Moses and Zipporah

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He sent word to Moses, “I, your father-in-law Jethro, am coming to you, with your wife and her two sons.”

Moses consented to stay with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah as wife.

Moses went back to his father-in-law Jether and said to him, “Let me go back to my kinsfolk in Egypt and see how they are faring.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” יהוה said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who sought to kill you are dead.” So Moses took his wife and sons, mounted them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God with him.

The Gemara answers: Rabbi Yosei could have said to you: Moses added one day to the number of days that God commanded based on his own perception, as it was taught in a baraita: Moses did three things based on his own perception, and the Holy One, Blessed be He, agreed with him. He added one day to the days of separation before the revelation at Sinai based on his own perception. And he totally separated from his wife after the revelation at Sinai…

Shabbat 87a:2-4

[AND HE RETURNED TO THE LAND OF EGYPT.] Its meaning is that only Moses himself returned. When God met Moses (v. 24) Eliezer was circumcised (v. 25). When Eliezer was healed, Zipporah and her children returned to her father. Moses left them and went on to Egypt.

Ibn Ezra on Exodus 4:20:2

2. Yitro, the father-in-law of Moshe, took Tzipporah, wife of Moshe, after she was sent: R' Yehoshua says, after she left him with words. R' Elazar HaModai says, after she left him with a letter (of divorce). It says here "after she was sent" and it says in another passuk (Devarim 24:1) "He will write for her a document of separation and put it in her hand, and send her from his house." Just like the "sending" there is referring to a divorce, so too the "sending" here is referring to a divorce. When was she sent? At the time that Hashem said to Moshe, Go and take My people out of Egypt…

Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 18:2

AND HE RETURNED TO THE LAND OF EGYPT. I.e., with those mentioned [at the beginning of the verse, namely, his wife and his sons]. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that the expression, and he returned to the land of Egypt, means that Moses alone returned. When he was met by G-d, Eliezer was circumcised, and when he was healed, Zipporah together with her children returned to her father.
This [explanation of Ibn Ezra] is possible, for due to the fact that Eliezer was circumcised, Moses could not take him on the road until the child would become strong…

Ramban on Exodus 4:20:2

אחר שלוחיה, after he had sent her away. The reason that the Torah is careful to describe Tzipporah's remaining in her father's home in Midian as: "after Moses had sent her away," needs to be analysed. Were it not for the Midrash we have quoted I would have to assume that Moses actually divorced his wife when he found that he was a full time messenger of G'd and could not devote time to his family. It was reasonable for Eliezer to remain with his mother seeing he had only just been born…

Or HaChaim on Exodus 18:2:2

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES IN MIDIAN: GO, RETURN UNTO EGYPT, etc. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said, “There is no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah, and the explanation thereof is, ‘now the Eternal had said.’ There are many similar cases.”
But Ibn Ezra’s interpretation here is not correct. The first Divine communication, [i.e., that Moses return to Egypt], was not in Midian but at Mount Sinai. In Midian He spoke to him only at this time, [as mentioned in the present verse]…

Ramban on Exodus 4:19:1

What is the fence that Moses made around his words? It says (Exodus 19:10), “The Eternal said to Moses: Go to the people, and keep them holy, today and tomorrow.” But Moses the Righteous did not want to say this to them the way that the Holy Blessed One said it to him. So instead he said this to them (Exodus 19:15): “Prepare yourselves: for three days do not go near a woman.” Moses added an extra day for them on his own. (For this is what) Moses reasoned [to himself]: A man will go be with his wife [on the first day] and then his semen will come out of her on the third day…

Avot DeRabbi Natan 2:3

“The taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out, and they spoke to the people, saying: So said Pharaoh: I will not give you straw” (Exodus 5:10).
“The taskmasters of the people and their foremen went out” – when he issued that decree, Moses went to Midyan and spent six months there, while Aaron resided in Egypt. It was then that Moses returned his wife and sons to Midyan.
“You go and get yourselves straw where you can find it, as nothing will be diminished from your work…

Shemot Rabbah 5:19

MOSES ON THE MOUNT
RABBI ELAzAR, son of 'Azariah, said: On Friday, || on the 6th of the month, at the sixth hour of the day, Israel received the Commandments. At the ninth hour of the day they returned to their tents, and the Manna was prepared for them for two days, and Israel rested on that Sabbath full of joy as (with) the joy of the festival, because they were worthy to hear the voice of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "For who is there of all flesh…

Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 46:1

At a night encampment on the way, יהוה encountered him and sought to kill him. So Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched his legs with it, saying, “You are truly a bridegroom of blood to me!” And when [God] let him alone, she added, “A bridegroom of blood because of the circumcision.”

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had taken [into his household as his wife]: “He took a Cushite woman!”

Relatedראו גם

Moses in Midian

Moses at the Inn

Moses and his Sons

Parashat Shemot

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