Moshe is expressing the idea that leading a nation can become very difficult at times. Hashem imposed upon Moshe and Aharon the duty to care for the Jewish people with patience and forbearance, even if they should become abusive. The Jewish leader is compared to a nursemaid who patiently and devotedly cares for him charge. The word used to describe a nursemaid is written in the male gender – “inut” rather than “,bnut” in the female gender. Why is this?
Horav Mordechai Ilan, zl, derives a profound lesson here. An “omein,” which is the male gender for a nurse, because he is not acting in a natural role, will not tolerate any form of disobedience from the infant. Conversely, the “omen’es” knows how to quiet the child, how to sing him back to sleep, how to make him relax. The infant, consequently, naturally trusts his omen’es. Hence, we deduce that the cause of any “problem” between the omein, male nurse, and his charge is a result of failure on the part of the nurse to manage the child appropriately. It is not the child’s fault. He is only acting like the baby that he is.
The Torah is alluding to a profound lesson. Klal Yisrael’s leadership must be understanding. They must be patient, coping with a lot. They must recognize the human nature of their people and what stimulates them to act as they do at times. As an omein cannot blame the child, so, too, must Klal Yisrael’s leadership realize that in the event of an insurgency on the part of the people, the fault is laid at the doorstep of the omein, who is not naturally a leader of his people.
