My son…the shepherd
It seems rather interesting that so many prophets (and leaders) of the Jewish People were shepherds. See, we weren’t always doctors and lawyers. Avraham seemed to dabble in shepherding, Yitzchak was a shepherd, and Yaakov chose this line of work too. Moreover, later on in history, David HaMelech was a shepherd also, amongst others. The reason that this is relevant to our sedra is that immediately before Moshe receives the burning bush prophecy, the pasuk (3:1) reports that ‘Moshe was shepherding,’ almost as if to say that his occupation as a shepherd was conducive to, or in some way caused, his prophecy. Howzat? The Kli Yakar (3:1) poses this very question; is it just a coincidence that many prophets were shepherds? As with most (if not all) things in Torah, the answer is no – it’s no coincidence. As the Kli Yakar says, a shepherd simply has more time in the great outdoors to contemplate the wonders of HaShem’s creation. Moreover, a shepherd has time alone to think things over and reach a certain level of spiritual purity. This is in stark contrast to the fact that Pharaoh tried to busy the Jews as much as possible with slavery so that they would not have time to think about life – as the Mesillas Yesharim points out.
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