Commento su Esodo 4:21

בלכתך לשוב מצרימה וגו׳ WHEN THOU GOEST TO RETURN TO EGYPT, [SEE THAT THOU DO etc.] — Understand that you should go thither with this purpose in mind: that you should be vigorous in carrying out my mission — to do all my wonders before Pharaoh and that you should not be afraid of him.

AND THE ETERNAL SAID UNTO MOSES: ‘WHEN THOU GOEST BACK INTO EGYPT SEE ALL THE WONDERS,’ etc. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that this was said to Moses when he was yet in Midian. G-d informed him that He would harden Pharaoh’s heart and he would not let the people go because of all the wonders which he would see until the last wonder. Ibn Ezra’s intent is thus to explain this verse as saying: “See that for all the wonders which I have put in thy hand and which you will do before Pharaoh, for all of these he will not let them go until you will tell him that I will slay his son, his firstborn. Then he will let them go.”
This explanation is not correct for what sense is there for the expression, when thou goest back into Egypt, see, etc.? Rather, the purport thereof is as follows: When leaving Midian, Moses took the rod of G-d in his hand³⁰⁶Verse 20. to mark the way with his footsteps.³⁰⁷Psalms 85:14. G-d forewarned him and said to him, “When you go on the way, mark well and behold³⁰⁸Ezekiel 44:5. that all the wonders which I have put in your hand you should do before Pharaoh; do not forget to do anything before him. And I will harden his heart, but do not despair from doing them because of his obstinacy, and you will yet warn him again on the last plague which will cause him to let them go.” The purport of the expression, I have put in thy hand, is that “in your hand I have put them; you are to do them, and not someone else.” He had already informed him that He would perform many signs and wonders in Pharaoh’s midst, as He said, with all My wonders which I will do in his midst.³⁰⁹Above, 3:20. All this was an encouragement to Moses, for since he was forced to go on the mission, G-d warned him before the action, and commanded him again at the time of the action before each and every wonder.
It is possible that the expression [concerning the smiting of his firstborn], and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh,³¹⁰Verse 22. is but to inform Moses now that in the end He will so command him to say it to Pharaoh. Thus the purport of His words is as follows: “I will harden his heart and he will not let the people go in spite of all the wonders, and thou shalt say to him on that day, ‘Behold I will slay thy son, thy firstborn,’ and then he will let them go.” We do not find that He informed Moses of the death of their firstborn except at this time, and thus [we must say] that not all of the Divine communication [here given to Moses was relayed to Pharaoh] now.³¹¹The intent of Ramban is as follows: In Chapter 11, Verse 1, it is said concerning the final plague: And the Eternal said unto Moses: Yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence. But nothing was mentioned to Moses about what that plague was. Ramban suggests that Verses 22-23 here concerning the final plague were said to Moses now with the understanding that later, before the tenth plague, he was to relay the warning to Pharaoh, but not that he said it to Pharaoh as soon as he came to see him. Hence it was not necessary for Scripture to say in Chapter 11, Verse 1, what that “one plague more” was.
It is possible to explain [the matter as follows]: “See all these three³¹²The staff turning into a serpent, Moses’ hand becoming leprous, and the waters turning into blood (Verses 3-9). wonders which I have put in thy hand to do before the Israelites, do them also before Pharaoh so that Pharaoh should know that the elders of the people who request of him to let them go say so according to the commandment of G-d, and he should not come with a pretext against them.” And so did Moses do [these three wonders³¹²The staff turning into a serpent, Moses’ hand becoming leprous, and the waters turning into blood (Verses 3-9). before Pharaoh], even though it is not so written. The verse [further on] which states, When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying: ‘Show a wonder for you,’³¹³Further, 7:9. [which might indicate that the wonder of the staff turning into a serpent was done by a special command, and not because of the Divine communication here, as explained above], means that Pharaoh will want a sign for himself. G-d thus commanded Moses to throw the rod and it shall become a tanin, not a nachash,³¹⁴Ramban thus distinguishes between the nachash mentioned here in Verse 3, and tanin mentioned further in 7:9. Rashi however explains there that tanin means nachash. In the J.P.S. translation, both terms are translated as “serpents.” In other translations, nachash is translated as “snake,” and tanin as “reptile.” Some such distinction between the terms is to be made according to Ramban. as mentioned the first time. Thus He wanted to show Pharaoh that Aaron’s rod would swallow up their rods, instructing him that He would vanquish them and that they would be destroyed forever by Him.
In the Midrash V’eileh Shemoth Rabbah,³¹⁵Shemoth Rabbah 5:6. I have seen mentioned: “[And the Eternal said to Moses: ‘When thou goest into Egypt, see all the wonders,’ etc.] To which wonders does He refer? If you say that it is to [the staff turning into] a serpent, [his hand becoming] leprous, and [the waters turning into] blood, the Holy One, blessed be He, told Moses to do these only before Israel! Moreover, we find nowhere that Moses did these signs before Pharaoh. But what then is the meaning of all the wonders which I have put in thy hand? This refers to the rod upon which were written the initials of the ten plagues: ‘D’tzach Adash B’achab.’ ”³¹⁶They are: Dam (blood), Tz’phardei’a (frogs), Kinim (lice), Arob (beasts), Dever (murrain), Sh’chin (boils), Barad (hail), Arbeh (locusts), Choshech (darkness), Makath-b’choroth (slaying of the firstborn). According to this Midrash, the explanation of the verse will be: “See and contemplate the writing on the rod which I have put in thy hand, for all wonders thereon you will perform before Pharaoh.”

