My morning sermon on the dangers of charismatic leaders: One of the most fascinating conversations in the Bible is when God courts Moses, in the most fateful job interview in Jewish history — to take upon himself to take the Jewish people out of Egypt & teach them the word of God

Moses tries every trick in the book to avoid doing it. Finally he proclaims: “I am not a man of words! I have a heavy mouth and a heavy tongue!” (Ex. 4)

The commentators debate the meaning — whether he had a stutter, a lisp, an accent, perhaps he wasn’t so fluent in Egyptian...After all, Moses had a point: To be the greatest teacher in history, to propel a revolution, indeed, one must be an effective communicator.

Why didn’t the Almighty cure Moses’ mouth, so he could fulfill his job properly?

This week, I was struck by the explanation of the 14th-c. Rabbi Nissim of Gerona:
“מי שהוא צח הדיבור, שימשיך לב ההמון אחריו והשקר ממנו יחשב אמת״
The charismatic communicator who naturally attracts the masses, even when that speaker says lies — it will be perceived as truth.

We see this concern reflected in God’s response to Moses — “Who gives man a mouth?” That is, ‘I chose you for this very mouth.’

God chose a leader who was not someone who could convince the masses with lies, cloaked in charisma — but rather a stutterer, whose words must be truthful to their core, or they would not be accepted at all. Moses wasn’t chosen in spite of his stutter, but rather *because* of it.