Recently I read a fascinating book by Dr. Oliver Sacks called Musicophilia, where, as a neuroscientist, he studies how music affects the brain and one of the cases he describes is a Dr. Tony Cicoria, who at the age of forty-two, was struck by lightning which caused him to suddenly be able to play the piano and become a concert pianist.

This is not an isolated case. A person has a 1 in 500000 chance of getting “lit” and depending on many conditions, very few live, let alone talk about it.

Those who do live to talk about it, become super-humans.

As I was reading the recent parshiot of the book of Shemot it struck me that it might be possible to say that Moses was hit by lightning?

The question which led to this hypothesis was what happened that took Moses from being a shepherd, with (seemingly) no background or immense interest in G-d and no previous communication with G-d that we know of or that was substantial enough for the Torah to include. Compare this to Avraham who researched and sought out G-d for the better part of his life, before getting a G-dly revelation. Moses on the other hand gets a visit from G-d on the first day. No testing. No waiting. No angels. Moses met G-d on a “level (par none) to your ancestors”.

Moses sees G-d on a different level.

What would lead to an “ordinary person” to suddenly see the world through G-d’s eyes? Well he deserved it. He tried to make peace between those two Jews who were fighting back in Egypt and he chased after the sheep. We can rationalize it, but how does someone go from 0 – infinity in an instant?

What actually happened on that day in the mountainous fields of the dessert? Something physical had to have happened.

What really solidified this theory was the burning bush factor. The Torah tells us of a burning bush which was not consumed. When lightning hits a tree it could look like an explosion yet the tree can bear the strike and remain standing.

Moses was electrifying but was he electrified?

Would it be too far of a stretch (or too “off the derech”) to suggest that as a possibility. It being in the dessert with sporadic rain showers and sandstorms transpiring there all the time. We know that he was near a tree, and we know that lightning is attracted to wet trees (which is why it is known to stay away from trees during a lightning storm)

By lightning I do not mean a huge bolt that could’ve caused him any damage c”v, but a bolt of lightning, nonetheless. Just a tap of which can awaken any senses that are asleep within the mind.

So, I took the google with my inquisitions regarding dessert storm frequencies in that geographical region to see and other research tags as criteria for this research and will update here with my findings. Until then do you have any thoughts on this topic? Do you think it is too off the rocker to say that? Do not hold back. Comment below… Toda!