בלכתך לשוב מצרימה, every time I tell you to leave your tent which is outside the boundary of the Egyptian capital, etc., do precisely what I command you. The nature of the capital, with all its abominations prevented prayer offered in that city to G’d to become effective, as we know from 9,29 where Moses explains this to Pharaoh. G’d says: “I will command you from time to time to enter the capital in order to speak to Pharaoh.”

ויאמר ה' אל משה בלכתך לשוב מצרימה, “The Lord said to Moses: ‘when you are on the way to return to Egypt, etc’.” According to Ibn Ezra what follows was said to Moses while he had still been in Midian. G’d told him that in spite of all the miracles He had provided Moses with to perform in Egypt, that He, G’d, had made Pharaoh’s heart strong so that he would not discharge the Israelites from serving him on account of the miracles Moses would perform. This would only occur as a result of the final miracle when, after being told that G’d would kill all the firstborn Egyptians including Pharaoh’s own firstborn, he would capitulate Nachmanides writes that Ibn Ezra’s description of events is not correct, for if it were, why did the Torah write the line בלכתך לשוב מצרימה ראה, “when you are on the way to return to Egypt, see!” Rather, the true meaning of the verse is that when Moses had already taken his staff and was about to set out on his return journey to Egypt, G’d warned Moses to perform all the miracles in spite of the fact that Pharaoh would not be sufficiently impressed by them to let the Israelites depart. The way things would develop would be that while Moses was doing “his thing,” i.e. what G’d had empowered him to do, and while Pharaoh, on the other hand, would do “his thing,” Moses was not to become discouraged. He warned him further that when it would come to the final plague when he would warn Pharaoh that G’d would strike dead his own firstborn son, Pharaoh would capitulate. The words אשר שמתי בידך, “which I have placed at your disposal,” mean that G’d had provided only Moses exclusively with the power to perform all these miracles. He gave Moses a review of how things would develop in order to encourage him to proceed with appropriate dispatch. Subsequently, he would receive detailed instructions concerning each of the miracles, i.e. each of the plagues. It is also possible that the words ואמרת אל פרעה וגו' are instructions to Moses concerning the 10th and final plague, when he would warn Pharaoh of G’d killing his firstborn son. Whereas with the other plagues the Torah reports G’d instructing Moses, and Moses then carrying out the instruction, we do not find G’d issuing any instructions there to Moses before he proceeded to announce the forthcoming plague to Pharaoh, (Exodus 11,4) It is also possible that G’d instructed Moses here to perform the same three miracles before Pharaoh that He had already instructed him to perform before the Israelites. This was in order that Pharaoh should realize that the only reason that the elders of the Israelites had requested what they did, was because G’d had sent them Moses who had performed these miracles for them in order to identify himself as their redeemer. Pharaoh would therefore have no reason to fault the elders of Israel for their request. Moses acted in this fashion although the Torah had not bothered to spell this out. Concerning the fact that the Torah also wrote “when Pharaoh will say to you that you should legitimize yourselves by means of a miracle” (7,9), and that He commanded Moses to turn the staff into a sea monster instead of into a serpent, as he had done before the Israelites, and that he showed Pharaoh that Aaron’s staff would swallow those of his magicians, this was a hint that He would overpower the magicians. In the Midrash Shemot Rabbah (5,6) we are told that in the event that someone were to claim that the miracles of blood, tzoraat, and the staff turning into a snake, that these had been performed only before the Israelites and not before Pharaoh, the Torah adds the word ראה, that G’d told Moses to look at the letters ד'צך ע'דש ב'אחב the respective first letters of each plague, letters which were engraved on the staff in order to confirm that all these plagues, i.e. miracles, would be performed in the presence of Pharaoh.

