The Young Moshe

Moshe's young adult life in Midyan is a mystery to us. The Torah does not tell us very much about Moshe's life there; the next mention of his life is when he returns to Egypt at the age of eighty. Why is the Torah strangely silent about all those years of Moshe's life, mid-narrative? The lack of noteworthy events is itself an event - one of withdrawal and seclusion. Moshe's disappearance and silence following his escape to Midyan tell us that he secluded himself in a crisis of morality and justice. It is only following this seclusion that Moshe is able to be extracted from his solitary existence and returned to the sphere of action on the historical-national level.