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Chapter 2;v.13

יג וַיֵּצֵא בַּיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִי וְהִנֵּה שְׁנֵֽי־אֲנָשִׁים עִבְרִים נִצִּים וַיֹּאמֶר לָֽרָשָׁע לָמָּה תַכֶּה רֵעֶֽךָ

And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews struggled together; and he said to the one who did the wrong, Why do you strike your fellow?

Reish Lakish said: One who lifts his hand to strike another, even if he does not actually hit the other person, is called “wicked”, as it says “and he said to the wicked one, why would you strike your friend”?

The verse does not say ‘why did you strike’, but ‘why will you strike’ – תכה – in the future tense. Though this person did not strike the other, he is still called a wicked person.                     (Talmud Sanhedrin 58b)

אמר ריש לקיש: המגביה ידו על חבירו, אע”פ שלא הכהו, נקרא רשע, שנאמר: ויאמר לרשע למה תכה רעך – למה הכית לא נאמר אלא למה תכה, אע”פ שלא הכהו, נקרא רשע.

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Why Hashem selected Moses to lead the Jews

 And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. (Chapter 3;v.4)

Why did God choose an “Egyptian Prince”, who had grown up in Pharaoh’s palace, to be the savior of the Jews? Moses never suffered the slavery that his brethren suffered, so why was it he, of all people, who was chosen for this mission?

On this question Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Chajes comments: “A person who lived in slavery would never have dared to demand everything from Pharaoh: total emancipation, the Exodus from Egypt. He would have sought a compromise and would have accepted concessions. He would try to achieve one step at a time, following each of the Ten Plagues…Only Moses, who had lived his whole life as a totally free man, could make such demands.”

The fact that Moses had a speech impediment is also reflected in the Midrash and in the interpretations given of Moses’ role in the Exodus. Rabbeinu Nissim writes: The reason he was born with a speech impediment and a stutter was so that all should know that his influence was only because the Divine Presence was speaking through him. Another reason why Moses had a speech impediment was so that people should not say that it was because he was an excellent speaker and a demagogue that he was able to influence the Jewish people. The Maggid of Mezeritch explains the reason for this handicap: Moses, the redeemer of the Jews, had a speech impediment, because he was unable to limit his greatness within the confines of speech.