Tafsiran yang Mengutip untuk Keluaran 1:6

The second reason: This is how we give thanks and praise to our Father in Heaven. Our ancestors had utensils of silver and gold as well as fine clothing that they took from the Egyptians before leaving Egypt. So, too, we use fine utensils as we celebrate the Passover. This is our way of showing that God has not abandoned us and has had compassion upon us even in this time of exile. It is also a reminder of the promise (which God made to Abraham) in Scripture: "Afterwards they will go forth (from Egypt) with great wealth." (Gen 15:14).
One shouldn't become haughty and think, as a result of this blessing, that, "My own power and the strength of my hand have won this wealth for me." (Deut. 8:17) Just the opposite! The more God blesses a person with wealth and possessions, the more he should tremble, realizing that one received these gifts as a result of God's graciousness and not because of one's good deeds. Rather, he has received them because "the grace that I have granted and the compassion that I have shown you" (Ex. 33:19). With this in mind, each person should make an effort to act properly and to cleave to God's ways. We are reminded that God showed compassion to us during the Exodus from Egypt; he lifted us up from the dust and enriched us according to the promise He made to our father, Abraham, and fulfilled the promise, "Afterwards they went forth with great wealth," (Gen 15:14)
One shouldn’t be surprised, (saying): "Doesn’t God hate robbery? How could he command the people to plunder Egypt? Even stealing from a non-Jew is prohibited!
(The plunder taken from Egypt were reparations.) The wealth that the Israelites took was not even enough to repay the Israelites for the labor performed by 600,000 Israelite men who were subjugated for 210 years. Even if the amount had been doubled it would not be enough! This is all the more the case when one considers the loss of life. The Torah says Israel went forth from Egypt chamushim. (Exodus 13:18) Some say chamushim means that only one in fifty of the Israelites went forth from Egypt and others say that it means that only one in five hundred. (The others died serving the Egyptians.) Others claim that all the silver and gold that they took from the Egyptians actually was originally theirs; the Egyptians had stolen it from them, as we shall see based on the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, and Exodus Rabbah.
I will now present the story of Israel's enslavement. In Exodus Ch. 1 we learn: "Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very, very, greatly, so that the land was filled with them. (Ex. 1:6-7) The Midrash says that six came forth from each womb; others say, sixty. The Israelites became wealthy and influential members of Egyptian society as a result of the inheritance they received from Joseph. Joseph amassed vineyards and fields as well as silver and gold during his tenure as a leader. Even though he filled Pharaoh's treasury, he also acquired great wealth. He also made the Egyptians move from city to city so that they would not forget that the land did not belong to them. By doing this, the Egyptians could not call the Israelites exiles since everyone was exiled from their homes. Thus, Joseph removed the disgrace from the Israelites who had been outsiders and exiles.
During this time the Egyptians and the Israelites had equal rights. The Israelites, however, were wealthier than their neighbors. They became haughty and soon forgot that they were the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They began to follow the practices of the Egyptians and to observe their statutes so that Israel would be seen as completely the same as everyone else. They even abandoned the covenant of circumcision!
What did the Holy One do? God turned the hearts of the Egyptians against the Israelites. From lovers of Israel, the Egyptians became haters of Israel. Israel was a thorn in their side. As a result, the Egyptians wanted to make decrees against the Israelites.
Scripture says, "A new king arose." Wasn’t this the same Pharaoh as before? When the Egyptians told Pharaoh to harm to the Israelites, he said to them: "You are fools! Were it not for Joseph, none of you would be alive today. We are eating his food!”
When Pharaoh refused to heed them, they removed him from his royal position for three months until he said: "All that you want I will do." Only then did they return him to the throne. That is why the Torah says, "A new king arose." From then on Pharaoh became a different man, doing whatever pleased his people. He showed even greater hatred against Israel than the other Egyptians, as it is written: He said to his people…" He began by offering advice: "Let us deal wisely…" We must subjugate them step by step until they are completely beneath our control.”
Another interpretation of "And he said: Let us deal wisely …" “Let us figure out where their strength comes from so we can subjugate them and eviscerate their might completely. In that way they will never be able to rise up against us and join our enemies. Also we must weaken them so that they stop having children; they will shrink in numbers and not increase.”
When they realized how much the Israelites wanted to be just like the Egyptians, Pharaoh took counsel with his people. They saw that whatever the Egyptians did, the Israelites copied with all their might. Therefore, the Egyptians decided to build fortified cities. They announced that all the important people in Egypt should help in this building project. They organized the people into platoons of soldiers. Even Pharaoh hung a brick around his neck and volunteered to help out in the building project. When the Israelites saw this, they came forward and joyfully joined in. They worked with all their might in order to be just like their neighbors and to show that they were they were one with them. The Egyptians praised them for their efforts on the first day. In this way the Egyptians saw how much the Israelites were able to accomplish.
After that the Egyptians separated themselves from the Israelites one by one and decreed that the Israelites had to do the same amount of work every day. They did allow the quota of bricks to be diminished. It was truly ruthless labor (parekh)…On the first day the Egyptians convinced them to do the work with ‘a soft tongue’ (peh rakh), but in the end it turned out to be a pretext for ruthless labor (parekh).
The Egyptians then passed decrees against the Israelites, each more difficult than the one before. They decreed that since the Israel were now their slaves, anything the Israelites owned now belonged to their Egyptian masters. They took all their silver and gold and possessions so that the Israelites became impoverished. Now they had nothing to eat except what the Egyptians gave them each day. The people of Israel had to work each day for a piece of bread. They had to work hard just to stay alive. It is in remembrance of this that the sages decreed that we should begin the Seder by saying, "This is like the bread of poverty which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt." Let Me Explain:
Rabbi Bondi, drawing classic rabbinic Midrash, turns the story enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt into a diatribe against assimilation. Remember that Rabbi Bondi is writing this commentary at the end of the nineteenth century in Germany at a time of wide spread assimilation. He has watched with alarm as the Reform Judaism has more and more influence over his community. The Israelites ( as well as his co-religionists) desperately want to be accepted by their neighbors. They are willing to follow their customs and laws of their neighbors to show their unity with the Egyptians/Germans. They are even willing to give up the practice of Brit Milah, circumcision in the interest of being like their neighbors. For this, God punishes the people of Israel. The Holy One turns the neighbor’s collegiality into animosity. No doubt, Rabbi Bondi was aware that the harder his coreligionists tried to assimilate into European society, the more their neighbors held them in low regard. In the story of the Exodus, what happens as a result of this? The Egyptians use this ‘weakness’ as a means of persecuting the Israelites.

