Kommentar zu Schemot 14:5

ויגד למלך מצרים AND IT WAS TOLD THE KING OF EGYPT — He sent public officers with them, and as soon as they had reached the three days’ journey which he had fixed for them to go and return, and these perceived that they were not going back to Egypt, they came and told Pharaoh on the fourth day (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:5:1). On the fifth and sixth they pursued after them: on the night of the seventh day they went down into the sea and on the following morning they (the Israelites) sang the Song of Praise and this was the seventh day of Passover. And that is why we read “The Song” (Exodus 15:1 ff.) as the Scriptural lesson on the seventh day of the Festival (Megillah 31a; Seder Olam 5; cf. Sotah 12b).

AND IT WAS TOLD THE KING OF EGYPT THAT THE PEOPLE HAD FLED. “He sent guards with them, and as soon as they had reached the three days’ journey that was fixed for them to go and return, and [these guards] saw that they were not returning to Egypt, they went and reported to Pharaoh on the fourth day. On the fifth and sixth days, the Egyptians pursued after them. On the night of the seventh day, they went down into the sea, and on the following morning, the Israelites uttered the Song, and this was the seventh day of Passover. It is for this reason that [during the Synagogue service] on the seventh day of Passover, we read [the Scriptural portion containing] the Song at the Red Sea.” This is the language of Rashi. And so it is also explained in the Mechilta.²⁷Mechilta here on Verse 3. Ramban’s intent is that the Mechilta states the order of events as mentioned by Rashi. The established custom of reading during the Synagogue service on the seventh day of Passover the Scriptural portion containing the Song at the Red Sea is of later origin, as is evidenced by the fact that in the Mishnah (Megillah 30b) and in Tractate Sofrim (17:5) another reading is indicated. The reading is mentioned in the Gemara of Tractate Megillah 31 a, quoting a Beraitha. The reason why Rashi at this point mentioned the Synagogue custom for the reading of the Torah on the seventh day of Passover, was to show that it is in keeping with “the event of the day.”
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, the verse here is to be understood in the light of that which G-d said, And Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel: They are entangled in the land.²⁸Verse 3. When the children of Israel [indicated that this was] so, and they turned back and encamped before Phi-hahiroth before Baal-zephon,²⁹Verse 2. this was reported to the king of Egypt. He said that the people were fled and entangled in the desert, and that they were not going towards a definite place to offer sacrifices for G-d. And this is the intent of the verse, and the children of Israel went out with a high hand.³⁰Verse 8. This means that they made themselves a flag and a banner for display, and they went out with mirth and with songs, with tabret and with harp,³¹Genesis 31:27. like people who are redeemed from bondage to freedom, and not like slaves who expect to return to their servitude. All this was told to Pharaoh.

כי ברח העם, they had not marched straight into the desert as they had maintained they would. In 8,23 all they had asked for was to be allowed to march into the desert a distance of three days’ journey. They had now departed from their planned route so that this could be interpreted as an attempt to flee. The new route made no sense, showing they did not know where they were headed, just as one would expect of a fugitive.

ויגד למלך…כי ברח העם, ויהפך לבב פרעה, "when the king was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh had a change of heart, etc." Why does the Torah speak about the Israelites "fleeing" instead of their "going?" If the words ויהפך לבב פרעה mean that Pharaoh now developed remorse about what he had done this would be very peculiar seeing that he had never "done" what he did voluntarily! He had dismissed the Israelites only as the result of having suffered extremely serious plagues, so much so that Egypt was in danger of total collapse. How could the Torah then ascribe Pharaoh's dismissal of the Israelites to something "he had done?" One can only change one's mind if one's mind had operated with balanced judgment, not if one acted under duress! Furthermore, what does the expression "what is this we have done" mean in this context? The people had no more acted voluntarily than had their king!

כי ברח העם; seeing they had turned back.

ויוגד למלך מצרים כי ברח העם, “The King of Egypt was informed that the people had fled, etc.” He was told that wherever the Israelites went they left a trail of destruction; this convinced the King that they had no intention of returning. Alternately, the King was told that the people marched in a disorderly fashion, did not have a definitive objective; this persuaded the King that they had fled rather than set out on a prearranged goal where to observe the ritual they had spoken of Still another possibility is that the King was told that the people marched proudly, like victors, had made flags for themselves as a symbol of their independence, and behaved generally like a well organized body of people, not like a bunch of undisciplined slaves who would be coming back to their former masters. According to the Midrash, the King had dispatched messengers (spies) at the time the Israelites left, whose task it was to monitor their movements. Rashi quotes that Midrash. As soon as the three days of which Moses had spoken were up, these messengers reported back to Pharaoh that the people had not turned around, but kept moving further away from Egypt. The difficulty with this explanation is that the Israelites did turn back on the third day, so how did these messengers know that they did not intend to come back to Egypt? This would presuppose that they had gone in one direction only for two days, and if so how could the messengers know that they had no intention of returning to Egypt? They were not far enough away from their starting point to allow such a conclusion to be drawn at the end of the second day! Moreover, the same Midrash claims that Pharaoh and his chariots covered a distance of six days’ march in a single day’s pursuit and that they then caught up with the rear of the Israelites, seeing that the splitting of the sea occurred on the seventh day (21st Nissan)? However, the Midrash adds that on the first day the Israelites miraculously covered a distance of approximately 120 kilometers. This represents the distance a people normally travel in three days. Accordingly, Pharaoh did not receive the report until the evening of the fifth day, spent the 6th day chasing after the people. He caught up with them on the evening between the 20th and the 21st of Nissan. This is when the Israelites descended into the bottom of the sea that split for them.

