Comentario sobre Exodo 14:11

המבלי אין קברים signifies, was it on account of lack of graves — because there were no graves in Egypt in which to be buried — that thou didst bring us out from there? old French si pour faillance de non fossés.

לקחתנו למות במדבר, even if Pharaoh and his army will not provoke a battle the mere fact that they block our path will result in our death in the desert from thirst and starvation.

המבלי אין קברים, another example of repeating the same thought in different words by adding the words:

ויאמרו אל משה המבלי אין קברים, “They said to Moses: ‘are there not enough burial places in Egypt, etc.?’” Nachmanides explains that it is clear that after the Israelites had pleaded for help to G’d, they would not immediately hereafter insult Him by the aforementioned cynical question, and by adding: ”what did You do to us by taking us out of Egypt?” We therefore must understand the verses here as reflecting the manner in which different groups of Israelites reacted to the imminent threat of annihilation which they faced. One group of Israelites resorted to prayer, another resorted to ridiculing the chance of a miracle being performed for them. Seeing that they did not believe in miraculous salvation they made peace with their impending death, but not before accusing Moses of instead of having been their redeemer having become their angel of death. It is this division among the people at that point in time to which the psalmist refers in Psalms 106,7 וימרו על ים בים סוף, “they rebelled at the sea, at the Sea of Reeds.” This is also why once the people are described as העם, “the people,” and once they are described as בני ישראל. The latter were the elite, few in number, who turned to G’d for help, the former were the masses whose attitudes were still not much different from what they had been while they were slaves and cynicism was the only weapon at their command. The people who were desperately afraid were therefore the “העם,” whom Moses told in verse 13 to stop acting so scared. This עם were the ones who are described after the event in verse 31 as “being in awe of Hashem, seeing that previously they had only made sarcastic remarks. The elite, i.e. the בני ישראל, did not need this education. In the Mechilta the sages explain that as a first step the people had prayed to G’d that Pharaoh should have a change of heart and should desist from pursuing them. When they noted that their prayer had not helped, they became heretical in their attitude, making above-mentioned sarcastic comments to Moses, blaming him for their present predicament.

Is it due to a lack of graves . . . [Rashi is answering the question:] Why did it not say המבלי קברים במצרים [without אין ]? Thus Rashi explains: “Is it due to. . .”

Were there not enough graves. Some nations love freedom to the point of preferring death to enslavement, while others would choose even a life of degradation over death. Thus the people said to Moshe, “Even if you thought we would prefer death to servitude, why was it necessary to take us out to the desert? Could we not have simply rebelled in Egypt and died there?” But then they added, “This is the thing that we told you”—that in truth they would prefer servitude over death.

(Exodus 14:11) "And they said to Moses: Is it for lack of graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the desert!" After they had placed "leavening in the dough" (i.e., after the evil inclination began to overcome them), they came to Moses and said (Ibid. 12) "Is not this the thing that we spoke to you in Egypt?" Now what did Israel say to Moses in Egypt? __ (Ibid. 5:19-21) "And they met Moses and Aaron … and they said to them: May the L rd reveal Himself to you and judge, etc." We were aggrieved over the subjugation of Egypt. The death of our brothers in the (plague of) darkness was more grievous to us than our subjugation to Egypt. We were aggrieved over the death of our brothers in the darkness. "Our death in the desert" is more grievous to us than the death of our brothers in the darkness. For our brothers (who died in the darkness) were mourned and buried, whereas for us — our corpses will be cast to the heat of day and to the cold of night! —

V. 11. An Mosche Sendung hatten sie Zweifel, in ihrer Lage und auf ihrem Standpunkte sehr erklärliche Zweifel. Wie konnten und durften sie sich so ohne weiteres der Annahme hingeben, es werde sie Gott auf eine so außerordentliche Weise, für welche bis dahin gar keine Erfahrung vorlag, ja in Widerspruch zu aller natürlichen Voraussetzung, zum Ziele führen. Diese andauernden Zweifel sind ein wichtiges Dokument für die Wahrhaftigkeit der Sendung Mosche, wie schon R. Jehuda Halewi im Kusri bemerkt. Er hatte ein Volk von hellem, klarem, durch phantastische Vorstellungen nicht umnebeltem Verstande vor sich, das sich nicht leichtgläubig dem ersten besten verkaufte. Und wenn denn schließlich doch eben dieses Volk für "die Lehre dieses Mosche" in den Kampf mit der Welt und in den Tod vor Jahrhunderten freudig gegangen, so ist dies eben der Beweis, dass sich die Sendung dieses Mosche durch die Gewalt der Tatsachen ihnen die durch nichts mehr zu erschütternde Überzeugung abgerungen. — המבלי אין וגו׳. Ists wohl aus Mangel, dass keine Gräber usw. Diese spitze Ironie selbst im Momente höchster Angst und Verzweiflung kennzeichnet ganz die witzige Ader, die dem hellen Jakobsstamm ureigen angestammt ist.

להוציאנו, “To take us out;” we have to understand this word as if the letter א, had the vowel tzeyreh under it. This would be the correct transitive form of this word at this place. (Compare Ibn Ezra) There are several examples of this in the Bible, also in the reverse use of the respective vowels. (Vocalization was provided by the teachers of the Torah. Moses did not write the Torah down with vowels. Ed.]

למות במדבר, “to die in the desert.”

לקחתנו למות במדבר, “have you taken us to die in the desert?” Remarkably, they did not accuse Moses of letting them become victims of a losing battle against the Egyptians, but of dying a meaningless death. This pattern repeated itself in verse 12, i.e. ממותנו במדבר. They recalled that they had always been afraid of dying in the desert even if they would not come under attack by hostile armies. Nachmanides explains that the people made it plain that even if there were no danger of war, etc. they were dead set against going into the desert. They were simply afraid that in the desert they would perish from the results of thirst and hunger. It is perfectly possible that they had already voiced their misgivings as soon as Moses did not lead them the route which was well traveled and which would have taken them via the land of the Philistines. They may even have told Moses that the route via the land of the Philistines presented unacceptable, risks, as did the route which led straight to the sea of Reeds, and that any route requiring them to travel trough the desert was perhaps the greatest risk of all. [they were understandably of the opinion that having neutralized their former masters, it was their turn to be the rulers in Egypt. Ed.] They may have preferred death followed by burial, to death in the desert where no trace of their bodies and graves would ever remain.