“The LORD furthermore said to him, ‘Now put your hand into your bosom.’ So he put his hand into his bosom, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then He said, ‘Put your hand into your bosom again.’ So he put his hand into his bosom again, and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh” (Exod 4:6–7).
There is an ancient, though perplexing, belief that one of the names of Israel’s Messiah will be the “leper scholar.” This name comes from the Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 98b, which draws on Isaiah 53:4, where the suffering servant is described as “smitten and afflicted” (see also Pesikta Rabbati 36–37). [Remarkably, in this same passage, the Messiah is also identified as an exalted king called “Shilo” (Gen 49:10).]
Although Moses is not mentioned in the Passover Haggadah, the ancient rabbis read the Passover narrative with attentiveness to its textual signs.
In this tradition, we begin to see the details of redemption more clearly within the Scriptures. Ancient Judaism preserves a careful reading of Isaiah’s suffering servant as a new Moses, grounded in shared language and themes between Isaiah’s new exodus and the Exodus narrative. When God gave Moses a sign, He marked him with leprosy, the very affliction later associated with the Messiah in rabbinic memory. This sign, set within the story of Israel’s deliverance, points forward to the Messiah, who will bring about the new exodus and the new Passover by being smitten, stricken, and afflicted.
Although Moses is not mentioned in the Passover Haggadah, the ancient rabbis read the Passover narrative with attentiveness to its textual signs. They teach us to look again and direct our gaze to a new Moses, a redeemer who is not only exalted, but who brings about Israel’s redemption through rejection and affliction, as Moses himself experienced.
In this season of Passover, let us follow the lead of those ancient interpreters of Scripture who, when reading about Moses, were seeing the Messiah and simultaneously celebrating Israel’s past redemption while looking forward to a far greater redemption in the future.
