Commentaire sur L’Exode 2:23

And the Children of Israel sighed from their labor and they cried out. And their groaning rose up to God from their labor. At this moment, the salvation began. Once they started to cry out, then immediately "their groaning rose up" - meaning that it catalyzed the salvation. For until this moment they had no awakening to scream and pray. And because the Holy Blessed One desired to redeem them, [therefore] the scream was awakened within them. And this is the beginning of redemption, when a person is roused to scream to God. Similar to what King David, peace be upon him, said (Psalm 66:20), "blessed is God for not taking away God's prayer and kindness from me." Meaning that if there is prayer within him, then God will shine kindness upon him. For before God desire to bring salvation a person does not even acknowledge their own lack, and they are not at all aware what they are lacking. But when God desire to redeem them, God shows a person their lack, and the person therefore becomes aware that all of the outgrowths of their lacking derive from this primary root. And God sends the person the strength to pray and scream to God, and they begin to make a lot of noise about this to God - and then God shines kindness upon them.

[ויהי בימים הרבים ההם AND IT CAME TO PASS DURING THOSE MANY DAYS during which Moses was sojourning in Midian, וימת מלך מצרים THAT THE KING OF EGYPT DIED, and the Israelites felt the need of help; and therefore ומשה היה רעה “And Moses fed the flock” and help came through him. For this reason these chapters are placed in juxtaposition].

AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE COURSE OF THOSE MANY DAYS. Scripture uses the expression “in those days” or “on that day” only when alluding to a brief current event, but of a past event it says, and it came to pass afterward.¹⁰⁹As in Judges 16:4. In that case then, it should have said here, “and it came to pass afterward that the king of Egypt died.” It is for this reason that our Rabbis have said¹¹⁰Shemoth Rabbah 1:40. that because they were days of suffering [for Israel], Scripture calls them “many” although alluding to a brief current event.¹¹¹In other words, Scripture is really referring here to a specific current event, namely, the death of the king, and yet it uses the term “many” — and it came to pass in the course of those ‘many’ days — instead of saying “in those days.” To a suffering people — as Israel was at that time — even a brief period appeared as a long one. So also have the Rabbis said¹¹²Shemoth Rabbah 1:32. in connection with the above-mentioned verse, And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown up,¹¹³Above, Verse 11. that his growth was unnatural, meaning, sudden and fast.¹¹⁴Ramban is thus confirming what he stated above, i.e., that the Scriptural expression in those days alludes to a brief current event. Hence when it says in the case of Moses’ growth, and it was in those days and Moses was grown up, the Rabbis interpreted it to mean that his growth was brief and sudden. Under all circumstances, the period [covered in the verses], and the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel cried out and their cry came up unto G-d, was [altogether] a brief period of time.
However, we might also explain that in the course of those many days refers to the days of suffering and hard labor which were exceedingly many, as the exile became very prolonged. It was this [long period of suffering and hard labor] which caused them to cry out, and their cry came up unto G-d. Similarly, the verse, And it came to pass after many days, the word of the Eternal came to Elijah, in the third year,¹¹⁵I Kings 18:1. means that there were many days [of famine] and afterwards this event, [related there in the Book of Kings], occurred.
In my opinion, the purport of this verse, [And it came to pass in the course of those many days], is to allude to those days when Moses was a fugitive from Pharaoh. Indeed he was but a youth when he fled, as the verse said, And when Moses was grown up he went out unto his brethren,¹¹³Above, Verse 11. suggesting that immediately when he grew up and became self-conscious and they told him that he was a Jew, he longed to see the burdens, toils and oppressions of his brethren. On that [first] day on which he went out, he smote the Egyptian, and on the second day, they denounced him [to the authorities] and he fled. He was thus at that time approximately twelve years of age, as our Sages have mentioned,¹¹⁶Shemoth Rabbah 5:1. and at any rate not twenty,¹¹⁷Ibid., 1:32. and when he stood before Pharaoh he was eighty years old.¹¹⁸Further, 7:7. In that case, he was a fugitive from Pharaoh for about sixty years, [and it is with reference to those sixty years that Scripture speaks of those ‘many’ days].
It is likely that at the end of that period, Moses came to Midian and married Zipporah, since when this word [of G-d that he return to Egypt] came to him, he had begotten of her only his firstborn son Gershom¹¹⁹Verse 22. [while Eliezer, his second son, was born during his journey to Egypt].¹²⁰See Rashi further, 4:24. This proves that Moses’ arrival and marriage in Midian were towards the end of his sixty-year absence from Egypt.
Scripture however mentions nothing of [the entire period of] his flight excepting, And he dwelt in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well,¹²¹Verse 15. since nothing happened to him in those other days which Scripture found necessary to relate. And it is logical. He who flees from the reach of a government does not tarry in a settled place or its environs. Instead, he flees from place to place in remote regions. Thus he stayed away for a long time, hiding himself and feigning to be a stranger, going about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,¹²²Psalms 105:13. and at the end of that time he came to Midian and stayed there. This is the meaning of the verse, And he dwelt in the land of Midian.¹²¹Verse 15. It would have been fitting for Scripture to say, “and he went to the land of Midian,” but instead it implies that he did not dwell in any city until the end [of the period], when he came to the land of Midian and there he dwelt.
Now due to the fact that Scripture mentions his flight from Pharaoh and his dwelling in Midian, and it immediately relates that he was made to return to Egypt by command of the Holy One, blessed be He, it alludes to this entire period by saying, And it came to pass in the course of those many days, meaning [those days] when Moses fled from before Pharaoh and during part of which time he stayed in Midian. At the end [of that period], the king of Egypt died, and the Divine Revelation concerning it came to Moses and he was returned to Egypt and redeemed the children of Israel. It is for this reason that Scripture does not say, “and it came to pass after many days,” for the purport of that would have been that [the death of the king of Egypt] occurred long after Moses dwelt in Midian. But that is not so, for the expression those many days refers to all that is related above.