ויגד למלך מצרים, “The king of Egypt had been informed, etc.” Seeing that the end of the three days which was the period of time Moses had said they would be gone had passed and they had not returned, Pharaoh was told that obviously they had fled. Pharaoh had sent along spies. When, after non-stop marches, the Israelites made camp on the eve of the 17th-18th of Nissan, these spies returned to the capital and reported to Pharaoh on the Israelites’ movements. The Egyptians organised their pursuit, mobilising their forces on the 19th and the 20th, catching up with the Israelites at Pi Hachirot by nightfall on the twentieth. The night of the 20th-21st there was a stand off, i.e. the two camps did not come closer together (verse 20).
A Midrashic approach: The words “Pharaoh was told” mean that the prophecy (decree) made to Avraham in Genesis 15,13 that his descendants would be slaves in a country where they were strangers for 400 years had not been fulfilled as only 210 years had elapsed since the time the Israelites had come to Egypt. It therefore became clear to him that the people had fled.

He sent officials along with them. . . Rashi is answering the question: Pharaoh willingly sent B’nei Yisrael out. He knew himself that they left Egypt. Why then does it say he was “told”? Perforce, “He sent officials. . .”

V. 5. כי ברח העם. Aus mehrfachen Gründen kann dies nicht heißen, dass das Volk nicht wieder zurückkehren wolle. Wie wir oben gesehen, hat ja Pharao Israel mit vollem Bewusstsein auf Nimmerwiederkehr aus dem Lande gewiesen, und klagt er sich dessen ja auch hier selber an: כי שלחנו את ישראל מעבדנו. Sodann liegt ja in dieser Umkehr kein Beweis der Flucht, vielmehr höchstens das Gegenteil. Endlich ist ja oben V. 3 die Sinnesänderung Pharaos durch die, wie er meinte, verzweifelte Lage des Volkes motiviert, dem der Zug in die Freiheit abgeschnitten gewesen wäre. Es kann dieses ברח daher wohl nur von eben dieser Umkehr verstanden werden, die dem Pharao als eine Flucht vor der Macht des Baalzefon gemeldet wurde, welcher mit seinen Schrecknissen das Volk von dem beabsichtigten Eintritt in die Wüste zurückgetrieben habe. Pharao erkannte darin ein Unterliegen der Gottesmacht, die bisher Israel geführt, deren unwiderstehlich geglaubte Gewalt ihn und seine Diener zu dem, wie er nun glaubte, übereilten Entschluss gebracht hätte, das Volk gänzlich aus ihrem Dienst zu entlassen, ein Entschluss, den er nun bereute. Es scheint, dass die Gesinnung des Volkes dieselbe geblieben war.

ויגד למלך מצרים, meanwhile the King of Egypt had received information, etc.” according to Rashi, he had received this information from the spies that he had sent along with the Israelites when they were leaving Ramses. They reported that after three days had passed the Israelites had not made any move indicating that they would return. According to Rashi, the Israelites had marched only a distance of a single day. On the next day they had marched from Sukkot to Eytam, and on the third day they had turned around, so that by that time they were only a day’s march away from the Egyptian border. All this is based on the words: “they turned around and they encamped.” According to Rashi, then, they had presented offerings to G-d while facing Egypt all day long on the third day. The spies reported that on the following day that they had not made any move in the direction of Egypt. This they interpreted as proof that they intended to flee. According to this, the Israelites would have remained stationary until Pharaoh caught up with them. This is based on the Torah writing that Pharaoh caught up with them while they were along the sea. (verse 9) According to this, the Egyptians engaged in pursuing them on the fifth and sixth day, even though the people had not moved further away at all. We would have to explain this by assuming that an army which travels with chariots, etc., as described, moves more slowly than an ordinary army or cavalry. Otherwise, it makes no sense that they did not face their adversary until the sixth or seventh day.

