Cytowanie Komentarza do Wyjścia 33:19

First we have to understand why G’d repeated the word צור in His instructions to Moses in Exodus 17,6 when all He had to say was והכית בו, “strike it,” seeing that He had already told Moses that the צור was the object he was to concentrate on. This hints that the words והכית בצור, may refer to a different “צור.”
The attribute כבוד we have been mentioning repeatedly is the one that said to Yaakov (Genesis 31,13) אנכי האל בית-אל, seeing that it was this attribute which had been described earlier as the G’d of his father when we read of G’d (introducing) revealing Himself to Moses (Exodus 3,6) saying אנכי אלו-הי אביך אלו-הי אברהם, אלו-הי יצחק, ואלו-הי יעקב, ויסתר משה פניו כי ירא מהביט אל-האלו-הים. ”I am the G’d of your father, the G’d of Avraham, the G’d of Yitzchak, and the G’d of Yaakov; Moses averted his face as he was afraid to look at Elohim.” [The common denominator in the last two verses quoting G’d is the word אנכי coupled with Elohim. Ed.] According to Hoseah 12,5 בית אל is an attribute by means of which G’d addresses human beings. The verse in Hoseah, clearly a reference to Yaakov, reads as follows: וישר אל מלאך ויכל, בכה ויתחנן לו, בית אל ימצאנו ושם ידבר עמנו “He wrestled with an angel and prevailed; he (the angel) cried and pleaded with him. At Bet-El He would meet him, and there He would speak with us.” [The next verse continues (not quoted by our author) “But the Lord, the Lord of Hosts must be invoked as “the Lord.” Ed.]. When G’d said to Moses (Exodus 33,19) אני אעביר כל טובי על פניך, “I shall let all My goodness pass before you,” He referred to His capacity as the attribute כבוד. In Exodus 34,6 this is described as “Hashem passed before him.” I shall explain the apparent anomaly in this verse when we get to it. The verse in Ki Tissa refers to the attribute which is meant in verse 23 of the same chapter where the Torah speaks of the pilgrims presenting themselves את פני האדון י-ה-ו-ה- אלו-הי ישראל.

V. 3. כי שם ד׳ וגו׳, denn es ist nicht sein Wort, das er zu sprechen habe, er ist es nicht, in dessen Namen er Himmel und Erde auffordere, es ist Gott, dessen Name, dessen der menschlichen Erkenntnis zugängliche Waltungsweisen (vergl. Schmot 33, 19) er verkündet; Ihm, seinem und ihrem Meister, sollen sie die Größe geben, הבו גדל לאלקינו, in Seinem Namen erwartet er die Mitwirkung zu seinem Werk.

