Commentaire de citation sur L’Exode 1:2

אל ראשי המטות, to the leaders of the tribes, etc. What is so different about this commandment that Moses assembled the chiefs of the tribes to inform them of it and that they in turn were to tell the Israelites? Sifri claims that seeing in Numbers 10,3 in connection with the trumpets the congregation was mentioned before the leaders, and Moses was afraid that this would be misinterpreted to mean that the congregation at large took precedence over the princes, he made sure in 10,4 that the princes were referred to as the heads of the congregation. Moses did something similar here when he addressed the heads of the tribes first. In Nedarim 78 we are told that the reason the heads of the tribes are mentioned here was to hint that vows may be dissolved by a lone judge if he is an expert in the subject. All these comments are strictly allegorical. We need to understand also why the Torah writes המטות לבני ישראל. All Moses had to say was מטות בני ישראל. What is the reason for the extra letter ל? We must assume that the reason for the extra letter is to avoid a misunderstanding. Had the Torah not written לבני ישראל, we might have thought that the legislation was aimed only at the leaders of the people. By writing the extra letter ל, the Torah ensured that we would understand the legislation as applying to the leaders of the people as well as to the nation at large. The absence of the letter ו in front of לבני ישראל is not significant as the Torah has omitted that letter on frequent occasions where we would have expected it such as in Exodus 1,2 ראובן, שמעון, etc.

AND THOU SHALT SACRIFICE THE PASSOVER-OFFERING UNTO THE ETERNAL THY G-D THE FLOCK AND THE HERD. Its purport³¹⁸The difficulty in the verse is the fact that the Passover-offering is not brought from the herd. Ramban therefore proceeds to explain it in accordance with the law. by way of the plain meaning of Scripture is similar to the expressions: the ox, the sheep, and the goats³¹⁹Above, 14:4. [which means: “the ox, ‘and’ the sheep … “]; Reuben, Simeon, Levi³²⁰Exodus 1:2. [which means: “Reuben, ‘and’ Simeon, ‘and’ Levi”], And here it means: “and thou shalt sacrifice the Passover-offering unto the Eternal thy G-d, ‘and’ the flock and the herd [thou shalt bring for the Festal-offering,” as will be explained]. Therefore, [because the flock and the herd are not used for the Passover-offering], he does not say “and thou shalt sacrifice the Passover-offering unto the Eternal thy G-d, ‘of’ the flock and ‘of’ the herd,” as He says in all places: ye shall bring your offering ‘of’ the cattle, ‘of’ the herd, or ‘of’ the flock;³²¹Leviticus 1:2. and if his offering be ‘of’ the flock;³²²Ibid., Verse 10. if he offer ‘of’ the herd.³²³Ibid., 3:1. But here he commands concerning the Passover-offering, which is the sheep as He has previously mentioned;³²⁴Exodus 12:5. and sheep and herd, rams and goats and calves, to celebrate the Festal-offering on that day, just as he commanded concerning the Festivals of Weeks and Tabernacles, saying, And thou shalt keep the Festival of Weeks unto the Eternal thy G-d after the measure of the freewill offering of thy hand,³²⁵Further, Verse 10. meaning that he shall bring herd and sheep as peace-offerings in accordance with his means. So also he said with reference to Tabernacles, Seven days shalt thou keep a feast unto the Eternal thy G-d etc.,³²⁶Ibid., Verse 15. and at the end he included all three [festivals] together.³²⁷Ibid., Verse 16. Similar to this [where the connecting letter vav — “and” is missing] is the verse: In the first month, in the fourteenth day of the month, ye shall have the Passover; a feast of seven days, unleavened bread shall be eaten,³²⁸Ezekiel 45:21. which means “‘and’ a feast of seven days.” We find this also in the Passover celebrated by King Josiah where it says, of the flock, lambs, and kids, all of them for the Passover-offerings … and three thousand bullocks,³²⁹II Chronicles 35:7. and afterwards it says, And they roasted the Passover [-offering] with fire according to the ordinance, and the holy offerings they boiled in pots, and in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.³³⁰Ibid., Verse 13. Thus Scripture explained there that the lambs and kids were all for the Passover-offerings, not the goats themselves [that were older than a year] nor the herd, as it is written, Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.³³¹Exodus 12:5. And Scripture explains that the herd that he mentioned were three thousand, and they were holy offerings which were boiled in pots to be carried quickly to the people to eat their fill,³³²Isaiah 23:18. as our Rabbis have received by tradition concerning the Festal-offering.³³³Pesachim 70a. And Onkelos connected here [in the verse before us] the word flock with the Passover-offering [for he translated as follows: “and thou shalt sacrifice the Passover-offering from the young lambs, and holy offerings from the herd”]. But in that case the vav in the word u’bakar (“and” the herd) does not connect itself well [with the word tzon — “flock,” since the connecting letter, vav, indicates that the herd and the flock were used for the same offerings, while Onkelos says that the flock was for the Passover-offering and the herd was for other types of offerings.]³³⁴But according to Ramban, both the flock and the herd are intended for the Festal-offerings, hence the connecting vav in the word u’bakar (‘and’ the herd). Moreover, the flock is not valid for the Passover-offering, [but only males less than a year old, so it is not correct to explain as Onkelos did that the flock was used for the Passover-offering]. The correct explanation is what we have said.
Now he explained here many things. Thus he mentioned concerning the unleavened bread that it be bread of affliction,³³⁵Verse 3. teaching that he commanded to remember that they left [Egypt] in haste,³³⁵Verse 3. and this [bread of] affliction is a remembrance that they were living in Egypt with sparing bread and scant water.³³⁶Isaiah 30:20. Thus he alludes to two things [that they eat unleavened bread in order to remember that they went out in haste and there was no time for their dough to rise, and that they remember that they ate there “bread of affliction”]. And thus the Rabbis also said [in the Passover Hagadah]: “This is the bread of affliction that our fathers ate in the land of Egypt.” Or it may be that he is saying that the unleavened bread be made like bread of poverty [flour and water] and not like rich bread [kneaded with wine, oil or honey] as our Rabbis stated.³³⁷Pesachim 36a. And he also explained in the commandment pertaining to leaven that it shall not ‘be seen’ with thee in ‘all thy borders’ [seven days],³³⁸Verse 4. for at first He said, [seven days] shall there be no leaven “‘found’ in your houses. ”³³⁹Exodus 12:19. See ibid., 13:7 where it already states, Neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy borders! But Ramban’s point is that here it adds seven days to the earlier prohibition of leaven not being “seen” in all “the borders,” thus making it parallel to the prohibition of leaven not being “found” in “the houses” where, in Exodus, it states seven days. See my Hebrew commentary p. 415.

Still another meaning that we can find in this verse is based on Psalms 77,16 בני יעקב ויוסף סלה. "The sons of Jacob and Joseph, selah." Sanhedrin 19 explains that the reason that the sons of Jacob and Joseph are lumped together here is that Joseph provided the brothers and their families with food during the famine. Whenever someone assumes the burden of feeding someone else he is entitled to be called by that someone's name. This is alluded to in the sequence of the words תלדת יעקב יוסף, "the descendants of Jacob were possible only by the grace of Joseph." These words could also be translated as "the descendants of Jacob and Joseph." We have several examples of this in the Bible, such as in Exodus 1,2 ראובן שמעון. The meaning is ראובן ושמעון. Here too we must mentally add a conjunctive letter ו before the name יוסף. The Torah provides the rationale why the whole family is included in the name Joseph, i.e. he was the whole family's provider.