ויהפך [AND THE HEART…] WAS TURNED — it was turned (changed) from what it had been, because he had said to them (Exodus 12:31) “Arise, go out from the midst of my people”, and his servants’ hearts were changed because formerly they had said to him, (Exodus 10:7) “How long shall this man be a snare unto us? [let the men go etc.]”. Now, however, they (their hearts) were changed, prompting them to pursue them, because of the property that they had handed over to them (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 14:5:3).

ויהפך לבב פרעה, Pharaoh had concluded that the Baal Tzefon was an equal to G’d and could frustrate His designs.

מעבדנו, the letter ח has a chataf kametz vowel underneath it, so that the word means “from serving us.” We find a similar construction Deuteronomy 7,8 where the words ומשמרו את-השבועה, mean: “and due to His observing His oath.” Also Exodus 16,3 באלנו לחם לשובע, “when we ate as much bread as we wanted,” or Numbers 26,10 באכל האש, “when the fire consumed,” are similar constructions of verbs as a form of the present tense.

On the fifth and sixth days they pursued them. . . You might ask: B’nei Yisrael journeyed on the first and second days, but on the third day they turned back a day’s journey, as it is written: “Have them turn back” (v. 2). Thus, they were only a day’s distance from Egypt. Why then did it take Pharaoh two days to overtake them? The answer is: “Have them turn back” means they traveled at an angle. Although Rashi says (ibid), “They kept moving nearer to Egypt,” it does not mean they went straight back [via the same route they had taken]. They were heading back on an indirect path, which is not a true returning. It demonstrated that they were in a state of confusion, for they did not return the way they came. Had they not returned in a straying way, Pharaoh would not have pursued them, for he released them because he considered it Hashem’s will. But upon seeing them returning [in an apparently confused manner] convinced Pharaoh that if it was Hashem’s will, He would have led them on a straight path.

Perhaps we have to fall back on the Zohar's premise that every time the Torah speaks about העם what is meant is the new multitude of converts commonly known as ערב רב. Accordingly, the report Pharaoh received about "the people" having fled referred to the new converts whom Pharaoh sent along with the Israelites in order for them to bring about the Israelites' return to Egypt. These people had now decided to throw in their lot with the Israelites permanently. Inasmuch as they had been Egyptian subjects, their defection could properly be described as the flight of Pharaoh's people.

ויהפוך לבב פרעה, “Pharaoh experienced a change of heart;” the expression implies that he was sorry about what he had done. We have an example of this expression being used in that context in Lamentations 1,20: נהפך לבי בקרבי, “my heart is in anguish.”

מעבדנו means from serving us (i. e. the word is an infinitive with an objective suffix and not a noun signifying “from our service”, which would require מֵעֲבוֹדָתֵנוּ).

מה זאת עשינו כי שלחנו, what (a foolish thing) have we done in dismissing the Israelites, etc.! We should have consulted Baal Tzefon who would have helped us so that we would have had no need to let the Israelites depart.

In the morning they chanted the shirah and that was the seventh day of Pesach. . . You might ask: Did not Rashi say in Bamidbar 15:41 that they chanted the shirah on the eighth day? The answer is: [It is the eighth day] if you count from Erev Pesach, which is when the korbon Pesach was slaughtered and its blood sprinkled on the lintel and doorposts. [True,] Erev Pesach is not a complete day, for the night had already passed before the slaughtering, and is not counted with the day. Nevertheless, it is considered a full day regarding sacrifices. This is because for sacrifices, the night following is considered part of the day. So when counting from the day of slaughtering, the seventh day of Pesach is actually the eighth day. In Bamidbar, Rashi is counting from the day of slaughtering, and here he is not. But Re”m explains: Perhaps R. Moshe Hadarshan, who said it was the eighth day, disagrees with the Aggadah [cited here] which says they chanted the shirah on the seventh day.

ויהפך לבב פרעה, Pharaoh had a change of heart, etc. This means that Pharaoh was sorry now that he had sent these new converts along with the Israelites. He did not regret letting the Israelites go. When the Egyptians exclaimed: "what did we do?" this refers to the Egyptians' surprise at their own stupidity in having sent these converts along with the Israelites. They explained their stupidity as being the result of allowing the Israelites to depart as free men. (According to Yalkut Shimoni 208 Pharaoh had even executed a deed granting the Israelites the status as free men.) The words shilachnu me-ovdenu then are a reference to this document granting the Israelites their freedom. Even though it was conceivable that the Israelites would decide to return, they would do so as free and equal citizens, not as slaves. The Egyptian people's upset was very real for in the absence of the Israelites to perform slave labour all the work the Israelites had performed up to this point would now become something they had to do for themselves as well as for the government. The people who joined Pharaoh in the pursuit were concerned mostly with bringing back the new converts described as העם. G'd did not need to influence Pharaoh to make a decision concerning this pursuit at all. However, G'd influenced Pharaoh to also pursue the Israelites themselves by allowing him to think that the latter had become entangled in the land.