The second reason: This is how we give thanks and praise to our Father in Heaven. Our ancestors had utensils of silver and gold as well as fine clothing that they took from the Egyptians before leaving Egypt. So, too, we use fine utensils as we celebrate the Passover. This is our way of showing that God has not abandoned us and has had compassion upon us even in this time of exile. It is also a reminder of the promise (which God made to Abraham) in Scripture: "Afterwards they will go forth (from Egypt) with great wealth." (Gen 15:14).
One shouldn't become haughty and think, as a result of this blessing, that, "My own power and the strength of my hand have won this wealth for me." (Deut. 8:17) Just the opposite! The more God blesses a person with wealth and possessions, the more he should tremble, realizing that one received these gifts as a result of God's graciousness and not because of one's good deeds. Rather, he has received them because "the grace that I have granted and the compassion that I have shown you" (Ex. 33:19). With this in mind, each person should make an effort to act properly and to cleave to God's ways. We are reminded that God showed compassion to us during the Exodus from Egypt; he lifted us up from the dust and enriched us according to the promise He made to our father, Abraham, and fulfilled the promise, "Afterwards they went forth with great wealth," (Gen 15:14)
One shouldn’t be surprised, (saying): "Doesn’t God hate robbery? How could he command the people to plunder Egypt? Even stealing from a non-Jew is prohibited!
(The plunder taken from Egypt were reparations.) The wealth that the Israelites took was not even enough to repay the Israelites for the labor performed by 600,000 Israelite men who were subjugated for 210 years. Even if the amount had been doubled it would not be enough! This is all the more the case when one considers the loss of life. The Torah says Israel went forth from Egypt chamushim. (Exodus 13:18) Some say chamushim means that only one in fifty of the Israelites went forth from Egypt and others say that it means that only one in five hundred. (The others died serving the Egyptians.) Others claim that all the silver and gold that they took from the Egyptians actually was originally theirs; the Egyptians had stolen it from them, as we shall see based on the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud, and Exodus Rabbah.
I will now present the story of Israel's enslavement. In Exodus Ch. 1 we learn: "Joseph died and all his brothers and all that generation. But the Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very, very, greatly, so that the land was filled with them. (Ex. 1:6-7) The Midrash says that six came forth from each womb; others say, sixty. The Israelites became wealthy and influential members of Egyptian society as a result of the inheritance they received from Joseph. Joseph amassed vineyards and fields as well as silver and gold during his tenure as a leader. Even though he filled Pharaoh's treasury, he also acquired great wealth. He also made the Egyptians move from city to city so that they would not forget that the land did not belong to them. By doing this, the Egyptians could not call the Israelites exiles since everyone was exiled from their homes. Thus, Joseph removed the disgrace from the Israelites who had been outsiders and exiles.
During this time the Egyptians and the Israelites had equal rights. The Israelites, however, were wealthier than their neighbors. They became haughty and soon forgot that they were the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They began to follow the practices of the Egyptians and to observe their statutes so that Israel would be seen as completely the same as everyone else. They even abandoned the covenant of circumcision!
What did the Holy One do? God turned the hearts of the Egyptians against the Israelites. From lovers of Israel, the Egyptians became haters of Israel. Israel was a thorn in their side. As a result, the Egyptians wanted to make decrees against the Israelites.
Scripture says, "A new king arose." Wasn’t this the same Pharaoh as before? When the Egyptians told Pharaoh to harm to the Israelites, he said to them: "You are fools! Were it not for Joseph, none of you would be alive today. We are eating his food!”
When Pharaoh refused to heed them, they removed him from his royal position for three months until he said: "All that you want I will do." Only then did they return him to the throne. That is why the Torah says, "A new king arose." From then on Pharaoh became a different man, doing whatever pleased his people. He showed even greater hatred against Israel than the other Egyptians, as it is written: He said to his people…" He began by offering advice: "Let us deal wisely…" We must subjugate them step by step until they are completely beneath our control.”
Another interpretation of "And he said: Let us deal wisely …" “Let us figure out where their strength comes from so we can subjugate them and eviscerate their might completely. In that way they will never be able to rise up against us and join our enemies. Also we must weaken them so that they stop having children; they will shrink in numbers and not increase.”
When they realized how much the Israelites wanted to be just like the Egyptians, Pharaoh took counsel with his people. They saw that whatever the Egyptians did, the Israelites copied with all their might. Therefore, the Egyptians decided to build fortified cities. They announced that all the important people in Egypt should help in this building project. They organized the people into platoons of soldiers. Even Pharaoh hung a brick around his neck and volunteered to help out in the building project. When the Israelites saw this, they came forward and joyfully joined in. They worked with all their might in order to be just like their neighbors and to show that they were they were one with them. The Egyptians praised them for their efforts on the first day. In this way the Egyptians saw how much the Israelites were able to accomplish.
After that the Egyptians separated themselves from the Israelites one by one and decreed that the Israelites had to do the same amount of work every day. They did allow the quota of bricks to be diminished. It was truly ruthless labor (parekh)…On the first day the Egyptians convinced them to do the work with ‘a soft tongue’ (peh rakh), but in the end it turned out to be a pretext for ruthless labor (parekh).
The Egyptians then passed decrees against the Israelites, each more difficult than the one before. They decreed that since the Israel were now their slaves, anything the Israelites owned now belonged to their Egyptian masters. They took all their silver and gold and possessions so that the Israelites became impoverished. Now they had nothing to eat except what the Egyptians gave them each day. The people of Israel had to work each day for a piece of bread. They had to work hard just to stay alive. It is in remembrance of this that the sages decreed that we should begin the Seder by saying, "This is like the bread of poverty which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt." Let Me Explain:
Rabbi Bondi, drawing classic rabbinic Midrash, turns the story enslavement of the Israelites in Egypt into a diatribe against assimilation. Remember that Rabbi Bondi is writing this commentary at the end of the nineteenth century in Germany at a time of wide spread assimilation. He has watched with alarm as the Reform Judaism has more and more influence over his community. The Israelites ( as well as his co-religionists) desperately want to be accepted by their neighbors. They are willing to follow their customs and laws of their neighbors to show their unity with the Egyptians/Germans. They are even willing to give up the practice of Brit Milah, circumcision in the interest of being like their neighbors. For this, God punishes the people of Israel. The Holy One turns the neighbor’s collegiality into animosity. No doubt, Rabbi Bondi was aware that the harder his coreligionists tried to assimilate into European society, the more their neighbors held them in low regard. In the story of the Exodus, what happens as a result of this? The Egyptians use this ‘weakness’ as a means of persecuting the Israelites.

ואתחנן — All forms of the verb חנן signify an ex gratia gift. Although the righteous might make a claim to reward depend Upon their good deeds, yet they solicit from the Omnipresent only an ex gratia gift. [Because He had said to him, (Exodus 33:19) “I will show grace (וחנתי) unto him to whom I will show grace”, he (Moses) when referring to his entreaty of God uses the expression (lit., spoke to Him) "I implored grace (ואתחנן)” (Midrash Tanchuma 5:2:3] — Another explanation is that the idea of an ex gratia gift is not to be stressed; but this is merely one of the ten terms by which prayer is described, as are enumerated in Sifrei Devarim 26:7.