פירוש על שמות 3:7

כי ידעתי את מכאביו FOR I KNOW THEIR SORROWS — The verb has the same meaning as in (Exodus 2:25) “and God knew”, signifying as much as: for I have set my heart upon noticing and understanding their sorrows, and I have not hidden my eyes from their distress, nor have I stopped my ears against their cry.

AND THE ETERNAL SAID. Scripture mentions Him in the attribute of mercy since it is in connection with His compassion for the people [in bondage], even though the entire chapter mentions Him by the name of Elokim (G-d), [a name signifying the attribute of justice].

ואת צעקתם שמעתי מפני נוגשיו, their outcry which was prompted because the taskmasters are constantly harassing them, I have heard.

ראה ראיתי את עני עמי, “I have indeed seen the plight of My people.” A reference to the righteous ones among them who groaned and sighed over the sins of their generation and their resulting plight, praying. In response to the prayer of these righteous people the angel answered out of the burning bush. The meaning of the words ראה ראיתי is “indeed I have seen, taken notice.” This construction is normal wherever the Torah employs a dual, duplicate construction. The reason for the duplication is as if to contradict someone who denies that G’d has seen what goes on. It is as if saying: ‘in spite of anything you think or say, I insist that you are wrong and I am right.” It is similar to Yaakov negating Joseph’s trying go correct the position of his hands when he was blessing Ephrayim and Menashe. At that time Yaakov simply said: “I know my son, I know.” (Genesis 48,19) The angel confirmed to Moses that in spite of G’d being aware of the Israelite’s problems and the fact that He was going to inflict numerous plagues on the Egyptians, the latter would not simply collapse in spite of all the plagues. My intention with the plagues is not to destroy the Egyptians and to leave the Israelites in their place, on their land, but I want to save the Israelites and to take them out of Egypt in order to settle them elsewhere.

ויאמר ה׳ ראה ראיתי את עני עמי, G'd said: "I have surely seen the plight of My people, etc." Why did G'd speak about two "sightings?" Why did He have to add the words "in Egypt?" If Moses had not been aware of the fact that the Jews were G'd's people how would the fact that G'd referred to them as being in Egypt help Moses identify them? There were very many different peoples in Egypt! Perhaps no other people in Egypt suffered persecution except the Jewish people. At any rate, Moses must have known that Israel was G'd's people and His heritage on earth.

ויאמר ה' ראה ראיתי, “The Lord said: ‘I have truly seen, etc.” Although throughout this portion G’d appears in His attribute of אלוקים, the attribute of Justice, in this verse He is referring to Himself as the attribute of Mercy, the ineffable name. The reason is that here He demonstrates His pity on the condition His people find themselves in.

ויאמר ה’, “the Lord said.” We have to understand why the whole paragraph up until now employs the name אלו-הים to describe G’d, whereas in this verse the name of G’d mentioned is the tetragrammaton. The reason is simple. This is the moment at which G’d promises for the first time that the time has arrived for Him to display His pity for His people and to arrange for their redemption.

V. 7. ה׳, die neue Zukunft gestaltend. עני עמי אשר במצרים, die jetzt in Mizrajim in tiefster Erniedrigung gehaltene Menschenmasse habe ich in ihrer Bestimmung, mein Volk zu werden, angeschaut, d. h. als das künftige, nur mir untergeordnete und von mir Leitung empfangende Volk, und habe ihre Erniedrigung in Zusammenhang mit jener ihrer wartenden großen Bestimmung angeschaut. ואת צעקתם שמעתי מפני נגשיו, und auch abgesehen von dieser ihrer wartenden Zukunft, habe ich ihr Geschrei als den Hilferuf ihrer Menschenrechte gewalttätig beraubter Menschen, und zwar im gegensätzlichen Zusammenhang mit dem sittlichen Gehalt ihrer Dränger vernommen; כי ידעתי את מכאביו denn ich bin seinen persönlichen, individuellen Leiden nicht fremd geblieben, habe jeden Streich und jede Pein und jede Bitterkeit mitgefühlt. — Es sind hier wieder die drei das Galut Mizrajim charakterisierenden Seiten hervorgehoben: עני עמי אשר במצרים :עבדות ;צעקתם שמעתי מפני נגשיו :גרות ;מכאובי :וענוי.

