Commento su Numeri 33:4

ומצרים מקברים AND THIS EGYPTIANS WERE BURYING [ALL THEIR FIRSTBORN] — they were busily occupied in their mourning.

ובאלוהיהם עשה ה' שפטים, “and the Lord had inflicted punishments on their deities.” G’d had kept His promise made in Exodus 12,12 “and on all the gods of Egypt I will inflict judgments.” How did these judgments or punishments become manifest? If the images were made of silver or gold they would simply melt; if they were made of wood, the wood would rot; if they were made of stone, the stone would crack in many places. The word שפטים also includes that these idols would be found by their worshippers in embarrassing positions as described in Samuel I 5,4: “Dagon was again lying prone on the ground in front of the Ark of the Lord. The head and both hands were cut off.” (The Philistines had taken the Holy Ark captive from the Israelites).

They were preoccupied with their grief. Meaning: This is an explanation of what is written previously, “Yisroel left triumphantly.” For why would the Egyptians have allowed them to do so? Scripture explains that “Egypt was burying…” and thus they were preoccupied with their grief. If it had referred to the burial itself, this would not have been visible to all of Egypt. Now, given that the Torah writes, “Triumphantly, before the eyes of all Egyptians” this apparently repetitive language must certainly be to inform that all of them actually saw [the departure]. However, if they were burying, like the plain understanding, not everyone would have seen, for they would have to bury in the burial grounds. Therefore, Rashi explains that “they were preoccupied…” and “burying” means that they were also preoccupied with burial. R. Yaakov Triosh.

ובאלוהיהם עשה ה' שפטים, “and the Lord executed judgments on their gods.” Read שופטיהם, “their judges,” instead of their gods; “judgments” cannot be executed on inert idols. The Torah here uses a play on words, seeing that the word אלוהים is also used in the Torah for judges. (Compare Exodus 22,7)

Egypt was burying. The Egyptians did not know that Bnei Yisroel did not intend to return, since it was on this very condition that they lent them their items. This is the reason they pursued after them when it became known that Pharaoh had driven them out for good. If so, how was it that, Bnei Yisrael went out high handedly [in triumph]? This is why Scripture writes “And Egypt were burying…” They were busy with a painful matter.

And on their idols Adonoy had inflicted punishments. They were astonished and bewildered, and did not even turn to look at what was transpiring before their eyes.

They came to Eilim: Scripture does not say that they camped in Eilim because it was only a short journey from Moroh to Eilim and they did not intend to pitch camp there. However, there were twelve springs of water that corresponded to the twelve tribes, that from these sources Yisroel could water the entire congregation, and seventy palm trees that correspond to the seventy elders. Therefore, they interpreted this as a good sign they should make camp there. Also, the name of the place teaches about this: Eilim has the numerical value (gematria) of 82 together with the word, which is the sum of 12 and 70.