Q:
The Rav mentioned once that Sara was the greatest woman that ever lived and possibly Chava. What about the wife of Moshe Rabbeinu?
A:
Was the wife of Moshe Rabbeinu less important than Sara?
Now far be it from me to judge these people because I am like an ant. Not even an ant; a bacterium. Let’s say there’s a bacterium in this rug – there are millions of them – and we’ll pick out one bacterium and talk to him. Imagine I’m speaking to one of the millions here in this square inch. Every square inch, there are a million bacteria. So I speak to one of them. “Sir,” I say, “Do you want to judge with your opinion the difference between me and this rabbi sitting here.” He doesn’t even know what ‘rabbi’ means. He doesn’t know what ‘opinion’ means. How can he talk about such things?
Can I judge Sara? And can I judge Tzipora, the wife of Moshe? So therefore, I wouldn’t even want to take the job. We’ll just say what the Torah says. The Torah gives us Sara as a model so we understand that Sara is recognized as the model.
Now, Tzipora, the wife of Moshe Rabbeinu, I think she sits in a bigger seat than Sara because a man and his wife in the Next world sit on the same throne. That’s how it is in the Next World. They’re one person – והיו לבשר אחד. If her husband becomes great in Torah, that’s her wealth.
So all due respect to Sara – Sara was great because Avrohom was great – but Moshe Rabbeinu was greater than Avrohom Avinu. So therefore Tziporah, as part of the corporation of Moshe Rabbeinu, she is greatest. She’s part of the corporation of her husband.
Sara belongs to a corporation of Avrohom Avinu. So it’s less great.
However, it could be that Sara was on her own more important than Tzipora on her own. Tzipora’s greatness is because of her husband. No question, it’s greatness. But Sara’s greatness, to a big extent, I suspect, she had her own greatness. Maybe more than Tzipora had. I’m not able to judge, as I said before, and I wouldn’t even be so brash as to talk about it much. But it could be.
And therefore, with these few words I’ve said already too much and I resign from this undertaking. It’s too big for me.
February 4, 1982
