Komentarz do Wyjścia 12:30

ויקם פרעה AND PHARAOH AROSE from his bed,

FOR THERE WAS NOT A HOUSE WHERE THERE WAS NOT ONE DEAD. Rashi comments: “If there was a firstborn there, he died; if there was no firstborn there, the chief person in the house died because he is called b’chor (firstborn), as it is said, I also will appoint him firstborn.²⁷⁵Psalms 89:27. Another interpretation: The Egyptian women led dissolute lives under their husbands and bore children from unmarried young men. Thus they had many firstborn sons, sometimes [as many as] five to one woman, each one being the firstborn to his own father.”
In line with the plain meaning of Scripture, the firstborn that died in Egypt were the firstborn of their mothers, and this is why He sanctified in their place all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast.²⁷⁶Further, 13:2. The firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne²⁷⁷Verse 29. was the firstborn to his mother. And such indeed is the custom among kings that the reigning mistress be a virgin, something like it is said in the case of Ahasuerus.²⁷⁸Esther 2:3. But in accordance with the opinion of our Rabbis [who say that the firstborn of a father also died], we shall explain that in Egypt, He smote all their firstborn. That is to say, the firstborn of the father, since he is the first-fruit of his strength,²⁷⁹See Genesis 49:3. and the firstborn of the mother, since he opened the womb, and also the chief person in the house. Yet it was His desire to sanctify in Israel in their place only the firstborn of the mother, because that is a matter more known and of open knowledge. In cattle, only the firstborn of the mother is known at all, and therefore He chose from among all of them only [the firstborn of the mother]. A sort of proof for this [statement of the Rabbis that the firstborn of the father was also smitten] is the verse: And He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their strength in the tents of Ham,²⁸⁰Psalms 78:51. for such an expression, [i.e., the first-fruits of his strength], is said only of a male.

ויקם פרעה לילה, Pharaoh rose up during the night, etc. The reason that the Torah mentions "at night," something that was obvious, is that according to the Zohar 2, page 38 that night was as bright as daylight. I have already found an allusion to this fact in Exodus 13,8 where the Torah instructs the Jewish father to tell his sons about the happenings during that night ביום ההוא, "on that day." The Torah means that the father should not fail to mention that one of the things that occurred during that night was that the night turned into day. In the event that we would think that the daylight during that night shone for both the Egyptians and the Israelites, the Torah emphasises that when Pharaoh rose he thought it was night because for him it was dark.

כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת, “for there was not a single house without at least a single human corpse.” This was because not only the firstborn of the father died but also the firstborn of the mother, and in the absence of a firstborn in the true sense of the word, the senior member of the household died. You might therefore have expected that the Torah, when legislating the sanctification of the Jewish firstborn would include the firstborn of the father. The reason this was not done is because the firstborn of the mother is far better known, his birth having been witnessed. [to determine paternity we would need DNA tests, etc., not available at the time. Ed.]

This teaches us that he made the rounds. . . Why did Pharaoh’s servants not wake him up? The plague was mainly on them, as it is written, “For there was no house. . .” The answer is: They had already said, “Send these men out. . . do you not yet realize. . .” (v. 10:7), but Pharaoh did not listen to them. Therefore [they despaired of persuading him and] he needed to wake them. (Nachalas Yaakov)

(Exodus 12:30) "And Pharaoh arose": I might think, in the third hour of the morning, in keeping with the custom of kings. It is, therefore, written "at night." I might think, by (pre-arranged) song; it is, therefore, written "he and all his servants" — whereby we are apprised that he made the rounds of the houses of his servants and roused them, one by one, from their places. "and there was a great outcry in Egypt": as per (Ibid. 11:6) "And there will be a great outcry in the whole land of Egypt, etc." "for there was no house where no one had died": R. Nathan said: Now were there not houses without first-born? __ (The resolution:) If one lost a first-born, he would make an image of him and place it in his house (thinking thereby to preserve him). And on that day the image would disintegrate and be scattered as powder. And that day was as grievous to them as the day of his burial (Thus: "there was no house where no one had died.") And, what is more, the Egyptians would bury them in their houses, and dogs would come and gnaw their way in and would remove the first-born from their crypts and mutilate the corpses. And that day was as grievous to them as the day of burial.

V. 30. לילה, adverbialiter wie גנובת׳ יום וגנובתי לילה. (Bereschit 31, 39) und sonst: Nachts; Pharao rüttelte sich vom Schlafe auf und berief seine Diener und ganz Mizrajim zur wachen Tätigkeit.

כי אין בית, “for there was not a single house, etc.;” the question is raised how it was possible that there were no houses which did not contain a firstborn? (Mechilta section Pessach chapter 13) The fact is that the Egyptians, whenever a firstborn died, displayed a likeness of the deceased in the house he used to live in. At the time when this occurred, each such likeness of a firstborn even if he had died earlier, fell down and broke into pieces, and the inhabitants of the house mourned him as if he had died now. It has also been reported that the place where firstborn had died became infested with mice which dug up the earth where he had been interred. All this caused the survivors to feel the loss of that person as if it had occurred just then.

ויקם פרעה לילה, “Pharaoh arose during the night;” the word לילה here describes a state of mind, both he and his advisors were as if blindfolded with shock. (Compare commentary in Torah sh’leymah, item 526 on this verse)

לילה AT NIGHT and not, as is the way of kings, at three hours in the day (9 o’clock in the morning) (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:30; cf. Berakhot 9b).

An alternate explanation: The Egyptian women were unfaithful. . . This raises a difficulty: Now too, the Egyptians will say that Moshe is a liar, for sons who are not first-born were dying. The answer is: Moshe will tell them that they are all first-born because the women were unfaithful. And all this was in order to show the Egyptians’ lowliness and impurity. (Maharshal)

הוא HE, first — and afterwards עבדיו HIS SERVANTS — this informs us that he went round to the houses of his servants and made them get up (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:30).

And bore children from single, unmarried men. . . Rashi is explaining that רווקים means פנוים (unmarried).

כי אין בית אשר אין שם מת FOR THERE WAS NOT A HOUSE WHERE THERE WAS NOT ONE DEAD — If there was a firstborn there, he died: if there was no firstborn there, then the chief person in the house died because the chief person in the house is called בכור, as it is said, (Psalms 89:28) “I also will appoint him to be a בכור, [the highest of the kings of the earth]” (Mekhilta DeRashbi 12:30; cf. Rashi on 4:22; Pesachim Rabbah, Midr. Vajosha). Another explanation is: the Egyptian women were unfaithful to their husbands and bore children from young men, unmarried, and thus they (the Egyptian men) had many firstborn sons sometimes there were five to one woman, each being the firstborn to his own father (thus there might well be no house in which there was not a firstborn) (cf. Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 12:33).