Moshe refrained from marital relations with Tzipora for almost forty years, so as to be able to receive prophecy at any moment (Shabas 87:1). 1. Did he divorce her? 2. If not, why not?
Answer
Rashi (to Num. 12:1) says ועתה גרשה - now (around the time it came to Miriam's attention) he had divorced Tzipporah.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe points out (Likkutei Sichos, vol. 18, p. 145, marginal note to footnote 41) that Rashi gets this from the fact that the Torah calls her האשה, "the woman," rather than אשתו, "his wife." He also notes that according to Rashi, then, there were two stages in Moshe's withdrawal from Tzipporah: first he ceased marital relations with her, then later (perhaps because of the halachic issues involved - Ex. 21:10 and Shulchan Aruch, Even Ha'ezer 76:11) he divorced her.
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