“He said: Please Lord, send by means of whom You send” (Exodus 4:13). “He said: Please [bi] Lord [Adonai],34The name of the Lord is spelled alef, dalet, nun, yod. send by means of whom You send.” Rabbi Ḥiyya the Great said: He said before Him: ‘Master of the universe, with me [bi], You seek to deliver the children of Abraham, who established You as the lord [adon] over all Your creations? “Send, please, by means of whom You send.”’35Send whomever You usually send for such tasks.
He said before Him: ‘Who is dearer to a person, his nephew or his grandson? You must say, it is his grandson. When you sought to rescue Lot, Abraham’s nephew, You sent angels to rescue him. Abraham’s descendants, who are six hundred thousand, you are sending me to rescue them?
Send the angels whom You are accustomed to send. Another matter: ‘For Hagar the Egyptian, You sent five angels to her; to six hundred thousand descendants of Sarah, it is me You are sending to rescue them?’ The Rabbis say: Did you suppose that Moses was refusing to go? That is not the case.
Rather, it was in deference to Aaron, as Moses was saying: ‘Before I arose, Aaron my brother has been prophesying for them in Egypt for eighty years.’ That is what is written: “I made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt” (Ezekiel 20:5). From where [can it be known] that Aaron was prophesying? For it says like this: “A man of God came to Eli, and said to him: So said the Lord: Didn’t I reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, subject to Pharaoh's house?
Did I not choose him from all the tribes of Israel to be My priest?”36Implying that Aaron was chosen already in Egypt. (I Samuel 2:27–28). Moses said: ‘Will I now encroach upon my brother and upset him?’ For that reason he did not wish to go. Immediately, “the wrath of the Lord was enflamed against Moses” (Exodus 4:14).