V. 21. Nur drei אותות hatte bisher Gott Mosche in die Hand gegeben, hatte jedoch noch von keinem ihn beauftragt, es vor Pharao zu üben. Allein vergegenwärtigen wir uns den Sinn dieser Zeichen, wie sie eben Mosche als Boten Dessen dokumentieren sollten, der die Stütze und die Macht des Menschen in ihm feindselige Schlange zu verwandeln, ja, auch umgekehrt das dem Menschen Feindseligste in ihm gefügige Stütze und ihm gefügiges Machtwerkzeug zu verwandeln Gewalt habe, ja, die Hand selbst, die den Stab führt, nach Belieben töte und belebe: so hatte ihm ja Gott damit bereits alles gesagt; waren ja alle ferneren Wunder nichts anders, als dass Gott den Stab der Macht Mizrajims zur feindseligsten Empörung gegen sie aufrief und zuletzt die Hand, die über diese Macht gebot, selbst tötete. —

ראה כל המופתים, “look at all the miracles, etc.” only one of the three miracles that Moses had performed thus far, he performed before Pharaoh, i.e. the staff turning into a vicious snake.

אשר שמתי בידך [THE WONDERS] WHICH I HAVE PUT IN THY HAND — Not in reference to the three signs mentioned above was God speaking, for he had not commanded him to do these before Pharaoh, but before Israel in order that they might believe in him, nor do we find that he did them before him. But God meant: those wonders which I shall in future place in thy hand in Egypt — such as (Exodus 7:9) “When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, [saying, show a wonder (מופת) for yourselves]”. Do not be puzzled because it is written אשר שמתי (a past tense), for the following is what it means: when you will be speaking with him I shall already have put them into thy hand.

ראה כל המופתים אשר שמתי בידך, pay careful attention each time you go to Pharaoh when you will be equipped with the power to perform all the miracles which I have placed at your disposal. You must perform these in exactly the manner I have instructed you.

אות ist ein Zeichen, das zunächst nur an den Verstand gerichtet ist, ihm eine Erkenntnis zu vermitteln, deren Beachtung oder Nichtbeachtung jedoch den Menschen überlassen ist. מופת aber, Hiphilform von יפת, gleichbedeutend mit פתה, einem Eindruck, einer Belehrung offen stehen, Hiphil also: jemandem eine Belehrung ins Innere bringen, ihn für eine Belehrung zugänglich machen, und מופת ist somit ein Zeichen ad hominem, das zugleich den Menschen für Aufnahme der damit gegebenen Belehrung ergreift. Wenn alles Trinkwasser in Mizrajim zu Blut wird, oder von allen Seiten Ungeziefer an dem König hinaufkriecht, so sind dies מופתים, die sich mit Gewalt Beachtung erzwingen. Ein einziges solches andauerndes Zeichen würde aber zu einer solchen Plage erwachsen, dass nicht aus Überzeugung, sondern aus Angst, Not und Verzweiflung der König euch ziehen lässt. Das soll aber nicht geschehen. Ich werde ihm die Kraft und den Mut lassen, die Plagen auszuhalten, damit er endlich zu einer Überzeugung komme, Gott als צדיק und sich und sein Volk als רשעים zu erkennen. Ziehen wird er euch aber nicht lassen, bis du ihm das Sterben seines Sohnes ankündigst. Bis ich dir daher diesen Auftrag gebe, brauchst du nicht bestürzt zu sein, wenn deine Sendung scheinbar ohne Erfolg bleibt. Erst auf diese empfindlichste Strafe wird er das Volk ziehen lassen.

ואני אחזק את לבו, “I will harden his heart;” this does not mean that G-d deprives Pharaoh of the ability to become a penitent and to reverse his attitude and cooperate with G-d’s commands if he so wills it. The line must be understood as follows: “I will give him additional courage so that seeing My miracles he will not die from fright until all My miracles will have been performed.” This is also how we must understand Exodus 73: ואני אקשה את לב פרעה, “I will toughen Pharaoh’s heart;” he will not collapse from fear.” If you needed proof for this interpretation consider Exodus 9,15: כי עתה שלחתי את ידי ואך אותך, “for now I will stretch out My hand and smite you with pestilence.”

ועשיתם לפני פרעה, you will be successful in this only if you proceed exactly in the manner in which I instruct you, and in the presence of Pharaoh. When a creature sins against his Creator by doing either less or more than instructed to do, he will fail in what he set out to do. This rule did not only apply to Moses and Aaron when they set out to perform miracles, but it is a general rule applicable to all of G’d’s commandments, and this is why the Torah spelled this out in Deuteronomy 4,2 writing “do not add or subtract from all the commandments which I have commanded you.”

ואני אחזק את לבו, for if he could not endure the plagues he would let the Israelites go, not because he was finally humbling himself before the Lord and do His will, but only in order to get relief from the plagues. This was not a good enough reason to grant him relief; therefore G’d reinforced his natural obstinacy.