Bibbia Ebraica
Bibbia Ebraica

Musar su Esodo 14:5

וַיֻּגַּד֙ לְמֶ֣לֶךְ מִצְרַ֔יִם כִּ֥י בָרַ֖ח הָעָ֑ם וַ֠יֵּהָפֵךְ לְבַ֨ב פַּרְעֹ֤ה וַעֲבָדָיו֙ אֶל־הָעָ֔ם וַיֹּֽאמרוּ֙ מַה־זֹּ֣את עָשִׂ֔ינוּ כִּֽי־שִׁלַּ֥חְנוּ אֶת־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל מֵעָבְדֵֽנוּ׃

Fu narrato al re d’Egitto, ch’il popolo era fuggito [cioè che non pensava a celebrare una festa, e poscia ritornare], e la mente di Faraone e de’ suoi servi si rivolse al popolo; e dissero: Che mai abbiamo fatto, lasciando andare Israel dal servirci?

Shenei Luchot HaBerit

They did not yet know that G–d was going to split the sea, save them and drown the Egyptian army in it. As a result of all this, they were beset by doubts as to whether it had been G–d or Moses who had orchestrated the Exodus. They thought that G–d perhaps had only wanted them to travel three days' journey into the desert, after which they were to return to Egypt, though not as slaves. They believed that Moses had over-stepped his authority and decided by himself that Israel should not return to Egypt at all. They believed that Moses had done so in the belief that G–d carries out the wishes of His prophets. This is why they cried out to G–d to demonstrate that He was a living G–d in their midst just as He had demonstrated this at the time He slew the first-born. They were angry at Moses, and this is why they accused him of taking them into the desert to die. The letter ה in the word המבלי, is one denoting a permanent question such as in הלבן מאה שנה יולד, "Can a hundred year-old man expect to sire children" (Genesis 17,17), or: הנגלה נגלתי "Was I in the habit of revealing Myself" (Samuel I 2,27)? The Israelites referred to their assumption that the שר של מצרים had been killed by basing themselves on their having seen the Egyptians bury their dead. They now doubted what their eyes had seen and implied that possibly the interment they believed they had witnessed did not prove that the first-born Egyptians were really in their graves. If so, instead of G–d having taken the Jews out of Egypt, "you Moses have taken us, לקחתנו, acquired us instead of G–d!" The word לקחתנו is used in contrast with G–d's והצלתי אתכם מעבודתם ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם. Those words had implied that Israel would be saved from the שר של מצרים who represented their deity i.e. עבודתם. When the children of Israel said: מה זאת עשית לנו, they merely paraphrased Pharaoh in 14,6 who had said: מה זאת עשינו כי שלחנו את ישראל מעבדנו. The word מעבדנו means that Pharaoh regretted allowing Israel to serve their own deity instead of that of the שר של מצרים.
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