Now they changed. . . Some ask either way: If Pharaoh initially had in mind that B’nei Yisrael will leave Egypt and not come back, as Rashi explains that he now had a change of heart, why did he send along the officials? Rather, he must have had in mind that they will make a three-day festival in the wilderness and then come back, as the verse implies: “Go worship Hashem as you have said” (12:31). But if so, why does Rashi say he had a change of heart [if he thought all along that they will come back]? The answer is: Pharaoh initially sent B’nei Yisrael out regardless of whether or not they will come back. He sent the officers along with them so that if B’nei Yisrael were to decide to leave permanently, they should either give the officers the possessions, or come back and return what they had borrowed. This also explains why Rashi says they changed their minds “because of their property.” The officers saw that B’nei Yisrael intended to go away and flee, and they informed Pharaoh and his servants. Then Hashem gave them a change of heart, to bring B’nei Yisrael back to Egyptian slavery as before, although they initially did not have in mind that B’nei Yisrael will come back.

Pharaoh was also motivated by another consideration which I have already discussed in 10,7, namely that his whole obstinacy was based on the miscalculation that G'd was not all-powerful and that is why He resorted to deceptive tactics. Pharaoh and his servants had reasoned that if G'd were all powerful He would do things outright instead of achieving His aims by devious means. On the day G'd killed the firstborn the Egyptians finally admitted to themselves that G'd could indeed do whatever He wanted including destruction of the universe itself if He so desired. In view of this, the Egyptians concluded that the request of G'd transmitted through Moses to let the Israelites travel three days into the desert could be taken at face value and was not a scheme to leave and then not to return. They discounted Pharaoh's repeated concern that the fact that the Israelites were not prepared to leave anyone or anything behind was proof of their intent not to return, and they credited this to the Israelites' declared intent to celebrate a holiday, something that is best done in the midst of one's family and possessions. It was considerations such as these that prompted the Egyptians to "lend" the Israelites their valuables. They did not suspect G'd of having influenced their decision to lend these valuables to the Israelites as they reasoned that if G'd had wanted to He could have forced them to hand over all of their possessions to the departing Jews. Their reasoning was reinforced by the knowledge that the Israelites had become thoroughly familiar with all their valuables during the plague of darkness without exploiting their opportunity to steal these goods at a time when they could have done without fear of being discovered.

To pursue them. . . Question: How does Rashi know [that it was because of the property they lent them]? Perhaps it was as it is written in the verse: “How did we release B’nei Yisrael from serving us?” The answer is: Indeed, this was Pharaoh’s reason, that because of the slave labor, he never wanted to send Israel away. But his servants were always telling him, “How long will this man be a menace to us” (10:7), etc, and now they said, “What have we done? How did we release Israel from serving us?” Perforce, it was because of their property. Another answer: [Rashi knows this] because it is written “regarding the people,” implying: because of the people to whom they lent their property. (Maharshal)

When the informer told Pharaoh that "the people" had fled, he meant that the Jews had decided not to return at the end of three days as had been the commonly held belief at the time of their departure. Pharaoh and the Egyptians were now convinced that the Israelites under Moses' leadership had made this decision on their own, as their G'd would never have become a party to deception. Such considerations then all contributed to Pharaoh, his servants, and his people undergoing a change of heart in their attitude towards the Israelites. They never regretted having let them go at that time, as they had only let them go for a holiday. They regretted their stupidity in giving the people a letter releasing them from bondage. This had been an unpardonable stupidity because even their G'd had never demanded this. They reasoned that what they should have done in the first place was to send a military escort with the Israelites to assure their return at the end of the three days.

Another way of looking at what happened is this: When the news reached Pharaoh that the Israelites had "fled," Pharaoh reconsidered his premise that the Israelite G'd was all-knowing and all-powerful. This G'd apparently had been forced to use deception because He was not omnipotent. This is why He kept His intention that the Israelites should depart permanently a secret up until now.

The Torah advisedly speaks of the לבב, "a dual heart" of Pharaoh undergoing a change. Pharaoh's considerations were due to conflicting feelings (i.e. "two hearts"). Originally, He had thought that G'd was unable to orchestrate the Israelites' exodus otherwise He would not have had to almost beg him to let the Israelites go. As a result, he, Pharaoh had refused to let them go. Next, Pharaoh had convinced himself that G'd's love for the Jewish people might only be temporary. In the meantime Pharaoh had come to realise that his estimate of G'd liking the Jewish people only temporarily had also been wrong and as a result of both these considerations of telling him to let the Israelites go, he had done so in the firm belief that there was nothing he could do to stop this process. Now, in retrospect, he realised that he had been wrong after all, that G'd had lacked the power to orchestrate the Exodus without help from Pharaoh himself. This is why he decided to mount the pursuit.