he believed he was turning aside to look at the bush that did not burn, the miracle in the physical realm.
It is a well understood fact that the situation at the sneh was a major moment in Jewish history. It is the moment when Moshe accepted (begrudgingly) the job of redeeming the Jewish people. But perhaps the truly significant moment was when Moshe allowed his spiritual self to speak to his physical self, when he talked to himself so that his overpowering force of goof would find its own reason to wish to turn aside.
Conjecture such as this is, most interestingly, supported by the fourth verse of the perek: “And when Hashem saw that he had turned aside to look, Hashem called to him…” (3:4). When Hashem had confirmation that Moshe’s neshama could empower his goof, He immediately called out to him.
Moshe was the greatest prophet of all time. His ruchnias was able to actively redirect his gashmius, and therefore he was able to communicate with Hashem as no other could. And while most of us know that we are far from this madrega, this level, everything in Torah is recorded for us to strive toward. The angel appeared, Moshe gazed at the bush, and then Moshe went to examine it. There are times in each of our lives when we encounter something inexplicable – something even as mundane as a coincidence, as hashgacha pratis – and we gaze at it, but we fail to see what it actually is. The introduction of the burning bush is, perhaps, a subtle reminder for us to remember to stop an examine such events and find their true spiritual meaning.
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