Leave my name out – T’tzavveh
From the moment of Moses’ birth he is mentioned in every one of the weekly Torah readings, with one exception, this week’s sidra.
He is certainly hinted at; the sidra commences v’attah, “and you”, which must be a reference to Moses. But his actual name is missing.
We would expect to see regularly the usual statement, “And the Lord spoke to Moses as follows…” – but there is no such statement anywhere in T’tzavveh.
Perhaps it is linked with Ex. 32:32 where the people worship a golden calf and Moses urges God to forgive them. He says to God, “If You won’t pardon the people, erase my name from the Torah!’”
God now removes Moses’ name from the T’tzavveh section in order to show that a person should be careful with his words even if his intentions are good and justifiable.