ראה ראיתי, according to Ibn Ezra the formula here describes G’d’s response to the unnecessarily harsh and violent conduct of the Egyptians vis a vis their Hebrew slaves. G’d assures Moses that although the Egyptians had usually chosen to practice their violent attacks on the Israelites in the privacy of their homes or the dark of night, He, the G’d of the Israelites, was aware of it all. He was also aware of the feelings of the Israelites that were being so maltreated.

G'd mentioned that He had observed two distinctly different things. 1) The time of redemption had not yet arrived; in spite of this, however, G'd had taken into consideration the plight of His people and the misery they experienced in Egypt. Shabbat 10 tells that the immediate cause of the descent of the Jewish people to exile in Egypt was due only to the extra two shekalim Jacob had spent on Joseph's striped coat which had aroused the brothers' envy. Tossaphot challenge this explanation saying that exile had long ago been decreed in the days of Abraham? They answer that the exile prophecy could have come true in some other country where the Israelites would not have been enslaved so cruelly. The words אשר במצרים are to indicate that the very fact that the Israelites experienced their exile in Egypt instead of somewhere else was a reason for G'd to to commence the process of liberation already at this time. Although the time had not come for redemption, the time certainly had come for relief from the oppressive measures the Egyptians had introduced against the Jewish people.

G'd may also have seen the pain the Jews were suffering. The Torah may have written ראיתי עני עמי in order to demonstrate G'd's identification with the Jews. Inasmuch as they were His people, He was part of their suffering.

Another reason why G'd speaks of ראה ראיתי is that in addition to the suffering of the Jews which G'd had seen, He also saw that there were no more holy souls which had been taken captive by the forces of the קליפה and which were to be rescued by the Jewish people. Seeing that the exile had accomplished also this part of its function, the way was now clear for redemption. Pessachim 119 compares Egypt at the time to a pond which had been drained of fish. There was therefore no point in continuing to angle (for souls) there. Continued residence of the Jews in Egypt could only have counterproductive effects from that time on.

ואת צעקתם שמעתי, "and I have heard their outcry," etc. G'd added that in addition to factors already mentioned, He had also heard the outcry which was occasioned by the fact that the Egyptians had been more cruel than warranted in their application of Pharaoh's decrees. All these statements were in order to justify the fact that G'd was appointing a redeemer already at this time. The Israelites, of course, had believed that the exile would last for 400 years. Besides, G'd revealed to Moses that as soon as the Egyptians would suffer the first of the plagues G'd had in store for them, the Jewish people would cease to perform slave labour for them. I shall explain this in detail when commenting on verse eight.

When the Torah added מפני נגשיו, "on account of its taskmasters," after having mentioned that G'd had heard צעקתם "their outcry" (plural instead of singular) whereas the word נגשיו is in the singular this may describe that the Jewish people prayed to G'd as a single body as we explained on the words ותעל שועתם. Had the Torah written: ואת צעקתם מפני נגשיו שמעתי, I would have thought that their outcry was merely a reflection of their forced labour without an element of prayer.

The reason that the word "their outcry" is in the plural whereas "its taskmasters" describes the people as a single unit is simply that no two people cry out with the same intensity. The more people cry out, the greater the divergence between the relative intensity of these various people. Since they all had the same taskmasters, however, the use of the singular with the word נגשיו is perfectly justified. These various factors contributed to the appointment of Moses as the redeemer long before the time the Israelites expected their exile to end.

Another meaning of the additional words מפני נגשיו is in line with Isaiah 65,24 והיה טרם יקראו ואני אענה, "before they pray I will answer." In our situation G'd explains that He is sensitive to the abuse practised by even a single one of Israel's taskmasters. He does not wait until they all exceed their authority and abuse His people. G'd adds that the reason for this is that "I know their pains." The implication is that G'd is aware even before the people bring this to His attention through their prayer/outcry. All of this underscores G'd's strong love for His people, a love comparable to that of a father for his son.

According to our earlier explanation, the words כי ידעתי את מכאוביו would refer to the pains that are already way beyond what Israel could be expected to bear. The words refer both to the visible and to the invisible hardship inflicted on Israel.

G'd conveyed to Moses that He had not needed Israel's prayers in order to become aware of their problems. This awareness obligated Him to redeem Israel in accordance with His attributes. G'd's attribute of Mercy received further impetus when He looked at the injustices suffered by His creatures so that He decided to apply special yardsticks known as לפנים משורת הדין in order to alleviate their suffering. G'd told Moses that He had decided to "descend" in order to save His people.