Komentarz do Wyjścia 10:11

לא כן NOT SO as you have said, to take the children with you, but 'לכו נא הגברים ועבדו את ה GO YE WHO ARE ADULT MEN AND SERVE THE LORD.

ועבדו את ה' כי אותה אתם מבקשים, you have requested from me to let you serve the Lord; what do you need women and children for? This is why Pharaoh got angry and expelled Moses and Aaron, adding that “by G’d I will not grant such an unreasonable request!” (verse 10)

This service. . . Rashi is explaining that אותה refers to עבודה , i.e., “go and worship Hashem,” [although the actual word עבודה does not appear in the verse]. אותה cannot refer to the men, for then it should say, “ אותם ”. (Maharshal)

לכו נא הגברים, “you, i.e. the men, may go;” the children will remain behind as guarantees that you will return.

כי אתה אתם מבקשים means FOR THAT IS WHAT YE DID SEEK till now: let us sacrifice to our God — and it is not the custom for little children to offer sacrifice.

(2) AND HE the one who expelled them EXPELLED THEM.

Is what you requested till now. . . But we cannot say it means what they are requesting now, since now they are requesting also the children, flocks and cattle.

ויגרש אותם, “he dismissed them (expelled).” The reason that Pharaoh had not expelled Moses and Aaron up until now, before they had been recalled, when they were not even allowed to leave before having been given express permission to do so, was because they knew that G-d would not bring on the same plague a second time. (Sotah 9) [Pharaoh considered locusts as a repeat of the hail, as both plagues ruined the food supply from the earth. Ed.]

ויגרש אותם AND HE DROVE THEM OUT — This is an elliptical phrase and it does not expressly state who drove them out (i. e. the subject of the verb is omitted).

This is a shortened statement. . . But we cannot say that Pharaoh himself expelled them, because it is written, “from Pharaoh’s presence.”