Commento su Esodo 18:10

אשר הציל אתכם מיד מצרים WHO HATH DELIVERED YOU OUT OF THE HAND OF EGYPT, a hard people,

BLESSED BE THE ETERNAL, WHO HATH DELIVERED YOU OUT OF THE HAND OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND OUT OF THE HAND OF PHARAOH; WHO HATH DELIVERED THE PEOPLE FROM UNDER THE HAND OF THE EGYPTIANS.⁶⁶The text presents these difficulties: Why is the hand of the Egyptians mentioned twice? Why does Jethro first address himself directly to the people, saying, Who hath delivered you, etc., and then speaks of them in the third person, saying, Who hath delivered the people, etc.? Ramban first presents his interpretation, followed by that of Ibn Ezra. “He has done a great miracle for you in that Pharaoh and his people did not kill you, for it was on account of you that great plagues came upon them in their land.” This miracle was particularly great as far as Moses was concerned [because he frequently came to Pharaoh, as explained above at the end of Verse 1]. Therefore Jethro mentioned him [specifically] in the second person, together with everybody, saying, Who hath delivered you, meaning “you [Moses], and the people.” And He did another miracle: Who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians, since they were in Egypt and they went out of there to everlasting freedom.
Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that Jethro first blessed G-d, Who hath delivered you, meaning Moses and Aaron, through whom the plagues came upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Afterwards, he blessed Him for how He hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians in Egypt and at the sea.

אשר הציל אתכם, you, Moses, and Aaron,

אשר הציל אתכם, a reference to Moses and his brother Aaron;

אשר הציל אתכם מיד מצרים, “Who has saved you from the power of Egypt.” Yitro first praised the Lord Who performed the miracles for Moses personally, who was not brought before Pharaoh’s tribunal for murder or manslaughter, nor for having orchestrated the plagues; secondly, he praised G’d for having saved the entire Jewish nation from such a despotic regime as that of Pharaoh. He considered the latter as perhaps the greatest of the miracles. Ibn Ezra is of the opinion that Yitro first blessed the Lord for having rescued the people as a whole, before directing his attention to personal miracles which G’d performed on behalf of Moses.

אשר הציל אתכם, “who has saved you.” The Torah mentions two separate acts of “saving.” The first was the Israelites having been saved from being enslaved to the Egyptians. The second was the cessation of their slave labour already during the period of the ten plagues. Alternatively, the words: “who has saved you” may refer to the fact that Moses and Aaron individually had escaped the danger inherent in having confronted Pharaoh for a full year.

As Onkelos translates it. . . authority and dominion. . . [Rashi is explaining that “Under the hand of Egypt”] does not mean the same as “From the hand of Egypt” [written at the beginning of the verse]. For that means “from his possession,” as in: “He took all his land from his hand” (Bamidbar 21:26), which Rashi there explains as: “From his possession.” [Rashi here knows that “Under the hand of Egypt” means as Onkelos translates] because otherwise, why [does our verse need] both phrases?

V. 10. אתכם, Mosche und Aaron.

אשר הציל אתכם, “Who has saved you;” the subjects are Moses and Aaron.

ומיד פרעה AND OUT OF THE HAND OF PHARAOH, a hard monarch.

מיד מצרים, by smiting the Egyptians.

מיד מצרים ומיד פרעה, Moses and Aaron had been saved directly from possible harm by Pharaoh, whereas the people had been saved from the servitude to the Egyptians.

מתחת יד מצרים — Translate this as the Targum does: from beneath the authority of Egypt, taking יד as an expression of domination and authority; “the hand” spoken of here is the hand which they imposed heavily upon them — referring to the hard bondage.

ומיד פרעה, every time you came to warn him, i.e. to threaten him.

אשר הציל את העם, the oppressed and enslaved ones.