Cytowanie Komentarza do Wyjścia 14:2

אלו הדברים, according to the plain meaning of the text the names mentioned in this verse all are names of locations, as we find that it is customary for the text of the Torah to give detail followed by further detail of the places whose exact location the Torah wishes to elaborate on in greater detail. For instance, in Genesis 12,8 when describing Avraham as pitching his tent in some place, it refers first to Beyt El, and then elaborates by saying that the he found himself with Beyt El on his east and Ai on the west. In Exodus 14,2, the Israelites are described as making a turnabout before a place described as Pi Hachirot, elaborating by saying that this Pi Hachirot is between Migdol and the sea to the north of Baal Yzefon. In Judges 21,19 an annual festival was observed at Shiloh which is described as situated north of Beyt El, east of the highway which runs from Beyt El to Shechem and south of Levonah.
If locations which did not have the distinction of serving as places where parts of the Torah were revealed to the Jewish people were described in such detail, it is not surprising that places where such parts of the Torah were revealed are described in detail. (compare Numbers 9,1, Exodus 12,1-2, Leviticus 25,1 Numbers 33,3) Here too, the locations are described with detail upon detail; they are the places that served Moses to explain the laws of the Torah, the ceremonial laws, the statutes, and the social laws. (compare 4,45-46, as well as verse 5 in our chapter.)

And Moses wrote their departures for their journeys according to the command of the Lord. And afterward he reversed the order, [saying] these are their journeys for their departures, and it does not say “according to the command of the Lord.” I will explain this in three ways. The first is that in some journeys they went forward and in some they turned backward. For at first, they turned back and encamped before Pi-hahiroth (Exodus 14:2). Rashi explained that they went backwards towards Egypt. And likewise, in Deuteronomy (2:1) it is written And we turned and traveled to the wilderness, Rashi explained that because they misbehaved, they turned toward the wilderness. And similarly in Parashat Eikev (Deuteronomy 10:6), from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, they went back eight journeys. It turns out that most of the journeys in which they went forward and not backward, which were according to the command of the Lord, are called their departures for their journeys, because they turned their faces away from the place they had left, which is called their departures, and their faces were toward their journeys which were ahead of them. But when they turned backward because they had misbehaved through sin, it was not according to the command of the Lord, and this is called their journeys for their departures because they returned and traveled to the place they had left, which is called their departures, as they turned their faces toward Egypt.

And when it says in front of Baal Tzefon, it indicates that only this idol remained in order to mislead them. It was appointed over the gold that comes from the north, and they would say that it remained for the sake of their wealth that they took unlawfully, as explained in the portion of Beshalach (Exodus 14:2).

מחלב [AND THE WHITENESS OF HIS TEETH IS] FROM MILK— because of abundance of milk, for there will be in his land good pasture for herds of flock. The verse is therefore to be explained as follows: There will be redness of eyes because of abundance of wine and there will be whiteness of teeth because of abundance of milk (the ם of of מיין and מחלב is not the מ comparativum: “His eyes shall be redder than wine etc.”). According to the Targum עינים means mountains which are called thus because from thence as a point of observation one can see afar off (i.e. it translates by “the mountains are red with wine”). He (Onkelos) further translates the verse in a different way, taking עינים in the sense of fountains and continuous flow of the wine-press. The word נעווהי which Onkelos uses signifies his wine-presses. It is an Aramaic word that occurs in (Avodah Zarah 74b): “as for a tank (נעוא), cleanse it with hot water”. (The translation of the Targum is therefore: “His vats will stream with wine”.) The words יחורון בקעתה his valleys (the places wore mountains are, as it wore, cloven, בקע) are the Targum of [לבן] שנים, taking the second word in the sense of שני הסלעים rocky crags (cf. 1 Samuel 14:4 and Rashi on פי החירות Exodus 14:2 — where פִי = שִׁנַּיִם — and the reference there to the valley between the rocks).