At the end of “Don’t Deceive Me (Please Don’t Go)” Alex Karev and Dr. Shepherd have a conversation regarding the clinical Alzheimer’s trial they are working on together.
Derek: I couldn’t have done it any better myself. You reassured her. You got her to focused on what was important.
Alex: I’m off the trial.
Derek: What?
Alex: It’s too depressing. I can’t handle this for the next two years.
Derek: You just handled this.
Alex: No. That was Meredith talking. She told me what to say. She’s been saving my *** all day. You need to get over this thing where you’re just thinking of her as your wife. Because your wife is the only person twisted enough to handle this ****. Oh, and that said, I’m on a race for chief resident. And so far I’m kicking ***. So I’d appreciate it if you mention to Dr. Webber that I prioritized the patients’ needs over my personal gain.
Alex knows his limits. That’s what he’s saying when he asks Dr. Shepherd to tell the Chief that he prioritized the patients’ needs over his own personal gain. Knowing his limits, he realizes that he is not the man for this job- Meredith is. This same relationship exists between the characters of Moses and Aaron in the Torah.
Moshe’s sister Miriam hid him amidst the bulrushes, so he was saved by the Nile River. Then, the earth opened to swallow the body of the Egyptian Moses had killed, so the land saved his life as well. Due to this, according to the Midrash, he owed both land and water a debt. In order to teach us the value of Hakarat HaTov, recognition of the good and expressing gratitude and thanks, we see that when God commands Moses and Aaron to execute His will in order to bring ten plagues, the first two are brought about by Aaron, not Moses.
Exodus 7:19 reads: “And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Say unto Aaron: Take thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the waters of Egypt, over their rivers, over their streams, and over their pools, and over all their ponds of water, that they may become blood; and there shall be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.”
Similarly in Exodus 8:1, we read: “And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Say unto Aaron: Stretch forth thy hand with thy rod over the rivers, over the canals, and over the pools, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.”
Aaron is the one who is in charge of bringing the plagues that happen with water and land, because he was not the one who benefited from them. His life was not saved due to them. He is the man for the job while Moses is not. Knowing what one can and cannot handle and where your limits are is a concept expressed not only in “Grey’s Anatomy” but also in our very own Torah.