והיה לכם למשמרת AND IT SHALL BE IN YOUR KEEPING (or watching) — This expresses the idea of examining, and the text therefore implies that it requires examination against any blemish during the four days before slaughter (Pesachim 96a). And why did He order that it should be taken from the flock four days before its slaughter, something which He did not command in respect to the paschal-lamb that was offered by succeeding generations? Rabbi Mathia, the son of Cheresh, said, in answer: Behold, it (Scripture) says, (Ezekiel 16:8) “And I passed over thee (an allusion to God’s passing over the Israelites in Egypt) and looked upon thee, and behold, thy time was the time of love” — there had arrived the time to fulfil the oath which I had sworn to Abraham to redeem his children. They, however, possessed no divine commands in which to engage in order that they should merit to be redeemed — as it is said (Ezekiel 16:7) “thou wast naked and bare” (i. e. bare of all merit earned through the fulfilment of God’s commands). He therefore gave them two commands, relating respectively to the blood of the paschal-lamb and the blood of the circumcision — for that night they circumcised themselves, as it is said (Ezekiel 16:6) “[When I passed over thee] I saw thee wallowing in thy bloods (בְּדָמַיִךְ is plural)” i. e. in two kinds of blood. Further it states, (Zechariah 9:11) “As for thee, also, because of the blood of the covenant I released thy prisoners out of the pit wherin there is no water”. And yet another reply to this question is, that because they were sunk in idolatry and had no merit gained by the practice of a divine command, He said unto them, (v. 21) משכו “Draw” — withdraw your hands from idols; וקחו לכם צאן “and take unto yourselves a lamb” to fulfil a divine command (Mekhilta).

ושחטו אתו וגו׳ AND THEY SHALL SLAUGHTER IT etc. — But did they all slaughter it (one alone did this on behalf of the company formed to eat that particular lamb; cf. Chullin 29b)? But we derive from this statement the legal principle that a man’s agent is as himself (this is derived from the fact that although one alone slaughtered the lamb on behalf of many, Scripture still states: they shall slaughter it) (Mekhilta; Kiddushin 41b).

קהל עדת ישראל it speaks here of קהל assembly, עדה congregation, ישראל Israel, whilst one of these terms alone would have sufficed; hence they (the Rabbis) said: the paschal-lambs of the congregation (a term used in contrast to that which was sacrificed by an individual on the 14th of the second month; cf. Numbers 9:9—14) are to be slaughtered in three groups, one after the other — the first group entered and the doors of the court were closed, etc. as is to be found in the Talmud, Treatise Pesachim (64a).

בין הערבים AT EVENTIDE — The period beginning at six hours (reckoning from six o’clock in the morning) and hence forward is called בין הערבים (Mekhilta), because the sun then inclines in the direction of the place of its setting to become darkened. The expression בין הערבים appears to me to denote those hours which are between the darkening of the day and the darkening of the night. The darkening of the day is at the beginning of the seventh hour in the day, from when the shadows of evening decline; and the darkening of the night is at the commencement of the night (this period is therefore from noon until the beginning of night). The word ערב is an expression for gloom and darkness, as in (Isaiah 24:11). “All joy is darkened".

ובריתך ינצרו AND THEY GUARDED THY COVENANT viz., the covenant of circumcision (Sifrei Bamidbar 67 on בהעלתך); For the [ordinary] Israelites who were born in the desert did not circumcise their sons, whereas the Levites were [not only] circumcised themselves, [but they] also circumcised their sons.