Halakhah su Esodo 8:78

The clear truth in the human species is that which most people in the world have agreed about - and the opinion of all people has already agreed with it - to believe the testimony of people. And with the proliferation of those testifying about a thing about which they are testifying, the thing is more established in the eyes of its hearers. And in those testifying being few, a bit of doubt develops in the thing for those that are sharp. And this matter has become so strong among people to the point that they fixed it in the practices of each and every nation to kill a man according to the testimony of two or three witnesses. And since three is more honored [than two], the perfect Torah also [mentioned it]. And from this reason also did the opinion of all agree to accept from the mouths of the testimony of their fathers, their elders, about that which they tell them that happened in their days or in the days of their fathers or in the days of the fathers of their fathers. And there is no doubt that in the fathers testifying being many - and in the ones that the event happened in their days being many - the thing is strengthened in the hearts of the children that hear [it]. Therefore when God wanted to give the Torah to His people, Israel, He gave it to them in the eyes of six hundred thousand adult men, besides the many infants and women, that they all be believable witnesses about the things. Also in order that the testimony be stronger and more believable, they all merited prophecy [at that time]. As doubt never develops about that which one knows by way of prophecy. And that is [the meaning of] that which God said to Moshe, "in order that the people hear My speaking to you, and they also believe in you forever" (Exodus 19:9) - meaning to say, they and their children will believe in you and your prophecy forever. As they will then know [with] a trustworthy knowledge that God speaks with a man and he can live, and that all of your prophecy is true. And had it not been that they merited prophecy, a claimant could have argued about all of the signs that Moshe did in the eyes of Pharaoh and in their eyes and said, "Who knows if he did it with machinations of the wisdom of demons or with the power of the names of the angels. And even though the wise men of Egypt and all of its magicians, who were more expert in the wisdom of demons and magic than all the rest of the world, conceded to Moshe against their will and said to Pharaoh that it it was through the power of God that he did [it] - as it is written (Exodus 8:15), "it is the finger of God" - nonetheless, one who wants to be stubborn will say it was from his greater wisdom that he did it and they conceded to him. But after the prophecy, no type of hesitation remained about the matter. And [so] they knew clearly that all of the events were done by the command of the Master of the world, and that everything come to them from His hand. And they - who saw with their eyes and knew the thing with a true knowing that people do not have any stronger truth than this - testified to their children that were born afterwards that all the words of the Torah, from the [first letter] bet of the [first word], Bereshit to the lamed [at the end of the final words] le'einei kol Yisrael, that they received from Moshe in the eyes of all of Israel were true and clear without any hesitation in the world. And their children also testified to their children and their children to their children until [it reached] us. It comes out that the Torah that is in our hands is a true Torah according to six hundred thousand believable witnesses - which is the tally that includes all the opinions of the men, besides the infants and the women. And now if a seducer, 'whose heart turns away from the Lord, our God,' would claim to us and say, "What is it with you, Jew-man, and your tradition? And what is with you to 'ask your father and your elder?' Investigate and search well with your intellect and establish your reasoning. 'Open your eyes and see' what is in your world - the movement of the sphere and the four basic elements of the land. From them you will you will see and understand the hidden things of wisdom. And investigate with your reason and you shall learn how the One unified"; we would [then] respond to him: From the angle of our investigation, we could never grasp anything of the word of God. As even in matters of the lowly world, all the wise men of science have not been able to come to fullness [of understanding]. As through the wisdom of investigation, who will reveal the mystery of the grasses and the fruit, the mystery of precious stones and vegetables and the cause of the movement of iron with magnetic rocks? As all of the wise men of science and all the men of understanding have stood wondering [about these things]. Even more [would they not be helpful] if we would say to understand from them the glorious wisdoms and the knowledge of God's existence. God forbid for us, God forbid, to come behind the King in our arrogance and to raise our hand and to think thoughts from that which is above our thoughts and for which we have no need. As behold our ancestors, may their memory be blessed, set up a table in front of us - they probed deeply and they come to the fullness of true knowledge. They grasped knowing that God speaks to a man and he can live. And [hence] what is it to us after this to investigate and to examine if the truth is with them? Rather [it is] for us to drink their words with thirst, according to their words and according to their expressions. And the parable for this is one to whom it has been testified by thousands of thousands of people to not drink from the waters of a river, because they have seen these waters kill its drinkers. And the thing was experienced a thousand times at different time periods and with people [from] different lands. And a sage expert physician said to him, "Do not believe all of them, as I am informing you from the perspective of wisdom that these waters are not fitting to kill, since they are clear and light and the dirt that goes through them is goodly. Drink them until your soul is satiated." Would it be good for this one to leave the famous testimony of all and to do like the words of the sage? Truly the matter is not good and an intelligent person will not listen to him and will not do like his words. This is the matter that we have prefaced - that the truth of matters of the world is known by the multitude of people that testify about it more than by those that prove their words from the angle of their intellect and investigation. Since because man is lacking perfection, his intellect does not grasp the fullness of things. And therefore the chosen path is for a man to fulfill all the words of the Torah, which was received by trustworthy witnesses, which the Master of wisdom gave to people. And in it is included all precious knowledge and all glorious wisdom.

In the Maharil (Our teacher, Rabbi Yaakov Levi Moelin): But if his wife and his children [already] ask him [relevant questions], there is no need to say Mah Nishtanah (How is it different). So one just begins from, "We were slaves." Also there: When one reaches, "Blood, Fires and Pillars of Smoke," he should remove [some of the wine in his cup] with his finger. And likewise when one says, "Datzach, Adash, Baachab" (the initials of the ten plagues), individually and as groups. The total is sixteen times. And this was the custom of our teacher Rabbi Shalom (of Neustadt). And he said that it is so in the book of Aviah (R. Eliezer ben Yoel HaLevi) - that it corresponds to the sixteen faces of the chayot (a type of angel). To here are his words. But it appears that it hints here to the sword of the Holy One, blessed be He, which is called, Yohakh (Yo has a numerical value of sixteen, and hakh means, strike). And that is [the name of] the angel appointed for vengeance, as is known to the Kabbalists. And it is customary to remove [wine] from the cup with the [fore]finger, to hint at that which is stated (Exodus 8:15), "This is the finger of God"; and not like I found written in the Hanhagat Minhagim, that one should sprinkle with the pinkie.