תלמוד על שמות 18:4

Rebbi Yudan in the name of Rebbi Isaac said it in four versions. Flesh and blood has a protector⁴³Latin patronus, who was obliged to protect his clients.. When they tell him, your client was arrested, he will say: I will protect him. When they tell him, he is going before a court, he will say: I will protect him. When they tell him, he is taken to be hanged, where is he and where is his protector? But the Holy One, praise to Him, saved Moses from the sword of Pharao; that is what is written (Ex. 18:4): “He saved me from the sword of Pharao.” Rebbi Yannai said⁴⁴Most of the following is also in Exodus rabba 1(37)., it is written (Ex. 2:15): “Moses fled from before Pharao.” Is it possible for flesh and blood to flee from the government?⁴⁵R. Yannai takes the sentence to mean that “Moses fled from before the face of Pharao,” as translated here, and not “Moses fled because of Pharao,” as usually understood. But at the moment when Pharao arrested Moses, he sentenced him to have him beheaded. The sword slipped off the neck of Moses and broke. That is what is written (Songs 7:5): “Your neck is like the ivory tower,” that is Moses’s neck. Rebbi⁴⁶The name of the tradent is missing; he cannot be Rebbi since R. Eviathar belongs to the second generation of Amoraïm and exchanged letters with Rav Ḥisda and Rav Sheshet. The sentence is missing in Shemot rabba. said, Rebbi Eviathar: Not only that, but He moved the sword from the neck of Moses on the neck of the executioner and killed him. That is what is written: “He saved me from the sword of Pharao.” He saved me, but killed the executioner. Rebbi Berekhiah quoted on this (Prov. 21:18) “The evil one is ransom for the just one.” Rebbi Abun quoted on this (Prov. 11:8): “The just will be extricated from distress, the evil one will take his place.” Bar Qappara stated: An angel came down and appeared to them in the shape of Moses. They arrested the angel and Moses fled. Rebbi Joshua ben Levi said: when Moses fled from before Pharao, all his troops⁴⁷Semitic plural of Greek ὄχλος, “multitude” (of people, troops). became dumb, deaf, or blind. He asked the dumb, where is Moses? But they could not speak. He asked the deaf, they could not hear. He asked the blind, they could not see. That is what the Holy One, praise to Him, said to Moses (Ex. 4:11): “Who gave man a mouth, or who makes dumb?” There it upheld you and here you do not want to uphold. That is what is written (Deut. 4:8): “Who is like the Eternal, our ĕlōhīm, always when we call on Him!”

⁴⁴A slightly different version of this paragraph is in Berakhot 9:1 (Notes 56–58). Rebbi Zeˋira the son of Rebbi Abbahu preached before Rebbi Eleazar. Happy is he whom the God of Jacob helps⁴⁵Ps. 146:5–6.. What is written after this? The Maker of Heaven and Earth. What has one to do with the other? But a king of flesh and blood needs a protector^45*Latin patronus “protector, defender”.; in one district⁴⁶Greek ἐπαρχία. he is not a ruler, maybe in another one? If you say a universal ruler⁴⁷Greek κοσμοκράτωρ, the Roman Emperor. A king in the Roman principate was a local ruler subject to orders from Rome. rules over dry land, does he [rule] over the Sea? But the Holy One, praise to Him, is not like this; He rules over the Sea, He rules over dry land. Not only this, but if a sword is at a person’s neck the Holy One, praise to Him, saves him. That is what Moses said, He saved me from Pharao’ s sword⁴⁸Ex. 18:4.. It is written only sword⁴⁹Since it does not say “from Pharao” but “from Pharao’s sword” Moses was condemned to death but escaped miraculously (Berakhot 9:1 Notes 42–47, Deut. rabba 2(20), Midrash Cant. 7(5), Midrash Ps. 4[3].). Even if a sword is at his neck the Holy One, praise to Him, saves him from it.

A slave woman: “The woman and her children shall belong to her owner.¹⁴⁰Ex. 18:4, speaking of the Jewish indentured servant who has to serve for six years. If the children he had during that time with a slave woman were his, they would have to be freed with him at the end of his servitude.” A Gentile woman. Rebbi Joḥanan said in the name of Rebbi Sineon ben Ioḥai, it is written¹⁴¹Deut. 7:3–4. Since only the masculine is used, “he will divert”, but not the feminine, it is concluded that the verse speaks only about the Gentile husband. Therefore, the child of the Jewish husband and the Gentile wife is not the husband’s child.
The parallel to this paragraph is in the Babli 23a.: “You shall not conclude marriage with them”. And it is written: “For he will divert your son from after Me.” Your son from a Jewish woman is called your son; but your son from a Gentile woman is not called your son but her son.