The Way of the Flint/The Way of the Mouth

What is going on in the somewhat strange biblical story known as “the circumcision at the inn”? (Exodus 4:20-26)

Moses is on his way, together with his wife Tzipporah and their two sons, to Egypt, in obedience to God’s commands. Suddenly the Lord appears and wishes to kill him (who Moses? The son?)

Tzipporah seizes a flint, circumcises their son, and ends by announcing “You are a bridegroom of blood to me.”

The mysteries are many. Here is one possible insight.

While doing a Bibliodrama on the life of Tzipporah, a couple of the participants brought to light something interesting. We noticed that at the well in Midian, where Tzipporah first meets Moses, Moses steps in to help Yitro’s seven daughters, who are harassed daily by shepherds who drive them away.

We are told Moses “stood up and helped them, and watered their flock” (Ex. 4:17). Participant Esther Goldenberg noted that Moses was fleeing from Egypt, where he had killed a man. When he comes to the well, he wishes to rectify his violence and chooses to act more peacefully, intentionally helping the young women in a non-violent way and not interacting with the shepherds at all.

Now let’s see how this plays out in the circumcision story. Uri Etigson pointed out to me we notice that in Ex. 4:25, Tzipporah takes up a flint, in Hebrew צר, comprising two of the four letters of her name צפרה.

The other two letters of her name are פה meaning “mouth.” So one message of this story might be to present two paths – the way of the flint (violence) and the way of the mouth (non-violence).

We see Tzipporah taking upon herself the violence that Moses has long rejected, after his murderous deed forty years before caused him to have to flee his home. This may be one explanation for why Moses did not circumcise his own son during these forty years in Midian – he went to the other extreme and did not even want to engage in this important ritual act.

In their coupling and its dynamic, Tzipporah find she must take up the slack to fill the void left by Moses’ shadow side – his inner violence that we later see emerging from time to time in his flaring anger at different points. This does happen inside couple relationships, that one partner becomes a certain way in order to compensate for a repression or unbalancing in the other.

“The way of the mouth” encapsulates Moses’ future mission in Egypt. There, he and Aaron will speak for God before Pharaoh, whose name breaks down to פה רע meaning “bad mouth”.

As a person with a speech impediment (“heavy of mouth and tongue”), Moses cannot take words lightly, each word comes at a cost. So much so that he does not think he can speak at all, and G-d has to reassure him that He Himself will be with his mouth, and that Aaron will be his spokesman. (Ex. 4:10-17, where the word “mouth” is mentioned repeatedly). Yet we do see Moses speak later, many times. He is not justified in his overcaution. He can do this.

It is surely no coincidence that Moses initially describes himself as being “of uncircumcised lips” (Ex. 6:12, 6:30). Perhaps, suggests Uri Etigson, by circumcising their son, Tzipporah is also “circumcising’ her husband’s lips, allowing him to speak much more fluidly than he ever could have imagined when he took on the mission.